Julie Delegal
This is part three of a multi-part series on Florida’s Future with the Common Core State Standards, presented in partnership with Folio Weekly. A complete version of this series will appear in Folio on Oct. 16.
Are PARCC and Common Core the same thing?
No, the 18-state Partnership for the Assessment of College and Career Readiness is not to be confused with the Common Core Memorandum of Understanding, signed in 2009 by 48 states. Currently, 45 states remain in the compact, which was sponsored by The National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. (The agreement now excludes Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia.)
There is no inkling, at this writing, that Florida will withdraw from the 2009 Common Core State Standards compact.
PARCC, by contrast, is a multi-state test-creator that received $186 million in federal Race to the Top funds to develop an assessment aligned to the Common Core standards. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and President Barack Obama have endorsed the partnership’s work.
Gov. Rick Scott issued an executive order on September 23 withdrawing Florida from PARCC citing “federal intrusion” concerns. Emphasizing principles of “local control,” Scott also rejected several “appendices” of the Common Core Compact, which relate to specific curricula (i.e., materials and teaching tools) based on the Common Core.
Spokespeople from former Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future have emphasized that signing the Common Core State Standards agreement was completely voluntary for states and is not an intrusion of the federal government.
Have CCSS and PARCC been politicized?
Yes and no. The Common Core State Standards have found extensive bipartisan support, as Leslie Postal has noted for the Orlando Sentinel. For years, as Florida’s de facto Republican leader, Bush has promoted CCSS through his Foundation for Florida’s Future. In fact, full implementation of these standards may be viewed as the culmination of Bush’s 15 years of education-reform work. In 2011, at an appearance at a Miami high school, President Obama praised Bush for his longstanding commitment to education reform.
But that endorsement may yet spell trouble for the Common Core. The Obama-Bush education embrace gives far-right-leaning conservatives, including columnist Michelle Malkin, the opportunity to use broad strokes to paint Bush as favoring “Big Government” and “Big Business.” Malkin has tied Bush to the testing/textbook/curriculum/technology conglomerate Pearson, which now holds Florida’s FCAT vendor contract.
Pearson also holds the technology assessment contract for PARCC with its partner, Smarter Balanced. ETS and its subcontractor, CTB-McGraw Hill, are competing against Pearson for PARCC’s test-item contracts.
Bush now finds himself defending the Common Core State Standards to critics on his right, as he did with the American Legislative Exchange Council in August.
Are the former governor and the current governor in basic agreement on the Common Core State Standards? The question may turn on whether Bush and Scott need each other politically. Some pundits believe that Bush will run for president in 2016, largely on his marquee issue, education. Scott, who got elected by a one-percent margin in the tea party sweep of 2010, faces a gubernatorial election in 2014.
While it’s conceivable that many tea party candidates could re-create the events of 2010 in gerrymandered districts, their extreme views are unlikely to attract voters in non-gerrymandered races — for example, for governor or president. Many districted races are not competitive in general elections, since a number of districts were drawn to deliver wins for one party or the other. So while tea party candidates may appeal to GOP primary voters, who tend to be more ideological than general-election voters, statewide and nationwide candidates, by contrast, must appeal to a much broader electorate in order to win.
So far, Scott has not drawn a politically viable primary challenger as he did in 2010. How far will he go to appease his tea party constituents on Common Core?
“The Tea Party opposes Common Core, period,” FEA President Andy Ford observed. “The governor is taking a middle step,” he added, referring to Scott’s move to keep CCSS while dumping PARCC.
Meanwhile, Scott’s fourth education commissioner, Pam Stewart, has announced three public hearings to address how things are going with Common Core implementation so far, and what might be tweaked. Hearings were scheduled Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Tampa; Wednesday, Oct. 16, in Davie; and Thursday, Oct. 17, in Tallahassee. The website announcing the hearings appears to be re-branding the Common Core into “Florida standards.”
Next: Part 4, Local Control of Curricula
