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As I mentioned last week, a new organization called Common Core has taken shape to combat narrowing of the K-12 curriculum. 

Common Core has come out of the gates with a study examining American students' knowledge of history and literature.  Among its findings:  More than half of the American 17-year-olds surveyed believe that the Civil War occurred either before 1850 or after 1900, and more than a quarter believe that Columbus sailed the ocean blue after 1750.

Why the shocking ignorance?  Schools are spending less and less time teaching history and literature--or art and foreign language, for that matter--as they focus more intently on the basic mathematics and reading skills for which they are accountable under No Child Left Behind.  In the report's preface, organization co-chairs Diane Ravitch and AFT executive vice president (and LFA Board member) Toni Cortese write that "the current mania for testing and test preparation has narrowed the curriculum and caused the limiting or exclusion of such subjects as history, literature, civics, geography, science, and the arts."

The organization is nothing if not politically diverse.  Ravitch was in the first Bush Administration, and Cortese represents a national teachers union.  Executive director Lynne Munson was a formal special assistant to Lynn Cheney. 

The debate over curricular erosion will surely heat up with the approach of the No Child Left Behind reauthorization. Just in the past couple of weeks, the Center on Education Policy released data supporting Common Core's charge that a nation "in thrall with testing and basic skills" has allowed instruction to atrophy in all subjects but reading and math. 

You can read more about Common Core in the New York Times and USA Today.