Every school system in the U.S. should have rigorous standards. But must they have the same standards? We can endlessly debate the quality of the Common Core, but surely no single standard works best for every type of student in every type of school. I noted last week that arguments for a uniform standard seem rather weak. Nevertheless, Bill Keller of the New York Times devoted some column space this week to one such argument:
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The Core does call for schools across the states to deliver their lessons in the same sequence. Does it really matter if children in Alabama and New Jersey start algebra in the same grade? It matters a lot to a kid who moves from Alabama to New Jersey. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 13 percent of children under 18 move each year, and the numbers are much higher for low-income, military and immigrant families.
Many of them lose their place in the educational order and never recover.
This argument for national standards is an illustration of how politicians recommend more centralization as a way to fix problems caused by centralization.
Related article
• The War on the Core (nytimes.com)