AP tests are aligning to Common Core. So, explain this, Common Core proponents: the reason to change college-credit AP tests to Common Core is to make sure that they were actually college-ready?
Um, that makes no sense.
This video is a must-see. Start at about 1:05 when the College Board representative says that Common Core doesn’t include Calculus.
By definition a college-credit test should be testing college-ready information. So, the only reason to change the AP tests is to hide the Common Core’s decline for true college-readiness.
That does make sense, since Common Core is a concession to national, agreed-upon, defined middle ground (mediocrity). While some states have risen to the new Common Core, other states have dropped their standards to adopt Common Core. That’s what collectivism does, folks. It erases excellence and success because it values sameness above soaring.
It makes sense, then, that college entrance exams and AP exams that are Common Core-aligned, will be dropping their standards, too.
Now that AP, SAT, and ACT tests are changing to be Common Core aligned, we can’t compare pre-Common Core to post-Common Core and will not be able to prove the massive failure that would most likely have been discovered in the near future.
This College Board representative in the video doesn’t come out directly and say that Common Core only prepares students for a nonselective two year college, but he might has well have said it.
Jason Zimba, a lead Common Core writer, did say it. So did Professor William McCallum of the University of Arizona, one of the three writers of the math Common Core standards:
“While acknowledging the concerns about front-loading demands in early grades, [McCallum] said that the overall standards would not be too high, certainly not in comparison [with] other nations, including East Asia, where math education excels.”
http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2011/11/myths_about_national_standards.html
COMMON CORE 
I have nothing against students electing to NOT take AP calc in high school but who take it in college instead. But it sounds like CC may not even prepare them to do that unless they take additional courses for which there are no CC standards. CC spokespeople have said algebra 1 concepts have been pushed down to 7th or 8th grade, and some algebra 2 is pushed down into algebra 1 Which is ironic given that the standards for algebra 1 and 2 are lacking in some key areas, like factoring, probability and algebraic fractions. And given the weaknesses in the K-6 math standards, students may be ill prepared for algebra.
Reblogged this on Leatherneck Blogger.
This is bad, very bad… very very very bad. It means that engineering programs will be 6 year programs.
All of this leads to remedial courses taken in college. College is NO place to have to retake remedial courses where high school has failed. This is one reason why at least some parts of the country are getting dumber and dumber. When one enters college, they should be prepared to enroll in courses never taken before back in K-12. Everything learned in college should be new and more challenging.