Contradictions and lies...

If the Common Core "standards" are just standards and districts have the ability to choose the material they teach, how are all children supposed to be learning the same thing at the same time?

• Since Common Core State Standards will be used in most states, students with high mobility will be positively impacted – if they move from one state to another, their studies will match up better. 
  

• Professional development for teachers and for the entire education community will improve because all teachers will be teaching to the same standards. 

Common Core Puts Creativity Back in the Classroom

The standards are internationally benchmarked.

• With a tool to monitor students’ progress throughout the year, Common Core State Standards assessments will allow teachers to track the child’s progress instead of making comparisons to other students.
  
  
  
  • Common Core State Standards define what students are expected to learn, with the added benefit of students understanding what they are learning and why. 
    
    
    
    • The multi-assessment feature of Common Core State Standards will go well beyond choosing the right multiple choice answers. Students will have to come up with their own answers and defend them, ensuring the development of high-level thinking skills.
      
    • Common Core State Standards will increase rigor in the classroom.
      
    • Common Core State Standards will allow for the same standards and assessment of those standards in most states. Previously, each state has set their own standards and assessments, with some states adopting higher standards than others. This will bring all into the same standards and will allow states to be compared accurately. 
      
      
      
      As for the US Department of Education’s not “dictating” CCSS: Consider the recent plight of Washington state when it refused to “comply” with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) dictum of grading teachers using student test scores: US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan withdrew Washington’s NCLB waiver. Washington state responded by saying it would not be intimidated into obeying the federal government on matters of state education policy.