Dive Brief:
- New York University education historian Diane Ravitch questions who benefits when businesses get behind the Common Core in her latest column for Huffington Post.
- Ravitch, known for her disdain for corporate efforts to overhaul education, is responding to news that a coalition of businesses has pledged to donate $500,000 to promote the contentious state standards initiative.
- Ravitch argues that there is no evidence supporting the standards claims, which include the premise it will better prepare students for college success. As a result, she wonders why businesses would get behind a program with so little research or evidence.
Dive Insight:
Ravitch has noted time and again her belief that the U.S. is not in the midst of a school crisis but rather a poverty crisis.
As she questions why Common Core backers believe it will miraculously fix all schooling problems, she writes, "It is certainly appealing to fiscal conservatives to believe that higher standards can somehow magically solve the problems of huge economic and social inequality. CCSS, they imagine, can compensate for the fact that nearly one-quarter of our children live in poverty."
Ravitch is also quick to point out that it's not just businesses behind the new $500,000 pledge. Organizations including The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Helmsley Foundation, Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst, and the Gates-funded Educators for Excellence are all supporting the pledge as well.
