Perry Reichanadter/GENESIS
daniels: Darron Cummings/ap • bennett: Chris O’Meara/AP
Crossin and Tuttle, on the other hand, didn’t solicit funds and paid for their own gas when they traveled. “We’re just citizen activists,” Crossin says. “We care about our children’s education and their futures. … We feel like parents have been left out of the decision-making process entirely.” Indiana’s new law puts Core implementation on hold while a legislative study committee compares Core standards with the state’s existing ones. (Incidentally, Indiana was one of just two states with English standards Fordham found to be superior to Common Core.) The law also requires an analysis of the cost to implement the new standards. The 11-member education board (with a few fresh Pence appointments) must make a final decision on the standards by next July. The law marks a pause, not a ban, and some think Indiana will ultimately keep the Core standards. Dena Cushenberry, the superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township on the east side of Indianapolis, believes it’s too late to turn around now, after districts like hers have already purchased new curriculum. “The work has already started, and so a pause is very concerning to us,” she says. “We’ve already started providing professional development to our teachers to teach differently.”
Email: ddevine@worldmag.com
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The grassroots uproar in Indiana is paralleled elsewhere. Activists are pushing back against Common Core in Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Alabama, Kansas, Utah, Colorado, and other states. Groups like the American Principles Project (APP) have provided them with some national coordination and assistance, keeping in touch through a private email list. (Other policy organizations opposing Common Core include The Heritage Foundation and The Heartland Institute.) For now, state involvement in two groups developing K-12 Core-aligned assessment tests is a good gauge of how deep Common Core skepticism is flowing. In July, Pence announced Indiana would withdraw from an assessment consortium known as PARCC. Georgia and Pennsylvania have also withdrawn, and Florida has signaled it may do so. (Alabama and Utah have withdrawn from the second consortium, known as Smarter Balanced.) As of mid-September, just 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, remained committed to PARCC. If the number drops below 15, the consortium will lose federal funding, dealing a major blow to the effort to develop uniform assessment tests. Robbins of the APP says proponents of Common Core “did not anticipate there would ever be this pushback.” A
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