Indiana Legislature Playing Monday Morning Quarterback?

Below is a guest post from Shane Vander Hart from Truth in American Education.  Shane responded to a recent editorial in The Times of Northwest Indiana.  We appreciate being able to re-post Shane’s piece in its entirety.  To read more of Shane’s great research and writing visit the Truth in American Education website:

The Times of Northwest Indiana wrote an editorial Sunday opining that the Common Core State Standards not be set aside even though the implementation was paused.

Indiana has reset the clock on joining the Common Core Standards initiative, with the Legislature overruling the State Board of Education and delaying implementation by at least one year while lawmakers play Monday morning quarterbacks this summer.

The Common Core standards would replace the current Indiana Academic Standards, and for good reason.

The Common Core national standards were developed not by the federal government but by a national group of educators. The standards have been adopted in 45 states.

There are some valid concerns about the new standards, but there are concerns about the existing standards as well. The new standards can and should be improved over time.

First off lawmakers would not have to “play Monday morning quarterback” if they were involved in the process in the first place. Education policy is too important to be decided by an unelected board. There is a system of checks and balances that was totally disregarded by this pushing to implement the Common Core.

Secondly, several content experts that testified before the Indiana Senate Education committee either in person or in writing disagree that the Common Core is more “rigorous” than the Indiana Academic Standards. Sandra Stotsky and Augusto Fabio Milner would disagree with the Times. I think I’ll accept their word over The Times.

Third, out of over 125 members on the standards development work group only three were classroom teachers, only five were working for a local school district. So how again were these written by a group of educators?

I’m glad Indiana has newspapers who will go beyond the talking points given to them by Common Core advocates.