The following comes from a December 14 Cardinal Newman Society article by Adam Cassandra:
David Coleman, president of the company responsible for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Advanced Placement (AP) exams and a chief architect of the controversial Common Core Standards, told The Cardinal Newman Society in an exclusive interview that students educated in traditional Catholic schools have nothing to fear about the Common Core-driven changes to the SAT and AP exams.
Moreover, Coleman praised religious liberal arts schools, and even the new trend toward classical Catholic schools and homeschooling, insisting that the Common Core Standards should not be a reason for Catholic educators to abandon what is unique about a traditional Catholic education.
Coleman’s assurances respond to deep concerns in the Catholic community about the ability of Catholic school students to compete for college admission unless Catholic schools change their time-honored curricula to conform to the Common Core. Already many Catholic dioceses have embraced the Common Core standards, arguing that it is necessary to keep pace with the reforms in public schools and with changes to college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT.
But The Cardinal Newman Society, working with parents and education experts, has expressed concerns about the Common Core’s utilitarian emphasis on career preparation and college skills potentially diminishing the distinctive Catholic identity and liberal arts emphasis of traditional Catholic schooling.
The Newman Society asked Coleman about the new, Common Core-aligned SAT to be launched in March 2016 and whether the changes are going to negatively impact Catholic school students who continue to receive a classical liberal arts education. Coleman said that the SAT is not being geared exclusively toward career skills, but that changes made, at least specifically in terms of the reading texts chosen, have “a much deeper resonate value.”
According to Coleman, such revisions to The College Board tests will reward “the traditional trainings of a religious education.”
The National Catholic Educational Association has again invited Coleman to speak to Catholic educators, this time to give the keynote address at its annual convention next March in San Diego, where the association is offering several workshops on Common Core. That news prompted the Newman Society to request an interview with Coleman. The National Catholic Educational Association has helped Catholic schools implement the Common Core and accepted a large grant in 2013 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support Common Core training and materials.
Catholic schools should have nothing to do with Common Core.
Clifton, you may be correct, but tell us why! What is your understanding of the purpose of Common Core? Why did the state commissioners of education create the program? Why didn’t the federal government have anything to do with its original design? How does it dilute Catholic education? How is it better or worse that what went before it? And a hundred more questions, but you get my idea. I haven’t had anyone explain why it is bad or good for that matter.
Bob One:
You say why should we avoid CC just because it comes from the “publics”. Agreed. But why should we embrace it just because it comes from state commissioners? We should do as we have traditionally done with these mandates: appraise it critically according to our own principles and decide independent of any false sense of “civic duty” what we ought to do to serve God and our students.
Bob One, perhaps his will provide some enlightenment;
https://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Huff,%20Patrick%20The%20Fight%20Against%20Common%20Core%20Schooling%20V%205%20N1%202014.pdf
Barbara, thanks for the link. It is an interesting presentation, but one with which, in part, I do not agree. I taught back in the early 1960’s. We tested nearly every year – I think it was the Iowa test. Nearly every school in the area used it. New York State had the Regents exams every year and the text books to go with it. Local elected school boards ran the show which has good and bad points. Look what has happened in some districts. They are teaching Creationism (religious belief) vs. Evolution (scientific theory) because some religious groups think the world is only a few thousand years old. Local school control has failed the nation to a great extent. Our kids are behind the rest of the world.
The fact it’s implementation has been funded by Bill and Melinda Gates should raise big red flags. They are pro abortion and pro population control. Catholic education should be based on Scholasticism. Catholic education did fine for a long time before anyone ever heard of Common Core.
Catholic schools have always been known for their high academic standards and for instilling Christian virtues in their students. The Washington politicians created Common Core and have tried to force it on the rest of the country. Many of our elected leaders are pro-Muslim or atheists. As in the case of Obama Care (demanding that Catholic institutions provide contraception and abortions health care policies for their employees), they have shown their disdain for Christian principles. I am suspicious of anything and everything that comes from the federal government.
Sarah, the Washington politicians didn’t create Common Core, the individual states did and then asked the Feds to help them implement it and asked foundations to help with material to train the teachers. The Feds didn’t force it on anyone. The local states created the system. By the way, there is no “religious test” in this country. Our Constitution protects us from the imposition of one religion over another by the state. Although founded on Judaeo-Christian principals to a certain extent, we are not a “christian nation.” A quick history lesson will tell you why the State of Maryland was created and determined to be a place for Catholics. Except for the abortion and contraceptive parts of the law, the Affordable Care Act is…
The Affordable Care Act has a terrible section that forces religious entities to support insurance for abortion and contraception, yes it does. But it also has provisions for free mammograms for women, rules that don’t allow insurance companies to refuse to cover you because of previous conditions, no maximum level of payments, the inability for them to cancel you policy because you got sick. Millions of people now have health insurance. But, I encourage you to continue to be suspicious of anything from the federal government.
My 16 year old grandson is a Sophomore in an Orange County California high school. Prior to Common Core he had consistently been on the A or B honor role. Now, with Common Core, he struggles to get a C in math. I have a fairly extensive background in math and I don’t understand it either. Bill Gates, who pushed and funded Common Core has two children. They are in a private school that doesn’t use Common Core. Bill Gates and David Coleman have damaged the futures of many children with Common Core. Now Coleman is running around pushing the Catholic Schools to use Common Core. I’d like to have a little fact to face chat with David Coleman. His self serving arrogance needs to be addressed!
Schools / kolleges were created because Books & Teachers who understood their contents were in shorter supply than students. Hence traveling to a university for education made sense.
Now – Information (and interpretations if is) are so widely available via the net that even libraries are shuttering, save for double duty as homeless shelters & after school daycare.
The Student Loan Funded ‘educational’ establishment has become a tax trough for tenured radicals to wallow at, while indoctrinating the next generation to Hate the previous one paying for it.
Ahhh – Academentia, where Orwell & Kafka are more than speculative fiction, but rather the dominant paradigm.
Consider – oh ever credulous Lurkers of the Net… What purpose college when Artificial Intelligence systems using the internet will shortly be able to do most office jobs and a lot of others in the ‘real world’?
If producing machines without Souls or Conscience is the ultimate goal of college, then producing machines that promote MIsandry (Hatred of Men & Boys, Masculinity & Normal Heterosexuality) would put the entire ‘women’s studies’ pogrom out of business…
And they would have to get ‘real jobs’ – perhaps as lamp posts or door stops or other endeavors mirroring the need for mastering the intellectual rigors of Academic Gaystapo Discipleship.