THE
CORE
HUFFINGTON
02.02.14
SHORTLY BEFORE THANKSGIVING, Arne Duncan made a glib
remark about the Common Core that quickly blew up. ¶ Speaking
before a gathering of state schools chiefs, the secretary of education
dismissed growing opposition to the new national set of learning
standards, saying “white suburban moms” were rising up against the
Core simply because its more rigorous tests meant they were being
told “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were.”
The riff wasn’t all that different from Duncan’s usual words
of support for the Common Core.
He often says states have “dummied down standards” and insists officials need to tell students the truth about just how
smart they are. But as soon as he
named “white suburban moms”
as part of the problem, his refrain became the gaffe heard
‘round the mom-blogger world.
The pointed phrasing fed into
parents’ bubbling anxiety about
the Core, more fully known as the
Common Core State Standards
Initiative, an education push that
aims to make sure students across
the United States are learning
the skills they need to succeed
in a global economy. In recent
months, as schools began teaching
and testing students on the new
standards