Common Core, the anti-reformists, and Connected Mathematics

The Common Core Standards are getting tons of press in the blogs, websites, and media.  It is interesting to read the opinions of many.  It is clear to me that the anti-reformists are aligned against the common core no matter what the core content is.  They clearly have their own agenda and compromise is not in their vocabulary.  

What is the anti-reformist's agenda?  Rid all schools of any NSF program and rid schools of inquiry driven pedagogy.  In particular, Connected Math and Everyday Mathematics are especially evil.  Thus, I post new research about Connected Math below.   The study is THE EFFECTS OF CONNECTED MATHEMATICS PROJECT 2 ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE: RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL.  The results are summarized below:

Those using CMP2 and those using another curriculum scored comparably on standardized mathematics assessments, however, less conservative tests comparing CMP2 and non-CMP2 students indicated that CMP2 students significantly outperformed control students on the Balanced Assessment that reflects mathematical reasoning, problem solving and communication. In this study, it is clear that implementation of the CMP2 curriculum varied greatly across study sites and teachers despite the extensive professional development teachers received prior to implementing the program in their classrooms. However, we suspect that the level of implementation in the classroom, and consequently, teachers’ efficacy, may play a role in the extent to which students might be successful in using CMP2. A second year study will be conducted to investigate this hypothesis and determine more precisely whet her or not t he CMP2 curriculum is superior for students in comparison to alternative mathematics curricula. Student attitudes and achievement are better for those student s in CMP2 classrooms with higher levels of implementation, and consequently, it is expected that teachers implementing CMP2 for a second year would have greater fidelity of implementation as compared to their first year of using the curriculum. Comparing performance of students and teachers in a second year of implementation is a fairer test of the efficacy of the curriculum than the model used in the current study.