If you’re wondering why progressives like Common Core, look no further than this College Insurrection post.

Spencer Irvine of Accuracy in Academia reports.

CAP Likes Common Core

There is an interesting split on the Left over the Obama Administration’s Common Core education reforms. Many on the educational Left dislike it, including the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the editors of Rethinking Schools. Conversely, the president’s favorite think tank—the Center for American Progress (CAP)—is enthusiastic about it.

The “Common Core” being developed by the U. S. Department of Education, is a program of benchmarks and standards for math, science and language that states must adopt if they wish to continue receiving federal funds.

A recent event sponsored by the Center for American Progress featured several Core supporters, including: Leo Casey, Executive Director of the Albert Shanker Institute, Elizabeth Evans, founding CEO of VIVA Teachers, Kaitlin Pennington, CAP’s Education Policy Analyst, Teach Plus Memphis Executive Director Lisa Watts and teacher and union leader William Wong, who spoke on the future of teacher involvement in education policy.

Pennington claimed that before Common Core, teachers used to “feel like victims in the process instead of advocates” regarding curriculum and experienced relative isolation in policy input. Now, Common Core teaches “how to make teaching more dynamic” and makes room for teachers in the policy-making community.

Furthering the progressivism of Common Core, Pennington praised the program for its ability to “welcome a diversity of thought among its members”. Admitting that teachers’ organizations and teachers’ unions overlap, she could only say that both are aware of the overlap and deal with it in a professional manner.