An educational watchdog’s report blasts new national guidelines backed Friday by Massachusetts’ education czar, warning they will lead to the dumbing-down of Bay State students, according to a copy obtained exclusively by the Herald.
“The goals for our students will be lowered,” said Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a fiscally conservative think tank in Boston which tomorrow will publicly release the report critical of the federal standards.
On Wednesday, the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will vote on the standards, which could require schools to buy new books, teachers to learn new curriculum and MCAS tests to be rewritten – gutting the state’s multibillion-dollar 1990s education reform, critics say.
Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester on Friday said he’s backing the standards, known as Common Core.
Full story: Lower education? Fed plan said to lower bar for Mass. kids -BostonHerald.com