NJ Education Report

Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, in what Chalkbeat calls “some of her most expansive public remarks since taking over the department last year,” slammed the Common Core State Standards during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. The Common Core is a set of state-led course objectives created by educators under the auspices of the National Governors Association.

Said DeVos,

“Federally mandated assessments. Federal money. Federal standards. All originated in Washington, and none solved the problem. Too many of America’s students are still unprepared.” She added, according to Chalkbeat,

Common Core is a disaster,” DeVos said, echoing her boss, President Trump. “And at the U.S. Department of Education, Common Core is dead.

Really? What does the U.S. Department of Education have to do with the Common Core, which were created by states, adapted by states, and adopted by state legislatures? In what way is this set of standards aligned with college and career readiness a “disaster”? And how can the Common Core be “dead” when just about every state is using some version of it?

I don’t need to answer. We’ll let Noah Mackert, an alumnus of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and supervisor at  one of New York City’s Democracy Prep Charter Schools, a CMO in Camden, New York,  D.C., Baton Rouge, and Las Vegas, correct DeVos’s ignorant remarks.