TJ Martinell – Nationwide opposition to Common Core is on the rise, and more and more students and parents are choosing to opt-out on their own. According to a story by U.S. News & World Report over half a million school-aged children opted out of Common Core standardized testing last year. In New York around a fifth of students simply didn’t take the tests.
In November 2013, Federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan attributed opposition to Common Core to “white suburban moms” who discovered that “all of a sudden, their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought.”
Like so many federal bureaucrats, Duncan was dead wrong, as USA News reports the opt-out movement reflects widespread distaste crossing demographic lines:
When the opt-out movement first gained traction in 2014, it was initially dismissed by some educational policymakers as a movement primarily taken up by middle-class white families concerned that new standardized tests would reveal their children to be lower-achieving than once thought. Data from New York, for example, suggests that those opting out tended to come from more affluent areas and are more likely to be white.
However, data from Ohio have shown a much more inclusive movement, representative of the state population. Early evidence from 2016 suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in communities of color – the Seattle chapter of the NAACP issued a statement in support of opting out, and principals in New York City have publicly voiced support for giving parents the right to opt out.
Teachers have also indirectly expressed their opposition to Common Core, emailing parents about how their students can opt out without fear of punishment.
The deeply controversial nationalized education scheme known as “Common Core,” pushed by the Obama administration and billionaire Bill Gates, is under major pressure in the establishment-stronghold state of New York. With parents, teachers, unions, and political leaders from across the political spectrum in open revolt, some analysts even say that the widely criticized school standards may be on the verge of being scrapped — a development that would represent a massive blow to the ongoing imposition of Common Core nationwide.