Dive Brief:
- Bill Gates spoke about the "technocratic" need for the Common Core State Standards at the Politico-sponsored "Lesson from Leaders" launch event Monday.
-
"Should Georgia have a different railroad width than anybody else? Should they teach multiplication in a different way?" Gates asked the Washington, DC, crowd, in an attempt to prove the utility and common sense nature of the national standards, which have been dropped by a number of states in recent months.
- Gates' stance on the standards is not surprising: As of November 2013, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent over $170 million on the creation and implementation of the Common Core.
Dive Insight:
Gates's vocal position on the Common Core is particularly salient since the standards have been receiving a lot more pushback in recent months. The standards were a National Governors Association project adopted in 2010 by many states, especially once the federal government tied them to President Obama's Race to the Top grant competition. Now, many schools are feeling frustrated with the results and are starting to question what they mean in the long term. Typical arguments against the Common Core include its unrealistic and short timeframe for implementation, its perpetuation of high-stakes testing culture, the manner in which it was pushed upon states as a condition of federal grants, its untested quality, and its disproportionate funding by the Gates Foundation.