Former Massachusetts Senate president recognizes Common Core is a step back for his state

The Boston Globe just ran an interesting Op-Ed from Tom Birmingham, the former head of the Massachusetts Senate.

Birmingham discusses the new Common Core State Standards, which have replaced Massachusetts’ former very excellent public school education standards:

“I also fear that universal high standards and objective assessments are being jettisoned in favor of a return to vague expectations and fuzzy standards.”

Birmingham notes some remarkable gains after Massachusetts enacted its former education program, which included the best standards in the nation.

1) Eventually, over 90 percent of Massachusetts students would pass the state’s old MCAS assessments,

2) The Commonwealth’s SAT scores would rise for 13 consecutive years,

3) Massachusetts’ students would become the first in every category in every grade on national testing known as “the Nation’s Report Card,” and4) Massachusetts would rank at or near the top in international science tests.

Now, a watered down Common Core based education system is putting all of that performance at risk. Why?

And, why didn’t Kentucky go for what already worked, spectacularly, in Massachusetts?

Why didn’t other states?

What is really going on here?