教育例外主義の終焉と学習スタンダード

—ミズーリ州における州間共通コアスタンダードの改廃をめぐって—

抄録

The purpose of this paper is to clarify why the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were replaced by new learning standards in Missouri state. Learning standards, which are also called academic content standards or education standards in other contexts, describe what students need to know and be able to do in each subject area and grade level. Since the 1980s, states have voluntarily created their own learning standards mainly with teachers and scholars in their own states. However, after President Barack Obama singed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and launched the Race to the Top Program, many states decided to adopt the CCSS as academically rigorous and internationally benchmarked standards.

There was much debate on the CCSS, and the debate still goes on. Some criticized it as an intervention by the Federal or state governments to the local control. Others problematized the creation process of the CCSS, arguing that it did not reflect the voices of local teachers and education researchers. Since 2014, some states opted out of the CCSS and adopted state-made learning standards. As of April 2023, 14 states repealed and replaced the CCSS with their own learning standards either by enactment of state laws or issuance of executive orders by governors. These states were unified governments with Republicans occupying both the governorships and state legislative majorities. However, Missouri was the only exception: state legislative majorities were Republicans with the Democrat Governor Jay Nixon when H. R. 1490 was passed and signed into a law in 2014 by the 97^th Missouri State Legislature.

In this paper, I focused on the institutional and political condition of Missouri in 2014. Using the minutes of the Missouri state legislature and seat information, minutes provided by the Missouri State Board of Education, and archived articles from newspapers in Missouri as resources, I analyzed and described the adoption and disposal of the CCSS and the process of creation of the new learning standards in Missouri. Although Governor Nixon was supportive of the CCSS, he had no means to overturn it once the Republican-majority legislature debated its repeal and passed H.R. 1490 with veto proof majority. Recently, some scholars argue the end of exceptionalism in American Education. The Missouri case can be positioned as a case in which the state legislature has legislatively imposed the end of exceptionalism.

Other states, such as Florida, repealed and replaced CCSS not by a law but by an executive order. Future research is needed on when actors external to education administration, in these cases, governors, can change the status quo by issuance of executive orders.