My Views Are My Own
By Lisa Schonhoff, Ed.S.
1/28/2025
Nebraska prides itself as a ‘local control’ state. That is why we did not adopt the Common Core State Standards (a set of standards to be met by each state and helps to develop consistency across our nation). There are many reasons why people argue for and against Common Core. The main reason why states vote against it is for local control. “Development of the Common Core Standards was funded by the governors and state schools' chiefs, with additional support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Pearson Publishing Company, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and others.”
One way our Federal Department of Education ensures these standards are met is through EdReports–also funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. EdReports is a curriculum review committee that rates various curriculum materials based on their alignment with the common core state standards. If these materials have a green rating, they are considered High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM). Most of the school districts across our state spend millions of dollars on curriculum materials that have a green rating on EdReports. Some of these materials include Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) by Amplify and EL Education.
There is a lot of controversy around these curriculum materials for exposing students to materials that are not age appropriate. For example, with CKLA, students as young as second grade are spending multiple months learning about world religions, war, and Greek mythology. Fourth graders are learning extensive content about the Islamic Religion and the Crusades while fifth graders learn in-depth information about The Reformation.
Another green rated and popular set of curriculum materials is EL Education, used in the state of Nebraska. Fourth graders have a
“module that uses literature and informational texts to introduce students to gender and racial inequality issues in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, and to recognize how the process of ratifying the 19th Amendment can teach us about how people were responding to gender and racial inequality at that time. In Unit 1, students begin reading The Hope Chest by Karen Schwabach. As they read about events in The Hope Chest, they also read informational firsthand and secondhand accounts of real-life responses to inequality and compare and contrast the information in both. In Unit 2, students continue to read The Hope Chest, identifying themes in each chapter and summarizing events that show evidence of a theme. They also analyze the meaning of similes, metaphors, idioms, adages, and proverbs. In Unit 3, students connect their learning about the process of ratifying the 19th Amendment to their own lives as they focus on how students can make a difference and contribute to a better world. They research how students around the world have made a difference, before taking action as a class on an issue in their community. At the end of the unit, students write PSAs encouraging other students to make a difference, and they write a press release sharing with the local media what the class did to take action and the impact of their work. This performance task centers on CCSS (Common Core State Standards) ELA W.4.2 and W.4.4.”
A trusted friend of mine recently recommended that I look into the Curriculum Insight Project | Substack as an alternative to EdReports so that we can ensure we are doing what is best for ALL students in Nebraska. Stay tuned.
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