Score-point changes between 2013 and 2015 for fourth-grade public school students assessed in NAEP mathematics, by state/jurisdiction

Delaware's NAEP change

Our NAEP performance was really bad.. We almost tied for the second worst loss. (Thank heavens for Lillian Lowery’s Maryland for taking the greatest loss since 2013. Sending her across the Mason Dixon line paid off.)

The reason this is significant is because Common Core curriculum and methods, is all 4th Graders know… Students in the Fourth Grade in 2015, were in Third Grade in 2014, Second Grade in 2013 and first Grade in 2012…. When compared to our 8th Graders below, their score drop is double and drastic.

Delaware naep 8th grade drop

Though our state’s math scores dropped in 8th Grade, it is nowhere nearly as bad as other states .  These Delawarean 8th graders only had three years of common core.  Which means the first five years were under good educational policy and it was that strong base which put them at advantage over those states simply struggling financially to get their buses to run every day

Comparing these two charts and backtracking the students’ development to find the expanse of time they suffered under Common Core, leads to the startling conclusion:  Common Core is bad for achieving results…

The DOE knew this as early as 2012, when our state’s test results showed quite plainly that students in Common Core pilot classes had considerable drops in their DCAS scores from the previous year, whereas their peers being taught “old school”, had continuous gains.

Why that was never brought to legislator’s attention, or the News Journal’s, or the public, … is open to speculation.

4th Grade NAEP gain or loss (2015-2013)

NAEP map of 4th grade mathNAEP map of 8th Grade

8th Grade NAEP Gain or Loss (2015-2013)

Maps don’t lie.. Common Core has failed America….. So, why have no Delaware legislators put forth legislation removing the Smarter Balanced and replacing it with our own test, one created by our own teachers?

That is a puzzling question.  One could see if they were lied to, why they might originally trust the only source of information available.  But now, Murphy is gone. Truth is out. Evidence exists. We have the proof by the “nation’s report card” that Common Core is not just neutral, but dangerous.

So why has no one put forth a bill to undo the damage by getting rid of the Smarter Balanced Assessment, making this its last year?

By continuing to only do what we always have, we only get the same results we always got…