How COMMON is the Common Core, part 2

Back on July 1, I posted this question: How common is the Common Core? In other words, I questioned the equity of the Common Core once full implementation hits. In the previous post, I highlighted the possible inequities that stem from states selecting parts of the Core to adopt, writing different curricula, and upacking/interpreting the standards differently.

A different issue came to light recently when I was asked to analyze possible social, legal, and ethical issues related to the use of technology that I may face as an educational leader. I thought of my daughter, who excels at everything she does with respect to school. She is brilliant, literal, gifted, and inquisitive. The Common Core curriculum will be just the challenge she needs educationally. I have absolute faith that she will rise to its challenges and meet them 100%. Her downfall, however, will be the assessments. Not because she doesn't test well; quite the contrary. She tests very well. She can transfer her knowledge and problem solve her way through new situations. Her struggle will be online testing. God bless the girl, but she has absolutely no talents when it comes to computers. She lacks any common sense when dealing with word processors. Somehow, every time she uses my laptop, she uninstalls the wifi. How is that even possible?!? Every time she uses the computer, I have to remind her how to save files in appropriate locations. Online, she has to be shown precisely how to open websites, create accounts, and perform simple searches. No matter how 'easy' PARCC and Smarter Balanced will try to make their online assessments, that will be the block that my daughter hits. The content won't be the issue; accessing and answering assessment questions online will be the issue.

How ethical will it be to test students online if they do not possess the computer literacy needed to successfully answer the assessment questions? We may be dealing with 'digital natives' but that does not mean all students are computer literate and skilled in using the technologies available to them. Students will need to know how to drag and drop, access online toolboxes to highlight, open online calculators, etc. One current blog from Labyrinth Learning highlights this issue: http://blog.lablearning.com/tips/computer-literacy-five-reasons-why-you-should-be-testing/. This blog suggests how to facilitate student learning of computer technology. 

Other blogs addressing the issue of online testing and equity include:

• http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/04/fair-test-testing-resistance-reform.html (Note: this site includes the pitfalls of student computer illiteracy and online testing, along with many other online testing issues.)
• http://www.iddblog.org/?p=63

So, I ask again...and I hope to get some more comments on this...

How COMMON is the Common Core?