Why Common Core Support is High Among Communities of Color

Why Common Core Support is High Among Communities of Color
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RCEd Commentary

Last month, Diane Douglas – who earlier this year ousted Republican state superintendent John Huppenthal in a contentious primary battle - was declared the victor in Arizona’s state superintendent race, defeating Democratic opponent David Garcia by fewer than 20,000 votes. How did she pull off this electoral feat?

Simply put, she vehemently opposed the Common Core standards. But before other Common Core opponents rush to make similar pushes to repeal these more rigorous academic standards, they should consider an important truth: among African Americans and Latinos, support for the Common Core has been and remains strong.

Polls conducted over the course of the year find African American support for the Common Core has remained at a solid 80 percent consistently, with Hispanic support just a few points lower. Further, African American and Hispanic support for the Common Core has been consistently higher than general levels of support for the standards, even when the overall public support for the Common Core has fallen. In 2013, polls found that at least two-thirds of voters wanted students to be taught the standards; today, that figure is closer to half. But with so many politicians and pundits inaccurately arguing that the Common Core constitutes a federal intrusion, it’s unclear how much of this dip in popularity among voters can be attributed to the politicization of the brand. Conversely -- and perhaps not surprisingly -- when you drop the Common Core label, support for college-and-career ready standards jumps 15 points.

What is clear, however, is that the groups who can benefit the most from raising expectations remain resolutely supportive. They recognize clearly the potential of the Common Core to help bring to their children the same high-caliber education that so many of their peers receive. Civil rights groups also have long supported the Common Core. To commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, nine national civil rights groups voiced their support for the “equitable implementation of” Common Core because they believe it will help fulfill the promise of equal educational opportunity. Their support for the standards highlights a critical but often overlooked narrative: the Common Core presents a powerful opportunity for educational equity by finally holding all students to the same standards and expectations no matter their background, family’s income level, race, or neighborhood.

The ugly truth is that students are graduating high school unprepared for college and career. In 2013, only 42 percent of students nationally achieved proficiency in fourth grade math and 36 percent in eighth grade reading. We don’t fail students equitably either. We do an even worse job preparing students of color for college and career: in 2013 only 18 percent of black students and 26 percent of Hispanic students were proficient in fourth grade math and 17 and 22 percent respectively in eighth grade reading. As a result, only 68 percent of black students and 76 percent of Hispanic students graduate high school on time compared with 85 percent of white students. These achievement gaps have long term consequences: African Americans and Hispanics graduate college at lower rates and have higher rates of under- and unemployment. Closing the achievement gap is not only a moral imperative but also an economic one -- as a new report by the Center for American Progress finds, erasing racial and ethnic education gaps would increase our gross domestic product, or GDP, by $2.3 trillion by 2050.

Considering these alarming disparities, it is not surprising that African Americans and Hispanics strongly support the Common Core. They are well aware that their children are provided with lower-quality education than their peers. For example, black and Hispanic students disproportionately attend under-resourced schools, have lower access to Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes, and are more often taught by inexperienced or out-of-field teachers.

The Common Core is about education equity. We must keep that in mind even as our children bring home math problems that teach addition and multiplication in new ways, or as they’re asked to engage more critically in texts than ever before. These research-based methods of teaching will help improve fundamental numeracy and literacy skills that our students sorely need in order to effectively compete in a 21-century global economy. Teachers support the Common Core and walking away from the standards now throws out years of work preparing to teach them. And worse, abandoning the standards would strike a significant blow against educational equity and improving the economic outcomes for people of color and the nation as a whole.

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