Thursday, July 22, 2010

Common Core

Massachusetts has been garnering national attention as it joins the rush of states to adopt the Common Core. The Board of Ed voted unanimously ('though it should be noted that several members were absent, one of whom would have voted against) to adopt at their meeting yesterday.
Most of us now are wondering just what this means. The one thing we know is that the door is now open for what should be ADDED to the Common Core in what Massachusetts covers. The Board will be taking those suggestions for the "Core plus" which they will then adopt.
As for the frameworks? One assumes they go by the by. Past practice shows that these changes tend to move glacially, 'though considering the grand rush to earn federal dollars that's gone on lately, that may not be the case. I've also already seen questions circulating about just who is going to PAY for the new curriculum, professional development, etc, etc, that goes along with a major curriculum shift.
Heading into FY12? Local districts aren't going to have the money!

1 comment:

Jim Gonyea said...

Simple. The Federal Government will put strings on existing funding. In order to get the funding we have now we'll have to jump through additional hoops. Never mind that that funding is already going to pay salaries or that we're already cutting budgets and laying off teachers.