"To Be Or Not To Be" in MA?

Charles Chieppo and Jamie Gass from Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think-tank, assert that MA 3rd grade student reading scores are 10 points lower than they were in 2002. The writers also state that  MA  aggregate SAT scores are 20 less than they were in 2006. MA students were the highest performers in the country. (See Taunton Gazette Mon. Oct. 14, 2013)

Are these decreasing scores the result of Gov. Patrick  changing and eliminating parts of the Ed Reform Act of 1993? (MCAS is a result of the Ed Reform Act.) Third grade literacy scores are often the best predictor of future academic success. These falling scores are a calling to wake up  and look at what is happening. 

What happened to  the MCAS History exam as part of a graduation requirement? Now we have the Common Core and PARC and with the Common Core, classic literature will be cut by half! I realize not everyone is going to college but I believe everyone should be exposed to Chaucer, Bronte, Hawthorne, and Shakespeare! One of my greatest days as a teacher occurred reading and discussing Hamlet's soliloquy "To Be Or Not To Be" and a student exclaimed, "Suicide. That's what that's about. I always wondered what that meant." Where else where one learn  of the genius of Shakespeare? Keep the Classics in and expectations high!