“Common Core = Lost Opportunity”

August 11, 2011 - In commentary appearing in the most recent issue Education Week [In Common Core, Little to Cheer About], Penn GSE Dean Andy Porter offers a critique of the Common Core Standards, calling the movement “a lost opportunity.”

Porter, who has long argued that the educational system was overdue for national standards, writes in the current issue of Ed Week, "I wish I could say that our progress toward common-core standards has fulfilled my hopes. Instead, it seems to me that the common-core movement is turning into a lost opportunity."

The Common Core State Standards, a set of voluntary curriculum standards developed by whom, have been adopted by 40 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands. Essentially a national curriculum, the Common Core standards are intended to replace the current state-by-state system, which Porter has described elsewhere as “a hodgepodge.”

After concluding a study of the new standards, Porter and his team found troubling signs that the Common Core does not represent “a meaningful improvement over existing state standards.”

MEDIA CONTACT: Jill DiSanto-Haines / jdisanto@upenn.edu / 215-898-4820