Common Core Standards: A Bridge Too Far?

Abstract

Since at least the Nixon administration, elites of both parties wanted to develop and impose national standards, largely for the reasons outlined in Chap. 1. Standards are seen as a way to assure that American public schooling will have transparent targets to aim for, and to promote school and teacher level accountability. Since nearly all other developed nations have national academic standards, elites see national standards as a way to modernize a decentralized, locally focused system.