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JANINE WALKER CAFFREY - EDUCATION INNOVATION
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Common Sense about the Common Core

12/12/2013

6 Comments

 
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There has been a great deal of excitement (good and bad) about the Common Core State Standards. Reform and anti-reform groups seem to have latched onto this issue as a way to divide the public; particularly parents. If you are a parent of child currently in school, what do you need to know?

What are the Common Core State Standards?

The Common Core State Standards are a set of learning objectives for students in grades K-12. They were developed several years ago by state leaders in an effort for states to have consistency in what our children are expected to know and be able to do by the end of their high school years. Developers of the standards looked at adults who found success in college and career, and determined what skills and knowledge they had at the end of high school. They started with that end in mind, and “mapped” backward all the way to kindergarten, so we would know what needs to happen in each grade.  The standards include reading, writing, mathematics and the use of technology. There are sections that include disciplinary literacy for science, social studies and technical subjects, but no content objectives are included for these areas. You can go to the Common Core website to read the standards.

Is this a national curriculum?

Responsibility for education rests with each state. Each state, through its legislative and policy development processes, determines whether or not to adopt the Common Core. Virginia, Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, and Minnesota have not yet adopted the standards and it is not clear if they will eventually do so. Each of these states currently has its own standards that law and policy makers believe are sufficient to guide educational goals. The other 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards along with four territories and the Department of Defense educational system.

It is important to remember that the Common Core is not a comprehensive curriculum. A curriculum is inclusive of everything that is taught. The Common Core does not include the arts, science and social studies content, physical education or electives that are so important for a child’s education. Each state and local district must determine what should be included in each school’s curriculum so that children receive a comprehensive education. If you are concerned about having more arts in your child’s school, that is a conversation to be had with school leaders, your local school board, and sometimes state level leaders. Adopting the Common Core State Standards does NOT mean schools can’t teach all of the things that are not contained in the standards. The standards are only meant to address learning objectives in literacy and math.

Does my child have to read everything on the Common Core reading list?

 

The Common Core State Standards includes examples of reading selections to demonstrate the level of text complexity that should be included at each grade level. It also includes guidelines for the percentage of reading that should be non-fiction to ensure students have enough exposure to informational texts. This is not meant to be a reading list. It is intended to guide educators, parents and students so they can better understand the level of reading that should be expected. Reading selections are generally determined at the local level. Parents with concerns about what their children are reading or not reading should be addressed with teachers, school leaders and the local school board.

Why is the Common Core making my school so focused on standardized tests?

State level assessments are now being correlated with the Common Core. Some states are doing this gradually, while others are shifting more quickly. The Common Core State Standards include much higher levels of rigor than what we have expected in the past. This was necessary because so many students were not adequately prepared for college and career. About 20% of students attending four year colleges and 40% of students attending two year colleges require remediation. The percentage can be much higher in places, with some community colleges reporting that as many as 80-90% of incoming students require remediation. Additionally, we still have a huge dropout problem in the United States. We lose over a quarter of our students before they complete high school. Much of the problem stems from the lack of student skills needed to engage in high school level work. Schools and districts that increase expectations in earlier grades find more success in later grades.

Added to the current concerns is the new mandate for teacher evaluation in many states. Teachers and administrators in most places now must demonstrate their effectiveness in part through student performance on state assessments. This has been a very challenging process with many political and career ramifications. Some states have just gotten it wrong which has led to serious concerns among educators. Unfortunately in some cases, those with concerns have been lumping in poor assessment policy decisions with the Common Core State Standards.

Assessments are not part of the Common Core State Standards. Each state determines a plan to ensure that students are meeting the new standards, which includes standardized testing. Each district then determines how it will gauge individual student progress at predetermined intervals (monthly, quarterly, annually). Each school then works with teachers to help them gain the information they need to inform instruction on a daily basis. The idea is to ensure that everyone has the information they need to ensure that kids are learning what they should. If you are concerned about assessment, it is critical that you don’t confuse this with curriculum. The curriculum is WHAT we teach, while assessment is how we determine the learning that has occurred. Assessment concerns about school-based testing should be discussed with a local school board. Assessment concerns about state mandated testing should be discussed with state decision makers.

Isn’t this all just too hard for our kids to do?

No. If we want our children to be truly prepared for college and career, we must expect more of them. In my decades of experience with children, I have consistently seen them rise to the occasion whenever we expect more of them. The key is to make schools exciting, relevant places. If children are unhappy and seem stressed in school, the issue likely has more to do with instructional strategies and the culture of the school rather than the Common Core. We must start to transform our outdated learning environments into exciting places where children can learn when and how is appropriate for them. We must include the arts, physical activity, inquiry, collaboration, and creativity in and out of their classrooms. Only then will we start to see real improvement in educational outcomes.

6 Comments
SaraHope
1/7/2014 02:07:09 am

Ms. Caffrey, listing the main talking points of Common Core hardly penetrates its true quality, for good or for bad. Even for those who believe in the potential of national education standards to improve our educational outcomes (I don't, but can understand the perspective), surely not just any set of standards will do. What do *I* think readers should know about Common Core? How about the fact that the math standards do not include any pre-calculus or calculus, which any elite college will expect its applicants to have studied. Or the fact that the method of teaching geometry is not Euclidean, as has been traditional, but is a new method never tested or proven to work anywhere in the world. Or the fact that English teachers are trained to teach literature, not fifty percent non-fiction, and that non-fiction reading cannot possibly be a meaningful substitute to literature to teach the same skills in literary analysis (as a duel English and History major, I can attest to this). Or the fact that the early childhood education standards aren't developmentally appropriate, asking that students think analytically before they are neurologically capable of doing so (there were no experts in neuroscience, child psychology and development, or early childhood education on the drafting committee). These are just criticisms of the standards themselves, aside from the concerns about its unprecedented invasion of privacy, one-size-fits all attitude, and failure to accommodate children with special needs. The problem IS the Common Core.

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Glen Dalgleish
1/7/2014 07:23:34 am

With all due respect to the author but this piece reads like the same stuff, with all the same buzzwords, all the Educational Departments across this country have been trying to sell to us parents.

Saying that the standards were developed by the States is the first myth that is being pushed. One of the main architects of Common Core, David Coleman, even states that he had to CONVINCE the governors and the CCSSO to ADOPT the standards. Hear him say it himself (http://youtu.be/76HryWYsDNc) So was their development initiative limited to just adopting it.

Stating that the standards were adopted with legislative involvement is again being very spare with the truth. The States had to sign up to the Race To The Top funding when the legislature wasn't in session. The Governors signed our educational independence away when they agreed to the terms of that grant program. Many legislators were or are not aware of Common Core until this year, nearly 3 years later.

When you mandate standards and then you mandate tests that are 100% aligned to the standards then I would argue that many of the curricula will look identical, especially when you tie teacher performance to it. The new math and ELA is also drowning out all the other subjects you mentioned to free up time to complete the requirements of the standards. Funds for those subjects are now being diverted to pay for the infrastructure needed to support it. So I agree that the arts, science and social studies content, physical education or electives are so important for a child’s education. Unfortunately they are collateral damage in many schools due to Common Core.

The author also claims that the standards are more rigorous but based on what? So far neither the federal Education Department or the State ones have been able to produce any proof that they even work. It's all RESEARCH based, not FACT based. So why roll something out like this at a national level when it hasn't been proven or tested?

Detaching the assessments from the standards is just smoke and mirrors yet again. The standards by themself mean nothing, it's all the baggage that comes with it. The ASSESSMENTS, the Statewide Longitudinal Database System (data mining), the APPR and so on. Trying to make the standards look benign is disingenuous. These standards were developed with data in mind, not children. That meant that Special Education children, who already had struggles, are now forced to do the same as all the other students. The physical and mental impact this has had on these children has been disastrous. Business is booming for the child psychologists. Standards created with that kind of mindset need to be dumped. And I won't even touch on the age in-appropriateness of them. Clearly no classroom educators were involved in this.

Yes, we should expect more of our kids, but not the impossible. We are destroying our children's self-confidence because we think this experiment will work. Guess who will pay when it fails.

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Tina
1/7/2014 10:05:40 am

Common Core is not about education, or developing free thinking, creative, intelligent students. Common Core is standardization; a one size fits all with a rigid set of performance. Every student without exception - mainstream or special needs - is expected to reach the same benchmarks at the same time at every grade level. Impossible!! Children develop at different rates. Children whose talents and abilities that lay outside of what a test can "test" - creativity, artistry, athleticism and more - will be labeled a failure when their minds work differently.

The Common Core standards are now lower than NY's old standards. Algebra 1 is pushed from 8th grade to 9th grade; and the standards end at Algebra 2. Creative, complex literature to develop true critical thinking skills (including writing and understanding complex sentences and themes) is not a part of Common Core. These are just the tips of the iceberg. The writers of the Common Core have no education experience, no experience in education. Jason Zimba - lead writer on math - has testified under oath that the math standards are "fuzzy and only prepare at most for a 2 year college

The Common Core violates what we know about how children develop The standards were "backmapped" from a description of 12th grade college skills. Basically the standards were written with the thought children are "mini adults". They are not. We all know kids do not develop according to a "back map". But standardization must prevail under CC!

The Common Core is all about profit and money, not education. It is about creating a system where students and teachers are compared and ranked. This requires all new testing. More money for the companies This standardization is now being used to created a new national market for curriculum and tests.

The Common Core equals more high stakes testing. 5th graders this year will spend 500 minutes taking baseline and benchmark tests, plus another 540 minutes on the Common Core tests in the spring. Testing alone is two weeks worth of instructional time lost.

Common Core promotes informational texts over the study of classic, narrative fiction. Proponents of Common Core do not disguise their intention to transform literacy into a skill set.

The Common Core has no research to support it, and worst of all, has no mechanism for correction. There is no process available to revise the standards. They must be adopted as written. They are copyrighted.

The biggest problem in education is the growing number of children living in poverty. The Common Core does nothing to address this problem.

Reply
Julie Edwards
1/7/2014 10:06:17 am

You are mistaken on many of your points. Unfortunately there is not enough room here to make an appropriate comments. Here is a short response: 1) not state led. 2) assessments are most definitely a piece of CC 3) poverty is one the biggest factors in student performance 4) not addressed by you, but CCSS is pushed by corporate money grabbing agendas, with no thought to education or children.

Reply
Brian
1/7/2014 11:57:46 am

In response to isn't this all to hard, you are an idiot. We shouldn't push our children to the point that school is viewed as a punishment. The crap being taught is just that an will only drive children away from learning because it is ridiculous. I have a lot more to say but won't bother because I'm sure this post won't be approved because it is from the other side of the debate.

Reply
Janine Caffrey
1/15/2014 09:02:22 pm

Wow Brian. I enjoy discourse on this topic, which is so critical to the future of public education. But do you have to resort to calling me an idiot in your first sentence? BTW, I approve all comments that don't include nasty name calling. I am making an exception and posting yours here because I think it is important that people see the part about viewing curriculum as punishment. I am happy to interact with you further if you would like to make some arguments worth consideration. Kindly refrain from name calling and disrespect in future posts.

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    Janine Walker Caffrey writes about reading, education and a few other topics related to happiness and life in general.

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