Common Core repealed in unanimous house vote

Hardeman County students put sharpened number two pencil to paper to take the last TCAP test in its current form.  The much maligned standardized test has been criticized by those who say it forces teachers to teach to the test and it puts undue pressure on students.
It was repealed last week because of these reasons, but according to the law makers who originally passed the bill, the original intent was very benign.
One such lawmaker, Representative John Shaw, said “I always liked the idea of common core. The idea of the original pitch was simple enough." The governors got together  to address a problem that students weren’t being taught the same things in different states”.  
This is most simply described in the scenario that a student moves across state lines. If Mississippi teaches World History in seventh grade and American History in eighth grade and TN teaches the subjects in the opposite order, then a student transferring from Mississippi to TN would learn world history twice and never learn American History.
Shaw continued ”We knew the bill (common core) had problems, that’s why in session 108 we tried to slow it down”.  The problem was not in the main goal of common core, but the secondary one.
Common core sought to raise standards, for both students and teachers,
“It became this litmus test for teachers” said Shaw. Teachers in the following years were graded from one to five in a series of evaluations as well as student TCAP scores.
These scores impact Hardeman County teachers in many ways. Level five teachers are sometimes given bonuses, they do not have to turn in lesson plans, and have more job security.
The idea to use the TCAP scores to count towards students grades came from the idea students would take the test more seriously if they were held accountable for bad scores.  If a band of students had decided they did not like a teacher, they could simply decide to perform.
Shaw worriedly admitted “What I fear; is that the new legislation will retain all of the bad things, all the standards, and not retain the good things.”