How the Common Core standardizes our kids' education-and how it threatens our democracy.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is one of the most controversial pieces of education policy to emerge in decades. Detailing what and when K-12 students should be taught, it has led to expensive reforms and displaced other valuable ways to educate children. In this nuanced and provocative book, Nicholas Tampio argues that, though national standards can raise the education bar for some students, the democratic costs outweigh the benefits.

To make his case, Tampio describes the history, philosophy, content, and controversy surrounding the Common Core standards for English language arts and math. He also explains and critiques the Next Generation Science Standards, the Advanced Placement US History curriculum framework, and the National Sexuality Education Standards. Though each set of standards has admirable elements, Tampio asserts that democracies should disperse education authority rather than entrust one political or pedagogical faction to decide the country's entire philosophy of education.

Ultimately, this lively and accessible book presents a compelling case that the greater threat to democratic education comes from centralized government control rather than from local education authorities.

How the Common Core standardizes our kids' education-and how it threatens our democracy.

About the Author

Nicholas Tampio is an associate professor of political science at Fordham University. He is the author of Kantian Courage: Advancing the Enlightenment in Contemporary Political Theory and Deleuze's Political Vision.

Reviews
In Common Core: National Education Standards and the Threat to Democracy, Nicholas Tampio offers a concise and readable anatomy of the Common Core movement as well as a case against national standards generally.
-Wall Street Journal
The book is brief, pithy, to-the-point and well-focused, making it a great gift for your civilian friend who wants a quick, accessible explanation of what all the fuss is about.
-Curmudgucation
Common Core provides a useful reminder of how educators-together with parents, and civil society-should be engaged in a larger political process of how schools, curricula, and national standards are organized.
-Emmerich Davies, Harvard University, Perspectives on Politics



Book Information
ISBN 9781421424637
Author Nicholas Tampio
Format Hardback
Page Count 216
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 363g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 140mm * 20mm