The keyword is enforced, which is what Obama tried to do. But parents need to be able to compare schools in order to have an informed choice.
Even in public school, use of common core curriculum often has to do with the district, the principal, or the teacher (jobs which could change hands at any time, and obviously year-to-year, so no guarantees). Do private schools not use common core curriculum? I honestly just don’t know. The school choice issue and the common core debacle are two separate issues. In my experience (although I haven’t graded them in two years or so) the warped common core “logic” is not demanded on “official” (state) exams, so many public school teachers ignore the idiotic extra “strategies” anyway, and modify in-house tests accordingly. Why some are militant about demanding it, I cannot fathom. We still can fulfill the reasonable standards (which are not really all that different from the standards that used to exist!) without using the worm-ridden, convoluted, over-priced curriculum! (It is understandable why people see the standards and the curriculum as only one thing, which only confuses everything further.) It has all become (or always has been) a moneymaking scam! But the math state exams I have seen (and graded) only ask for the correct answer using any strategy, not a dictated one.
Of course there are other huge problems with state exams, such as the instability of the rubrics used year to year, (easier tests with brutal rubrics, harder tests with forgiving rubrics, and everything in between, making year-to-year comparisons and statistics about student growth invalid, etc...), poorly worded questions with poor answer choices...comparisons between states with different tests...sigh, but I digress...
The picture of a graded paper that appears earlier in this thread is probably a case of being more grade-inappropriate than a common core issue. Common core curriculum is MUCH worse than what was shown!
I am way too happy about the election to be in any way spending time doubting even one of President-elect Trump’s appointments. He’ll take care of it! I’m so grateful for the election result, and just too busy saying THANK YOU and AMEN!!!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and to all!