Common Core’s Revenge

Authors Robert Phelps and Common Core Validation Committee member R. James Milgram go in-depth on the background of the Common Core standards and the qualifications (or lack thereof) of the writers of the standards. Milgram, an emeritus professor of mathematics at Stanford University, was one of five members of the validation committee who refused to sign onto the standards and to endorse it.
The validation committee included “four non-U.S. citizens (an Australian, Englishman, German, and a Taiwanese), and R. James Milgram was the only mathematician in the committee and the only member with a Ph.D. from outside a school of education.” The committee could not demand changes in the drafts of the standards after a certain point, which Milgram said was after he tried to raise the math standards. The authors state, “In the end, committee members could only sign or refuse to sign a letter affirming that the CCS were research-based and internationally benchmarked. The letter was signed by 24 of the final 29 members.”
However, Phelps and Migram say the project’s intention was “to look attractive to both education schools and content experts” to get approval. Instead of being a good set of education standards, it was a political compromise.

http://www.academia.org/common-cores-revenge/