Last spring at Orange High School, many students and teachers took part in the school’s first use of Measures of Standard Learning (MSL) exams, a new form of standardized testing resulting from North Carolina’s new curriculum, Common Core. Although many students may not know it, the shift to Common Core isn’t just affecting OHS, Orange County, or even the state of North Carolina. There is a large shift in education affecting high school students and teachers across the United States.
Race to the Top, a new educational initiative created by the U.S. Department of Education under President Obama, is the reason for this large shift in education. Released in 2009, Race to the Top is a competition which offers monetary incentives to states willing to conform to the Common Core curriculum. When asked what the purpose of Race to the Top is, last year’s OHS testing administrator and current guidance counselor Phyllis Farlow replied that educational equality was the goal. Farlow stated, “Race to the Top was created to ensure that the education being given to a student in a state such as Wisconsin will be the same as the education given to a student in North Carolina.”
According to the White House website, the key areas of reform promoted by Race to the Top include “development of rigorous standards and better assessments, adoption of better data systems to provide schools, teachers, and parents with information about student progress, support for teachers and school leaders to become more effective, and increased emphasis and resources for the rigorous interventions needed to turn around the lowest-performing schools.”
Also according to the White House website, “Forty-six states and the District of Columbia submitted comprehensive reform plans to compete in the Race to the Top competition.” The site claims that “19 states have received funding so far, 34 states modified state education laws or policies to facilitate needed change, and 48 states worked together to create a voluntary set of rigorous college- and career-ready standards.” Over 4.35 billion taxpayer dollars have been distributed among these participating states, with 12 grants, worth over $400 million, being given to the state of North Carolina.]
Race to the Top, along with Common Core standards and the use of MSL testing, has received a noteworthy amount of negative responses from across the country, particularly from students and from teachers. Most of these negative responses are in regards to the program’s attempts to standardize education nationwide, as well as how student scores on the MSLs will be used to “grade” teachers on their effectiveness.
One Tennessee high schooler, Ethan Smith, spoke out against Common Core and Race to the Top at a school board meeting in his district. During his speech, Smith compared Race to the Top to the famous No Child Left Behind program, stating, “Much like No Child Left Behind, the program promises national testing and a one-size-fits-all education, because hey, it worked so well the first time.”
The high school senior also spoke against the repercussions that teachers will face due to Common Core. Within the next three years, teacher effectiveness will be evaluated by analyzing students’ MSL scores. Smith argued that these practices display a “mistrust of teachers.”
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