June 20, 2014 12:53 PM

Stanford: Robert Scott was right

From the left--Scott was prescient, even many of his detractors now agree on his criticism of Common Core

When Robert Scott criticized standardized testing and said that Common Core would nationalize schools, he took heat from both Sec. Arne Duncan and Texas business lobbyist Bill Hammond, who called Scott a “cheerleader for mediocrity.” But two years later, those are the only who still think Scott was wrong. With states abandoning Common Core and advocates of high-stakes testing now criticizing its misuse, it’s time to admit that Scott was right all along.

Scott announced his resignation as Texas Education Commissioner in May 2012, but his public career effectively ended that January when he said that standardized testing had become a “perversion of its original intent.” Testing was wagging the dog, and Scott placed the blame on testing companies and lobbyists that have “become not only a cottage industry but a military-industrial complex.

“You’ve reached a point now of having this one thing that the entire system is dependent upon. It is the heart of the vampire, so to speak,” said Scott, who stood by his remarks even as others failed to do the same for him.

Many credit Scott’s candor with igniting the Education Spring movement, but it’s to be expected that teachers, parents, students, school boards and administrators would fight back against testing mandates. It’s quite another to see the criticism coming from those who pushed for the mandates in the first place, such as Michelle Rhee, the former DC schools chief celebrated by pro-test education reformers, who recently admitted, “Yes, in too many schools and in too many districts, there is an overemphasis on testing.”
The rest of Jason Standford's column can be found in today's R&D Department.

By Jason Stanford