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 In the classroom, the multi-state guidelines increasingly look
like they're here to stay.
Since they were adopted by 46 states five years ago, the Common Core
standards have become a symbol of Big Government overreach for
conservatives.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a White House contender, has promised
to "repeal every word of Common Core." Rivals Bobby Jindal and Chris
Christie, both governors who previously backed the standards, now
condemn them. Of 17 Republican candidates, only Jeb Bush and John
Kasich are Common Core defenders.
Yet despite years of effort, Common Core's critics have largely
failed to repeal the standards, which aim to emphasize critical
thinking over rote memorization.
In some states, education officials have been reluctant to wipe the
slate clean after spending millions of dollars to train teachers and
develop new course work. Teachers have also become vocal Common Core
backers, lobbying parents and politicians to keep the new system in
place. And any Republican president would find it difficult to
abolish a system that has mostly been implemented by states.
 Two states that have rolled back the standards have replaced them
with nearly identical guidelines, while nine states that are
reviewing them are likewise expected to leave them largely intact.
"In most places, the political battle has been won by the defenders
of the Common Core," said backer Michael Petri, president of the
conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Conservative activists, meanwhile, are frustrated that they haven't
had more success.
"I would give up my right pinky if any of these states come up with
standards that are substantially different from Common Core," said
Erin Tuttle, an Indiana homemaker who worked to repeal the
guidelines only to see state officials replace them with a similar
set of standards.
(For related graphic click here, http://reut.rs/1EEIWXD )
At the center of the controversy is a long-standing tension within
U.S. education.
Business leaders say U.S. schools must become more consistent and
rigorous in order to turn out graduates who can help the country
compete in the global economy.
International tests often show that U.S. students lag their peers in
other industrialized countries. In one 2012 math test, they ranked
27th among the 34 members of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development.
Meanwhile, some parents worry that distant government and corporate
interests are hijacking schools, which in the United States
historically have been controlled at the local level.
Although Common Core was developed by Republican and Democratic
governors and state education officials, President Barack Obama also
played a significant role by encouraging states to adopt it through
a $4.4 billion grant program in 2009.
 Common Core also has been caught up in a backlash against
standardized testing, which critics say stifles creativity and eat
up too much classroom time. These complaints predate Common Core by
more than a decade, but they have been intensified as schools have
revamped their tests to reflect the new standards.
Half of all high school students in some districts in Washington
state and Long Island, New York boycotted Common Core-linked
standardized tests earlier this year.
In the coming school year, nine states will abandon tests that were
developed to accompany Common Core in favor of their own
assessments. Experts say that will make it more difficult to compare
results across state lines.
But even as the tests change, the standards are becoming deeply
embedded in the nation's schools as teachers incorporate them into
their lesson plans.
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"This is the best shift in education I've seen since I started
teaching 25 years ago," said Debra Troxell, a high-school geography
teacher in Forsyth County, North Carolina.
CRITICAL THINKING
The Common Core standards spell out what students should know at the
end of the school year, but leave implementation to teachers and
local officials. For instance, sixth graders are expected to
understand statistical concepts, while high schoolers are expected
to write essays advancing an argument.
Business groups and other backers say the standards better prepare
high school graduates for the workforce. Teachers' unions back the
standards as well, though they oppose linking test results to
teachers' pay.
The standards have a powerful advocate in Microsoft Corp founder
Bill Gates, who has spent more than $200 million to promote them.
But the standards have baffled some parents who struggled to
understand their children's homework, building on concerns about too
much testing and lack of local control.
South Carolina repealed Common Core in 2014. But officials there
have since adopted new standards that are 90 percent similar,
according to a state oversight committee. Indiana's new standards
also largely mirror Common Core.
Oklahoma has reverted to its pre-Common Core standards while
officials develop a replacement. Eight other states are reexamining
the standards, but there is little expectation of a major departure
in policy.
"It's sort of like putting a cow in a horse costume. It's still a
cow," said Emily Mitchell, a kindergarten teacher in Smyrna,
Tennessee.
At this point, conservative activists are looking to the
presidential race, rather than trying to roll back Common Core at
the state level, said Adam Brandon, head of FreedomWorks, a
libertarian-leaning grassroots network.
"Are they happy? No," Brandon said. "But the Republican nominee for
president, chances are, is going to be very much against Common
Core."
That may not mean much, though. Whoever wins the election in 2016 is
likely to have less sway over education than Obama because Congress
is advancing legislation to prohibit the federal government from
influencing state learning standards.
By that point, backers say, Common Core will have already
transformed U.S. education.
"We've seen Common Core hold pretty true across the country," said
Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State
School Officers.
(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Stuart
Grudgings)
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