they had to raise $8 million by today, but even though they fell short, the owner agreed to sell part of the plant. the group plans to turn it into a museum. i'm thomas train, thank you for watching inside story, coming up next. the idea appears simpling enough. have them learn the same things at roughly the same time, so you can check, turns out it isn't simple, not at all. the battle over the common core is the inside story.

hello, i'm ray swarez. a viz is tor the the french minister. the minister said with pride, he knew what every third grader in the french umpire was doing on that particular day. down to the page of the third grate textbook they would be reading. by tradition, and design, our k 12 education system resists central control and uniformity, and celebrates disbursed authority and low scal control. before we are going to spend a lot of time and money testing every kid throughout their careers how can you compare a fourth gradener california with a fourth grader in maine, if fourth graders are taught different things. common core started with a

simple is enough proposition that standards would make assessments more valuable. but it ended up with a nasty political battle and growing disarray in the shared curriculum standard. >> common core has been adopted by 44 states in the district of columbia. the standards were drawn up in 2010 by the national governors association, and leaders of state education departments. >> your turn. >> the idea was to nationalize standards what they should be taught in the arts, math and science. the hope is common core would bedder prepare for higher education, critical thinking solving and analyst call skills are at the heart of common core. it includes a national testing program, instead of the current system, in which states choose from a wide variety of standardized tests.

>> meant to shape is the way your children think. >> h amend protest rally outside the state capitol, also this week in indiana, the state's board of education overwhelmedly decided to replace the common core requirements. this makes indiana the first state to walk away from common core, after originally adopting it. more states think follow indiana, when asked about that, secretary of education said. >> they absolutely have is the right to do this, this is a state led effort, always has been, and whatever indiana decides we want to work with them to make sure the students have a chance to be suck is recessful. >> common core still has many supporters the former governor of florida jeb bush is one, the miss

associated u.s. chamber of commerce, and bill gates are early backers, the gates foundation is put up more than $170 million to help the program. i think the common core is a good thing. i think what we need to do is help people struggling with the curriculum requirements. what can we do to take things that are too theoretical and make them more practical. in some ways i think there's a good opportunity there. but we shouldn't be walking away from standards. >> and randy wine garten president of the federation of teachers that say you think the obama-care is bad, the implementation of the common core is far worse. hyperbole aside, from talk show hosts like glen beck,

to states, school districts, church groups and politicians on the left and right, who may all agree the standards in american public school education are lacking, they just don't accept that common core is the answer. is common core in your family's future? as we have explained that may depend on where you live. but how did this particular piece of educational reform end up as such a battlefield? does the unraveling potential for uniformity doom the common core? joining us on in inside story, from new york, mark fedderman, principal of east side community high school. here in washington connor williams, senior researcher at the new america education policy program. executive director of the pioneer institute.

it was plausible but it is also boring, it wasn't controversial because no one was thinking about it, we have always had educational standards these are just new ones. didn't garn ear lot of attention. that is no longer the case. it's been linked up to a number of things. there are teacher evaluations that are aligned to those, and that spark as great deal of attention. or the way they have been sold to american educators and to america's families? >> with the lobbying army and the council of state

officers as the tune up for properties that are driving this process. they are state official whose played a part in developing some of these standards, but it was didn't kind of state led process you saw in massachusets where we developed the highest quality academic standards in the country. frankly california maz set standards and other states. >> jim, it may be the lobbying arm, but all 51 members of the national governors association were elected by people. >> absolutely. but look, when you talk about representation, i don't think we are just talking about having a couple of state officials sit in the offices of these washington not for profits. rather what we are talking about is a process that upholds the trust.

we had business leaders and parents all giving their input. we went back out with -- a lot f oopportunity, and frankly our debates were on the front page of the boston globe, and every news paper in massachusets really for about three years. so an ability to get to settle on difficult questions as to what are you going to teach. it is good for us to debate, that did not happen in the beginning, some of the push back you are seeing now is because people only now are learning about it. what the legislatures or parents who see it coming home in their home work. >> a lot of pressure has been put on principals in the modern era, a lot of talk about principle accountability, you must have some idea how your kids are doing, but the intention here is also to be able to compare it with a kid in indianapolis, or lorano. >> i think the idea of the common core standards and having is some of standards

of all schools are being held to make as lot of sense, and i don't have a lot of issues with the standards themselves and in some ways they are asking students to do smart things. and do the good work we have is been doing, or to challenge us to do better work, but when we start equating the common core standards or to one particular test, or a time test, and what is happening right now. the teachers and principles in schools are being forced to take the common core, and be much more open ended and thoughtful, and push us to do more real work, but then to demonstrate that we are meeting these within an hour and a half of rush time, and filling in bubbles and what happens is this common all the strengths of the common core may have are being undermined be i the idea that teachers are actually equating sometimes the common core with test prep. and that's just really scaring me as an educator and seeing the results.

>> all the strengths are being undermined. >> yeah, absolutely is in new york. i was an early proponent, i wrote a book opening the common core, but the truth is, that assess isments have a back wash effect on instruction. may always and always will. and the assessments we are seeing are not high quality. right now we estimated over 30,000n't popularities opted their kids out of the common core test, the number is up in mathematics, there's no confidence in the scan careds. the math test given today, some of them had problems with them, the curriculum was created by vendors for a lot of money, i think it was about $24 million in new york. there are flaws it has turned into a mess. standards are important, but there is no evidence that national standards are going to do what we want to do, this is increase

achievement for kids in the united states. you heard it from across the pan net, with the way the standards were formulated the way they are being introduced and problems with the assessment. what do you make of what you heard? >> look, there's no question the implementation has been difficult in a lot of states, it is going better in some, worse in others. and there's no question also that there's something sort of odd about the common core standards. supporters love to point out, they are just standards. we have always had standards they are just new ones. that's a great deal thing, makes comparability much easier, data transparency easier. easier to align things, and there's been a lot of work put into the research on these. that's true, but one thing supporters often don't acknowledge is the reason they are controversial is not usually the standards

they are controversial because they have been linked up to other things that are, like growth measures on teacher evals that take student growth rather and use that to evaluate teachers. and the common core is become sort of the proxy fight for whether or not we will do that. if i push add button and eliminated the core, we would still have these metrics set up. so i iny these are real concern. up implementation is a real concern, but it is also true that the standards themselves are a very manage thing. if we want an argument about whether it has a place in teacherrer valuations it is a separate argument. or if we use too many standardized tests, also another argument. >> when we come back, with he talk more about what is is in those standards and what's attracting the kind

of criticism from around the country that these standards have gotten. this is inside story. program

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>> the stakes are so high... >> america's middle class: rebuilding the dream on real money with ali velshi on al jazeera america welcome back to inside story. as we have heard, the complaints for national curriculum standards take different forms. some are against any national standards, some say the ideas is already in principle, but there aren't the right standards. don't ask for the right things, the opponents are diverse, but united in their opposition. what does that mean for the future of common core? jim sturgis, some people have depicted this as sort of a trojan horse, opaque and unoble being rolled in through the front gates of the school. where you only understand what is in it, once it is already on the inside. and they -- the upset comes from having any standards at all, are you against

having a uniform set of goals or guidance for what a kid out to know by 6th grade? what a kid out to know by 9th grade? >> ray, absolutely not. massachusetts would know something about academic excellence and school excellence. we went from 12th in the country to number one in the country, from 1993 to 2003. we are number one still. we are the top six in math and science, that's two different tests that we participate in as a country. we did this through yes, charter schools and i differ completely from what connor was saying standards are ex-freely important. the activist democratic goals that you put into place are extremely important. they define the quality of content you put in two classroom. the liberal arts based content that you have, and we have done more academic research on common core, whether it's the legally for os, but mainly the quality, and our greatest fear is that massachusets we don't have oil in the ground, we don't have all

kinds of resources what we live and die by is our wits and what witness tad iso is have kids who are truly prepared for authentic college level work, and common core does not get you there. the lead writer in the massachusets board of education meeting says common core only prepares students for a nonselective community college or nonselective state college. that's not where this country can amendment and frankly, it is a determine in addition of the quality of our standards can have left was the highest quality schools in the country. >> but carol, no one said you isn't overshoot the standards right? doesn't it provo aid base line for america's kids. >> well, it's more complicated than that, and one of the places i would disagree with jim, is connecticut, for example, has standarded that are rated to be quite weak by the fore.com foundation, but the truth is they are right up there with massachusets when you take

a look at tempts. and florida which is supposed to have rigorous standards is well below the average. so it's a very very complicated thing. here is my concern, i'm a high school principal, we do extraordinary things we have all of our kids in international back lore yacht english that's a big accomplishment. but as they roll out the standards in new york state, and they roll out the tests which look like an a.p. reading test. i am going to have these are very difficult tests. go to these testifieses it will drive instruction for better or worse. andny opinion, it will be worse. >> you are a high school principal as well, a lot of the criticism has gone to what's in the standards. that the emphasis on

nonfiction over fiction, robs children of an understanding of the moral and emotional content of writing. that the kids who learn by these standards become proscience, antireligion hostile to american culture. i am sure is you is have seen is and heard these things what do you make of those criticisms in. >> i think at the core of the common core we are asking the common core standards are asking students to critically think and look at the world. with a credit cam lenes, and there's a lot of opportunities to for students to think in the ways that -- to just create their own opinions and look in the world in a very thoughtful way, and what is happening, though, is that they are not being able to assessed in the way in a critical way, so if students are trying to have -- are reading about religion or reading about science, or reading about history, and they want to

pat these together, the common core allowed that, because it is not dictating what you are supposed to be seeing, but what is is happened is is when you take a test. are narrowly focusing them i think one thing that the common core is lacking is this idea of discounting students do what -- >> so much a part of the experience is having them fall in love with reading. in the interpretation of the common core that we aren't knocking out -- not eliminatingful nos or students choice of what they are reading and allowing students to write about themselveses to explore themselves, their own ideas as writers and readers, and become independent thinkers i think there is room in there for the common core, but we just have to make sure the assessment doesn't knock that out. >> and there machinery for

arecessing the standards and the tests and making adjustments over time to take account of these kind of credit teaks that you are getting. >> you know, it depends on how much you believe in the efforts that are currently underway. there are two state conser sha working on this. whenever i hear complaints it is important to remember what they are replacing. the school with very narrow skills that were not -- they were not at all testing critical thinking to do inning particularly challenging than memorizing several things. to try to test whether students can marshal

evidence, if it can be combined to make stronger arguments. i believe that we will get there. i think these con shore sha can improve their effectiveness. when we come back, a quick sample from the third grade standardized common core from across the country, we will see how well you do, this is inside story.

this is inside story, i'm ray swarez. a look at the debate over common core standards. proposed by state governors and secretaries of education, backed by the white house and outside activists like the bill and me hill da gates foundation. and accusations ranging all the way from imposing low standards so being opaque and unaccountable to the in the case of math and science, incomprehensibleble or politicized. here is a math problem for third graders from the common core. three students are sharing a box of eight crayons. jarry has two of the crayons on his desk, nora has three of the crayons on her desk, and tommy has one of the crayons on his deck.

if the rest of the crayons are still in the box, what fractional part of the crayons is still is in the box. a, 1/8th, b, two very eight, d, 6/8. and should i give the answer now, i guessly give the answer now, is answer is b, two slush eight, which i guess you can simplify to one quarter. this -- as i was preparing to do this show jim sturgis, the cement, the veer rossty of some of credit teaks went i don't think the rage of what was being taught when to something that seemed like the culture war being fought in another venue with a different set. is there that burden to have to handle as well? >> well, i will tell you ray, when we developed our standards in massachusets we call them the math wars

for a reason. people have strong views on these things. parents and teachers, so you are opening up a huge can of worms and probably one of the interesting points here to make, when you are dealing at the state level, where parents and teachers can provide input, you can let off that steam and come to let some level of settlement. when there isn't a feedback, and mrs.n't with common core, we don't even know what the revision process will look like, you get yourself into all kinds of f problems. i'd say one other thing, just to go back to something you were talking about, and that is look, it's not -- you can complain about how fractions are treated, or an experimental approach, but there are larger problems at stake here, and that is the terminal course is algebra 2, and look, even the data outthere shows us that college intending seniors that want to go into a stem area, if they come out with algebra two back ground, may stand

a 2% chance of completing a stem area. you said there's a lot of flexibility, frankly there isn't. because states have about 15% flexibility on paper but the fact is the tests will only test what is in common core, not what stands add on, and that's a huge problem. >> let me put that to connor, because algebra 2 is not rigorous enough to atrack the eye of any competitive program in higher education, if you apply to college, with algebra two, it is not good enough. >> sure. i am not sure is what to say except i wish it were higher. and the other thingky say about that, is that for this top down federally approved push, they have shown themselves to be -- they meaning afternoonny duncan and barack obama, relatively relaxed for states that want to opt put p states have been leaving, indiana left, there have been states that have opted out, and i think there's

room for states to try to do their own things. >> principals our time is short is, is this thing going to die the death of 1,000 cuts will there be other indiana? s. >> i think without a doubt. you have already seen is part of this package, i think the next thing to go will be part and smart of balance. parents are upset, and they have a right to be. >> and eric, what do you think the future is? will you be teaching and having your staff working under a common core curriculum? >> i think the future has to be to give some power to the teachers, to assess students in real ways. i think they show an example i have about 1,000 things i want to share and so much knowledge, but obviously limited by time, to a few minutes, and that's what has -- so i think the problem is not so much the common core, as much as how we are assessing the deal thinking and the deep smart work our students should be doing. >> is the goal a valid one?

if this is a stumble out of the gate, can it be adjusted to come up with a common core that educators can live with from around the country? >> mark? >> i think there's -- you need to be 80 to practice in small pockets of schools. we have a group called the consortium for standards and we have been doing portfolios and tasks for many years and we have had -- we have been allowed to set some of our own standards as a result we have had some of the highest graduation rates and most success with students graduating from college. and these are with a population that is historically not doing as well. so i think when teachers are given the power to do really thoughtful assessments and thoughtful teaching and learning then that's how the students will benefit the most, and that's where private schools are 80 to do it, and i think public schools need to be able to earn that as well. >> carrol, sturgis connor

williams, thank you all that brings us to end of this edition of inside story, thank you for being with us in washington i'm ray swarez. >> the united states is changing the way it operates in space. territory that was once largely monopolized by nasa has slowly been ceded to the private sector. >> like all good corporations, these companies are armed with slick promotional videos. and their excellent pr machines are generating hours of airtime, >> well i think we could probably send the first person