Common Core and CS-for-all: What’s our goal

I’m not convinced that the purpose of Common Core is to prepare students for four year universities.  Shouldn’t the common core be the minimum standard?  This issue is coming up for us at ECEP as we work in South Carolina.  In fact, we’re addressing it today in our Computing Education in South Carolina summit.  Should everyone be required to take serious CS in high school?  Or is it that everyone should have access to serious CS (e.g., preparation for undergrad CS courses), and everyone should know more about CS, but the college-going students are the ones who need the serious CS?

One of the three drafters of the Common Core math standards has publicly admitted that Common Core – which moves Algebra I from 8th to 9th grade and includes little trigonometry, no pre-calculus, and no calculus – is designed to prepare students for non-selective community colleges, not four-year universities. In fact, President Bud Peterson of Georgia Tech has stated that a student cannot go to Tech without having had Algebra I in 8th grade and calculus by senior year.  In other words, Common Core won’t get kids into Georgia Tech. This is the “quality” that has so impressed the Fordham lobbyists?

via Common Core: Substandard educational scheme. Georgia can do… | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com.