Common Core Now Reported As "Federal" Or "National" Standards

One of the deceptions of the education reform movement is that the Common Core State Standards were put together by the states and voluntarily adopted.

The reality is, while the Obama administration did not create the CCSS themselves, the Obama USDOE used the carrot of Race to the Top money and the stick of No Child Left Behind waivers to force states to adopt the standards.

In the end, 45 states did adopt those standards and many of the ancillary reforms that come along with them, like changes to teacher evaluation systems.

The lie that the standards were state-developed continued for a long, long time, but lately, politicians and news outlets are calling the standards exactly what they are - "national" or "federal".

Take Sheriff Andy Cuomo, who once was a big supporter of the Common Core State (sic) Standards but lately has tried to distance himself from them as opposition has increased across New York State by saying the following:

ALBANY—Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he would consider “legislative changes” to address parents' concerns about the rigorous Common Core standards, on which New York schools started testing some students last April.

“I've heard quite a bit from the parents who are very concerned about Common Core,” Cuomo told reporters after an event on Staten Island. “It's part of a national curriculum that the national experts say is actually going to be beneficial.

“But there's no doubt that there are significant elements, at least in the transition, that are problematic,” he continued.

Then there's this Associated Press article reporting on the sham task force put together by the NY State Board of Regents to address public concerns over the state's education reform agenda that introduces the CCSS this way:

Although King stressed that the federal Common Core Learning Standards adopted by 46 states have not increased the number of statewide assessments, many districts are testing students more as part of a separate state mandate for annual teacher evaluations. 

Federal Common Core Learning Standards - how's that for accuracy in reporting?

Finally here's a LoHud editorial from today calling out the Regents for not listening to the public and their concerns over the state's reform agenda:

Forty-five states are now transitioning their curriculum to adhere to Common Core, a national set of standards with benchmarks to measure student achievement. Many states have changed the timetable for phasing in the curriculum and testing; others have altered or dropped their relationships with inBloom over data privacy concerns. King, who earlier postponed a series of forums amid audience rage, still needs to answer the questions New York’s parents, teachers and administrators keep asking.

Here's how the Common Core State (sic) Standards used to be described in articles:

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adopt. The standards are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit bearing entry courses in two or four year college programs or enter the workforce. The standards are clear and concise to ensure that parents, teachers, and students have a clear understanding of the expectations in reading, writing, speaking and listening, language and mathematics in school.

The nation’s governors and education commissioners, through their representative organizations the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) led the development of the Common Core State Standards and continue to lead the initiative. Teachers, parents, school administrators and experts from across the country together with state leaders provided input into the development of the standards.

That's boilerplate taken right from the Common Core State Standards website.

For quite some times, journalists writing about the standards (or the increasing opposition to them all across the country from both right and left) would use some of that boilerplate in their articles to describe the development of the standards.

Certainly politicians like Sheriff Andy Cuomo would use it to describe them to avoid accusations that they had allowed the federal government to take over state education policy.

But now politicians like Cuomo, respected news outfits like the Associated Press and editorial writers at outlets like LoHud are calling the Common Core State (sic) Standards exactly what they are - "national" and "federal" standards promoted by the federal government and imposed on the states via the RttT grants or NCLB waivers.

The name "Common Core State Standards" does not seem to fooling anyone anymore.