The Common Core: A Historically Referenced Issue

immigrants were bilingual and often established Arabic language, culture, and religion classes in churches or mosques.

The proportion of Arab Americans who attend college is higher than the national average, with many earning advanced degrees. Many Arab Americans are self-employed in family-owned businesses. About 60 percent of Arab Americans in the workforce are executives, professionals, and office and sales staff.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, concerns arose that Arab Americans might be victims of stereotyping and discrimination. Isolated instances of discriminatory acts occurred, but the Arab American community took a proactive stance to educate the general population about its history and culture. Educators, too, have worked to include Arab Americans within multicultural education.

5-7 the common core: a hiStorically referenced iSSue

Common Core State

Standards Standards released by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in 2010 to define and assess the knowledge and skills students should know by their graduation from high school.

FOCUS How did the United States become a culturally pluralistic society? Reflect on the roles of African-, Latino-, Asian-, and Arab Americans in American culture and their contributions. Reflect on the contributions and the problems of your own racial, ethnic, or language group as you write your educational autobiography. You may want to consult parents, family members, and others of your group about their educational experiences. Today, a major controversy exists between proponents and opponents of a common core of skills and subjects for American elementary and secondary students. In 2010, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) approved Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics for students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The authors of the Standards asserted they were developed to ensure that American students were competent in skills and subjects related to literacy (such as reading) and mathematics (for example, algebra), ready for college, and prepared to compete in a global economy. Students’ competencies in the English language and mathematics would be annually assessed by standardized testing.90 The Common Core Standards, though they cut across state boundaries, relied on each state for adoption. When the standards were first announced, they received a positive response from forty-nine states. However, by 2014, the Common Core proposal was under attack, and several states had withdrawn from participation. To examine the issue, we first deal with standards in recent history.

In the 1970s, a “basic education” movement gained support across the country. Calling for the reassertion of rigorous academic standards, the movement’s proponents contended that standards had declined because public schools had de-emphasized basic academic skills and subjects. They alleged that schools were using social promotion rather than academic competency to move students to higher grade levels.91

In the 1980s, President Reagan and his Secretary of Education, Terrel Bell, developed an agenda to raise educational standards that promoted (1) a basic skill and subject matter curriculum; (2) effective schools with high academic standards and expectations; and (3) education to improve American economic competition in the global economy. The academic standards movement moved ahead significantly when the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued its report, A Nation at Risk, which dramatically stated the following:

Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world. . . .The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.92

90Common Core State Standards Initiative site, www.corestandards.org; also, see Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane, eds. Common Core Meets Education Reform: What It All Means for Politics, Policy, and the Future of Schooling (New York: Teachers College Press, 2013). 91Diane Ravitch, “Why Basic Education,” Conference on Basic Education, Council on Basic Education (Portland, OR, April 27, 1978). 92National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (Washington, DC: US Department of Education, 1983) p. 5.