By Brent Kreuger

There used to be an adage that stated "the more things change, the more they remain the same." It was a valid saying for most of mankind's existence simply because for most of mankind's existence, any kind of change that humans experienced happened very, very slowly. As an example, the Stone Age started roughly 3.4 million years ago and didn't end until somewhere between 6000 and 2000 BCE. For most of that time period humans lived a nomadic hunter/gatherer existence and the life that any individual could expect to have was for the most part, no different than the life of their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents or really anyone in their knowable family tree. People also knew what the future held for them and their children because it was pretty much exactly like the past. As for the variety of jobs available, you could really only be a hunter, or a gatherer, and if you, as a parent, wanted to prepare your child for his or her future role, you'd take him or her along with you as you hunted or gathered and taught him or her how to hunt or to gather. It was a simple system and it lasted a very long time.

With the development of agriculture and permanent cities, more specialization meant the addition of more types of jobs. You could now choose to be a farmer or herder for example, but it didn't mean we lost jobs; we still had hunters and we still needed gatherers. Change still happened very slowly and it was still easy to prepare your child for their future. As an example, there were approximately 3000 years between the invention of the simple nail and the invention of the first screw. That's one generation of technological change taking place over roughly 120 human generations. Through this time period, more and more jobs were added to the list of choices while some old jobs were modified instead of being lost outright; (i.e. flint knappers became stone masons and/or blacksmiths). Even today we still have stone masons and we can still find blacksmiths.

By Alan Singer  

Last week Pearson lost its 40 to 50 million dollar contract to provide 3rd through 8th grade Common Core aligned high-stakes tests in New York State. A headline and article in Newsday, a major daily published on Long Island in New York, described the decision to drop Pearson as the latest skirmish in the political debate over Common Core. Laura Howe, Pearson's Vice-President for Media and Communities, tried to make light of the decision. The Newsday article quoted Howe promising, or perhaps threatening, that Pearson "will continue to serve the people of New York through our other assessment work, along with learning materials and higher education services."

While I am glad to see Pearson go, just dropping Pearson will not end the battle over the legitimacy of Common Core and high-stakes tests mandated by No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. A big question is why the New York State Education Department signed a multi-year contract with Questar Assessment while the renewal of No Child Left Behind is being debated in Congress and no one knows for sure which direction the federal government will take on mandated high-stakes standardized testing.

Some commentators who defend Common Core blame opponents of high-stakes testing for distorting the public's understanding of the benefits of the national standards. But when you look at the history of the push for national standards dating back to the Clinton and Bush administrations, you realize Common Core is all about testing and shifting educational resources from teaching to test prep companies.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - With its gleaming classrooms, sports teams and even a pep squad, the Apprentice School that serves the enormous Navy shipyard here bears little resemblance to a traditional vocational education program.

And that is exactly the point. While the cheerleaders may double as trainee pipe fitters, electricians and insulators, on weekends they're no different from college students anywhere as they shout for the Apprentice School Builders on the sidelines.

But instead of accumulating tens of thousands of dollars in student debt, Apprentice School students are paid an annual salary of $54,000 by the final year of the four-year program, and upon graduation are guaranteed a job with Huntington Ingalls Industries, the military contractor that owns Newport News Shipbuilding.

"There's a hunger among young people for good, well-paying jobs that don't require an expensive four-year degree," said Sarah Steinberg, vice president for global philanthropy at JPMorgan Chase. "The Apprentice School is the gold standard of what a high-quality apprenticeship program can be."