WaPo: How much do Oklahoma legislators hate the Common Core? This much.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

It’s one thing to critique the Common Core State Standards. It’s another thing entirely to do what the Oklahoma legislature has done: pass a bill that not only stops schools from using the standards but also insists that new state standards are carefully compared to the Core to make sure there is no resemblance. That’s part of a bill known as HB 3399, which is now in the hands of Gov. Mary Fallin, who has this week to decide whether to sign it or kill it — either by vetoing it or or not signing it into law.

Fallin is in a complicated position in regards to the Common Core. She is the chair of the National Governors Association, one of the organizations behind the development of the Core. Last December, amid growing concerns among conservatives that the Core constituted a federal takeover of local education, Fallin issued an executive order supporting the Common Core standards, which in Oklahoma were being called the Oklahoma State Standards, and saying that there would be no federal intrusion.

Oklahoma had signed onto PARCC, one of the two state-led consortia developing new Core-aligned standardized tests with some $360 million in federal money. But last year the state said it would not use the tests because officials had cost concerns and feared it would be impossible to get public schools technologically ready by the 2015-16 school year to take the computer-given exams.

Forty-five states and the District of Columbia adopted the math and English Language Arts Common Core standards, with the support of the Obama administration, though some are now rethinking their commitment in the face of growing opposition from different parts of the political spectrum. Many critics are upset with the way the Core has been implemented and how aligned tests have been administered. The far right-wing has taken a position that the Core amounts to a federal takeover, thinking that drove the Oklahoma bill through the legislature. Indiana has officially pulled out, while some other states have renamed the Core and added some material.

Complete article at link

[Igel]

1. OK's not alone.

TX, too.

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=25769808124

Not that it matters. CC is a matter of convenience. Most more rigorous standards look similar; they differ but little, and amount to rearranging the furniture.

TX has the homegrown TEKS as well as the CCRS (college and career readiness standards). TEKS are educator/education-agency based. CCRS are put together mostly by businesses and universities. They don't agree. It's probably impossible to do both. And in some cases--say, the science CCRS--they're not fully incorporated by law (whatever happens on the ground).