Pop Quiz:
1. Which organization partnered with Achieve, the NGA, and the CCSSO to create Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Michigan adopted in 2010?
2. Which organization hired David Coleman, the lead architect of CCSS, as President in 2012?
3. Which organization partnered with Project Lead the Way (PLTW) to create a STEM credential? (Note: PLTW lobbied in Michigan FOR our STEM credential SB169/170)
4. Which organization provides the assessment that all Michigan high school students must take for graduation?
5. Which organization provides the new Michigan assessment that is mandatory for all 9th and 10th graders in Michigan?
6. Which organization controls the Advanced Placement content and tests used in Michigan high schools?
The answers to questions 1-6 are the same: College Board
From standards to assessments and credentials, the College Board is influencing Michigan schools in every possible way It’s time to ask ourselves, “Is giving so control to ONE organization wise?”
Paul Horton, history teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory School, is worried as well, In a blog post for Living in the Dialogue, he articulated his concerns with the new AP History (APUSH) and observed,
“The College Board has been very aggressive in marketing its products through professional development, political lobbying, and the attempt to create K-12 vertical teaming… serious discussion about high school history should not begin with debating the merits of the current APUSH course; it should begin with questions about why the College Board has so much influence over high school curricula.”
Horton’s concerns about College Board are shared by Stanley Kurtz, Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Policy Center. On the opinion page of the Washington Post, Kurtz also wrote about the revisions to APUSH and College Board. The headline says it all, “The College Board is in a position to create a de facto national curriculum.” Kurtz concludes,
College Board’s AP testing monopoly has broken all bounds. In the absence of competition from a company advised by top traditional scholars, the College Board will have nationalized the curriculum — and pulled it sharply to the left.
It’s time for Michigan to take a closer look and ask why the MDE giving so much power and influence to the College Board?