Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is trying mightily to pull his state from both the Common Core State Standards and one of its accountability instruments, the PARCC assessments. Louisiana State Superintendent John White explains to Politico that,
The great benefit of Common Core…is that it sets a high bar for students all across the nation. The consortium test is designed to see who’s measuring up. When the exams are given for the first time next spring, parents in Louisiana will be able to compare their children’s performance to peers in Illinois or New Jersey — or, for that matter, Singapore, since the exams are internationally benchmarked.
For Jindal to deny students that opportunity, White said, is unconscionable.
“When you go to school in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans … who is there to validate that the learning that’s taking place and the results you’ve gotten stack up against the rest of society?” White said. “These tests assure the civil rights especially of the most disadvantaged children.”
