Wednesday Open Thread [3.26.14] – The DL Common Core Edition
I have mostly been ignoring the debate over Common Core education standards, pretty much because the opponents and proponents are all speaking in a language that is foreign to me. I don’t have kids so I have not been confronted by these issues. So I have left education blogging to DL’s expert, Pandora, and to Delaware’s best education bloggers, Kavips and Kilroy, as well as Mike Matthews anbd John Young and others focusing on specific school districts like Christina and Red Clay. It is fair to say that I myself have ignored the debate because it did not concern me. That thinking is wrong but it is what has happened.
And because of that, DL has gotten a reputation of being pro-Common Core or pro-Markell in this education debate, because we were less outspoken on the issue than Kavips or Kilroy or Nancy Willing. I don’t that is a fair characterization. A more fair one is that we have been ignorant. So, I have a few questions.
As a far away observer looking in on the debate, here is what I see: prominent liberals and Democratic party activists, as well as independent rabble rousers like Mike Matthews, oppose common core standards and testing. I understand the testing part. The common core part, less so. Why? Because I thought having national education standards and a national curriculum was a liberal / Democratic idea. Otherwise, why is there a Department of Education? Conservatives sure want to eliminate it, and they sure do not want national education standards or a curriculum.
So is it just that Common Core fails as a national standard? Or is it that we are now against national standards? Or maybe Common Core is so bad that it has bipartisan opposition?
Last week, Indiana became the first state to withdraw from the Common Core Initiative. From Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly:
As AP’s Bill Barrow notes in a good summary of where the initiative stands, there has long been bipartisan opposition to Common Core, with some conservatives calling it an impingement on local control of schools (even though it’s not a federal initiative), and anti-testing activists supported by some teachers unions on the left opposing it for very different reasons. But it’s conservatives who are now taking the lead, in state after state, to take down Common Core. So given the business community’s central role in supporting Common Core, and the heavy involvement of Republican governors in developing it, it’s inevitably going to be a big deal in intra-GOP politics, up to and including the 2016 presidential race. Some very familiar names on the national scene are already choosing up sides and going at it:
[Rand] Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, has joined seven colleagues, including Texas’ Cruz, to sponsor a measure that would bar federal financing of any Common Core component. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio isn’t among the eight, but he had already come out against the standards. So has Rick Santorum, a 2012 presidential candidate mulling another run.
On the other end of the spectrum is [Jeb] Bush, the former Florida governor and Rubio’s mentor. “This is a real-world, grown-up approach to a real crisis that we have, and it’s been mired in politics,” Bush said last week in Tennessee, where he joined Republican Gov. Bill Haslam at an event to promote Common Core.
This sure looks like a minefield for Jebbie if he does decide to run for president. But beyond that, governors from both parties probably won’t be too happy to see Common Core become a football in a presidential campaign. The standards, it seems, are being implemented just a year or two late to escape the political cauldron.
So on the conservative side, we have state rights nuts vs. the business faction of the party. The business faction supports Common Core, the state rights nuts oppose it. On the liberal side, you have centrists and pro-business Democrats like Jack Markell supporting it. And you have teachers and activists opposing it.
Let’s dive into that AP article to see why teachers oppose Common Core:
To a lesser extent, Democrats must deal with some teachers — their unions hold strong influence within the party — who are upset about implementation details. […]
Democrat Jack Markell, Delaware’s second-term governor, told the Associated Press that opponents [on the right] mistakenly equate a coalition from across the nation with a federal government initiative. Markell co-chaired NGA’s Common Core panel with Republican Sonny Perdue of Georgia.
Perdue, who left office in 2011, said Common Core actually began as a pushback against federal influence because of the No Child Left Behind law, the national education act signed by President George W. Bush. Perdue said it was “embarrassing” for governors of both parties that Congress and the White House pushed higher standards before state leaders.
Perdue attributes the outcry against Common Core to Obama’s backing: “There is enough paranoia coming out of Washington, I can understand how some people would believe these rumors of a ‘federal takeover,’ try as you might to persuade people otherwise. I almost think it was detrimental … for the president to endorse it.”
Evers, the Hoover Institute fellow who was also a top Education Department appointee during the Bush administration, says it’s unfair to reduce opponents’ concerns to partisanship. He notes insufficient training for teachers expected to use new teaching methods, and he criticizes specific components. For example, some math courses are recommended for later grade levels than in standards already adopted in leading states like Massachusetts and California.
Wow. The AP article doesn’t give us much more detail about the teacher concerns. So I turn to our audience and I hope our wonderful education bloggers can help me out. So I’ve got a few questions.
1. Do you oppose Common Core because you oppose any national uniform curriculum?
2. If you answered yes, then please join the Republican Party and petition for the abolishment of the Department of Education. If you answered no, then proceed to the next question.
3. Common Core has been criticized for insufficient training for teachers expected to use new teaching methods. Currently, does the initiative provide for any training, and if so, what training is provided for? How is that training, if provided, insufficient? What would you describe as sufficient training?
4. Common Core has been criticized for its specific curriculum components. Which curriculum components, if any, do you find objectionable or in need of modification? Do some components need to be removed entirely, or are there some components that are missing from the curriculum entirely? As an aside, I saw one math problem on Facebook and I can see how the new method of teaching kids to see math in their head is difficult to teachers and students alike. Personally, I think their is nothing wrong with dropping that and going with the tried and true addition and subtraction tables. But I digress.
5. I am sure there are some testing issues with Common Core, but I have not heard that addressed. So what are they? How can they be fixed?
6. If you want to scrap Common Core entirely, what is your preferred standard uniform curriculum? If you answer none, see question 2.
Two things: Common Core has been politicized by people who hate Obama, it is replacing Benghazi in wingnut search activity – that is a fact. The Obama hate is a part of what is going on and I wouldn’t underestimate that as a factor.
The other part is that the math (elementary math especially) is a mess. Teachers like Mike Matthews have good reasons to be alarmed by it.
The name “common core” will probably not survive the attacks of Obama haters. The concepts probably will.
The “common core” math problems you see on Facebook are the same screwed up math problems my kids were doing 10 years ago before common core existed. It’s disingenuous to post those problems and label them part of “common core.”
Well, it can only be disingenuous if I knew that they were not Common Core. The problem I am talking about is this one:
Noticed the key supporters: business minded Democrats and business minded Republicans. Guess who largely wrote the standards? Business-minded education firms. I think the division is more of a populist v. business division than anything, though certainly the right wing wingnuts are having their fun with it.
The real problem is not the standards themselves, but the implementation, the link to testing, the testing linked to teacher (but NOT student) accountability, and the added stress it adds to an already stressed world of education. A lot of the prepackaged material is coming straight from the people who wrote the standards – they were paid to write the standards and now charge huge amounts for resources needed to “crack” the standards based on the test that they also helped to write.
The problem is how to assess the achievement of the standards without the insane testing regimen that has been introduced. All of the wacky problems, etc. need to be weeded out by teachers / administrators with enough adult common sense to know better. That said, understanding why math works and not just accepting it as “magic” is key to actually using it later on, so in principle some of the things that have been maligned are not really that bad. Not sure this answers any of your questions, but as a public ed teacher, those are some of the current concerns / thinkings on the matter that are out there.
Regarding the business community, and the fact that they support Common Core, it is my understanding that they are supportive because Common Core is designed to increase the knowledge and skill of the students, who will eventually be their eventual workforce. And I gotta tell ya, having the business community have input into this is something that I think is a good thing rather than an evil thing. The business community’s input shouldn’t be the only input or concern. It should be balanced against other concerns. BUT, the mere fact that the business community supports this does not necessarily tarnish it in my book.
I would take the kind of problems that you see pictured here with a grain of salt. What is VERY clear to me is that the Wingnut Wurlitzer is working overtime on this and there are plenty of items that they are making up to push out there just to generate outrage. In the example above, the fact that a piece of homework is signed by Frustrated Parent with no name is hugely suspicious. What parent wouldn’t sign their name?
I’m relatively agnostic about Common Core, except that the standards and goals I see on their website make plenty of sense to me and I don’t get why these standards should be a problem. What does alarm me about the implementation of the standards into curriculum is that the curriculum doesn’t seem to have to live up to the high standards that the learning goals seem to try to achieve. And that Common Core is one more opportunity to monetize the kids.
Regarding the rest of your comment, Mike, thanks. I figured testing and implementation were the key points, but I wanted more info, and you have provided that.
The above posted photo/letter is NOT common core. Everyone keeps falling into this same trap.
Common Core is a set of aptitude standards and goals for student to acheive at grade levels.
How you get there is up to you. Implementation is where the contraversy is. Teachers have been complaining about its implementation, not its national standards ideal. Teachers are getting orders from Markell educator types (business guys that have little to no classroom experience) without having any input into its implemenation.
“new math” has been around for a while (pre-common core) and is irrelevant to common core. If you are taught old or new math, it doesn’t matter as long as you pass the test.
I am also calling B.S. on that letter in general as in one story is “a father wrote this and sent it back to a teacher” in another its a mother.
I agree with Cassandra. I should have said, the math appears to be a mess. Anybody can cherry picked anecdotes to build a reasonable sounding case.
DL has gotten a reputation of being pro-Common Core or pro-Markell in this education debate, because we were less outspoken on the issue than Kavips or Kilroy or Nancy Willing.
And this is just stupid. There are people in this list who don’t know anything about Common Core — but are good vectors for the manufactured outrage on this. And why we would be concerned about DL’s reputation among people who haven’t much of a clue as to what they are in the Reposting Brigade on, I’ll never know.
Yeah, I’ve had things on my real life plate, but if other blogs want to call us out then they can start paying us.
I’m sorta ambivalent about Common Core. Sussex Anon is correct – Common Core is about universal standards (and that math problem letter is bogus). That said, I’m certain a barrage of standardized CC tests, complete with teacher accountability, are coming. There’s money to be made, which explains the business community’s glee. The wingnuts, as usual, have no point… other than OBAMA!
I’m all for standards in education, and it has been one of my main issues. It is ridiculous for a kid who completes 4th grade and then moves to a different state to not be able to seamlessly enter 5th grade at a new public school. Hell, you can’t even move to a different neighborhood within the same flippin’ school district in Delaware and get the same education. Go compare the curriculum (standards) between Shortlidge and North Star in Red Clay. Separate and unequal.
So here’s where I end up… I’m all for a national unified curriculum that actually acknowledges that we, as a society, are increasingly more transient. I am wary that CC could easily, and most likely, turn into another cash cow standardized test scheme as well as another teacher accountability/union busting measure – and we need to watch out for these things. What I don’t really understand is the level of hysteria surrounding it.
The indigestion over Common Core resembles the push to repeal Obamacare. A few things:
1. Common Core is not a curriculum, it is standards. The actual curriculum is up to the local schools or districts. Criticism of a curriculum item reflects on your schools, not on Common Core. If you don’t like a particular lesson you see, go to your school for the answer.
2. I have been following the issue for some time,and not one of the alleged horror stories checks out. They can never be traced back to a school, a district, or even a grade level.
3. Many of the horror stories consist of displaying a single item and saying “See? Behold the horror!” with no particular analysis beyond that. But these deliberately misinterpret the item. For example, the math problem linked above subposedly illustrates how CC wants everyone to solve a math problem. But for what grade? We are talking about newbie math learners, for whom normal adult addition looks just as alien. The number line method is a bridging technique to get learners to normal vertical addition problems. By the third grade, Common Core kids are memorizing times tables and doing speed drills just like we did. Sure there are some clinkers, but I had them too in grade school.
4. http://seventhtype.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/fact-vs-fiction-on-common-core-literature-requirements/
5. The real beef happens when we try to use the test for adult purposes rather than for the kids. Any test today is meant mostly for political reasons of “teacher accountability,” for which it is wildly unsuited. But that doesn’t follow that the standards are flawed just because our politics cause the test results to be mis-used.
6. My kinds are doing Common Core and so far I don’t see much different from my grade school. My ninth grader is reading Shakespeare and “To Kill A Mockingbird” and learning civics in Social Studies. My fourth grader is writing stories and poems and learning proper essay format, and doing completely normal math.
I say it is a good thing to raise standards. Just watch out for how the test results are used.
The real problem is that we are falling behind badly on the world stage when it comes to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education. Leaving education up to the local communities has UTTERLY failed, especially in the places where religion has creeped into the schools (or should we call them christian madrases?)
Tech businesses wants a better pool of workers, either through better education or by relaxing immigration standards (which is another thing they have been vigorously fighting for).
You cannot build a great nation on the service industry, but even most educated people in the US, head for the service industry (doctors, bankers, lawyers,…), and then produce close to zero for the rest of their lives.
Where will our pool of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers (the stuff of great nation building) come from? Where will the US be (compared to the rest of the world) in 50 years???
Common Core (or something very much like it) is essential. Those who oppose that, basically oppose a viable future for the US.
But who needs a future, when you’ve got religion?? The term “Christian Taliban” really does seem apropos for these anti-science, anti-education people.
The 1979 law by which the U.S. Department of Education is authorized in its current form clearly prohibits these activities. It states (in section 103b): “No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, over any accrediting agency or association, or over the selection or content of library resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, except to the extent authorized by law.” (emphasis added)
So, the spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education says that they are funding development of curriculum, but the Department is expressly not authorized to direct, supervise, or control curriculum. They are are also prohibited from directing, supervising, or controlling textbooks or other instructional materials.
The Department seems to think that it is on solid footing as long as it does not mandate or control curriculum. But the 1979 law restricts the Department more broadly. It may not even direct or supervise curriculum. I have no idea how the Department could fund the development of curriculum without also exercising some direction and supervision over that curriculum.
Nor can the Department justify its current activities by claiming that they are only funding the development of curricular frameworks and instructional materials. The Department is also explicitly prohibited from directing, supervising, or controlling the content of instructional materials.
As far as I know, no law has specifically authorized the Department to engage in these activities from which they are otherwise prohibited.
But… Common Core isn’t a curriculum. Schools/Districts are in charge of their curriculum and textbooks.
My kinds are doing Common Core and so far I don’t see much different from my grade school.
I don’t have any kids doing Common Core, but the standards looked plenty familiar to the concepts and reading I was doing in school. The biggest thing missing was diagramming sentences.
😉
I am not a fan of Common Core, and I can explain in detail with references, but unfortunately not today (simple timing). Let me say first that I am not an opponent of standards; I co-chaired the State Commission that wrote the Social Studies standards that Delaware has used since 1995. And–note to cassandra, jason et al–I have been quite vocal on Facebook trying to debunk the mythological “examples” of Common Core that show up.
That said, I have about five general reasons for opposition, not one of which will be spelled out below in sufficient detail to satisfy you, but I will get there.
1. The actual working group that created the first draft of Common Core was primarily drawn from the educational testing community (the private, for-profit sector) and several academics who were not by any means the leading lights in their fields. They primarily happened to be people with existing relationships to a lot of the testing services. Very few teachers or professional educators (K-12) were involved in the drafting, which was done in a pretty secret process. This amalgam with private testing companies as a driving force already makes me feel suspect. Many of the states that “adopted” CCSS actually adopted it before the standards were completed, but had no voice other than a nominal up or down review of the entire document. The process bothers me.
(Note: this is nothing new. The gentleman in Delaware in charge of creating the original DSTP and determining which vendor would be used to assess it left DOE three weeks after the contract was awarded, to become a VP for the company he awarded the contract to. The incestuous relationship between testing companies and curriculum reformers is long-standing.)
2. The math standards were screwed up horribly because (A) older math standards were pretty much based on NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics), but (B) the CCSS people stayed somewhat at arm’s length from them during the process because NCTM has officially adopted a policy of using math curriculum to infuse “social justice” into students while they are learning math. Ironically, the academic critique upon which this stance is based has an awful lot of merit (I’ve read the books and articles and attended some of the conferences), but the execution has been horrible. Road to hell, good intentions. There’s really not much reason for math standards to change very much over time–what will get you a great score on the SAT is pretty much the same as it always was. There are legit arguments over sequencing (how young are students developmentally ready for algebra) or integration (separate geometry and trig or “integrated math”), but by and large we’ve had de facto national math standards for nearly two decades. How CCSS managed to bollux them up is mysterious. But they did.
3. I could go at this one with jason, but I have professional dislike for the way the ELA standards have been done. We’d have to go standard by standard, but I have considerable problems with the sequencing (not, by the way, jason, the use of informational texts), and those concerns are indicative of a fairly large group of scholars and teachers. The problem with national ELA standards is that there really is no national educational or academic consensus on exactly what they should be. Common Core’s answer represents one group’s answer–a legitimate one that I happen not to like–but only one group’s answer. There are other approaches that are now essentially closed off.
4. Notice DelDem’s conflation of standards and curriculum. It’s pretty natural, because the arguments have become so muddied. But as several people have noted, CCSS is standards, and in theory you can use any curriculum you want to use to get there. In theory, but not in fact. Research at Boston University and several other major ed institutions has pretty conclusively confirmed that once “standards” reach the level of specificity that teaching them requires more than about 45% of the total class time over a year, they become a de facto curriculum. CCSS represents a de facto national curriculum in math and ELA; we can have a reasoned discussion over whether having such is a good idea, but the problem is we’re not having that discussion because we’re still pretending that CCSS does not encroach onto the curriculum ground. I would argue strongly that the case for a national curriculum is more ideological than educational, especially in a population as large and heterogenous as the US, and I think I could cite a good bit of research to back up my position.
5. The final straw for me is tying Common Core to high-stakes testing. Again: I’ve been involved in both processes on a professional level: standards writing and test writing. Twenty years ago I was an advocate of high-stakes testing. At this point, after a great deal of experience and research I have slowly become first agnostic, then a skeptic, and finally an opponent of high-stakes testing. I think a case can be pretty conclusively made that (A) high-stakes testing has not materially improved American public education during the last two decades (certainly not outcomes); (B) high-stakes testing has operated to decrease the professional value of teachers and erode well past necessary levels of classroom autonomy; (C) high-stakes testing tied to teacher accountability plans as it is in Delaware actually distorts the teaching environment to the detriment of both teachers and students; and (D) high-stakes testing has absorbed (Chiefly into private sector testing and consultation firms) literally hundreds of billions of education dollars over the past two decades that I believe could have been far better spent in other ways (like fully funding IDEA for special education students–which the Feds have never done–or recognizing the well established fact that we know how to get results with low SES populations, but that those results require per-pupil expenditures roughly 2x those used for middle-class and affluent students).
You can quarrel with any individual argument (and we could go head to head over what research shows, and my own biases for which research I value more as opposed to which research you value more), but this ain’t a wingnut, kneejerk opposition to having any standards. It is the product of significantly more than two decades working this field, not only in Delaware but also across more than two dozen other states where I have worked with hundreds of teachers and dozens of academics.
DelDem yes, that was the math problem I was talking about in my comment. My kids were doing math that convoluted way 10 years ago in elementary school, it was stupid then, it’s stupid now, but it’s not “Common Core.” It’s simply a Tea Party scare tactic that unfortunately is working with a lot of people. Curriculum will still be set by each, individual school district.
1. Do you oppose Common Core because you oppose any national uniform curriculum? No
2. If you answered yes, then please join the Republican Party and petition for the abolishment of the Department of Education. If you answered no, then proceed to the next question. false equivalency alert, sounds like the Governor’s “all-in” against CCSS critics
3. Common Core has been criticized for insufficient training for teachers expected to use new teaching methods. Currently, does the initiative provide for any training, and if so, what training is provided for? The initiative itself does not provide training, but the implementation realistically demands it How is that training, if provided, insufficient? lack of time, lack of trained trainers, undisciplined focus of training and methodology of delivery created and executed without educator input What would you describe as sufficient training? designed by teachers and administrators, delivered to peers in a real-world and meaningful way
4. Common Core has been criticized for its specific curriculum components. Which curriculum components, if any, do you find objectionable or in need of modification? multiple issues throughout the standards with regard to age appropriateness and developmental capacity to learn to standards as currently arranged Do some components need to be removed entirely, or are there some components that are missing from the curriculum entirely? probably, but will need field implementation with fidelity to recognize which ones As an aside, I saw one math problem on Facebook and I can see how the new method of teaching kids to see math in their head is difficult to teachers and students alike. Personally, I think their is nothing wrong with dropping that and going with the tried and true addition and subtraction tables. But I digress.
5. I am sure there are some testing issues with Common Core, but I have not heard that addressed. So what are they? attaching the results of tests designed to measure student achievement to the performance review of educators. This is specifically where our Governor and his DOE, frankly, are liars. They govern component V, and component V governs the rating, it’s that simple…and wrong How can they be fixed? get politicians out of education policy making, they have launched and endless assault since 1983 with static NAEP results and widening achievement gaps
6. If you want to scrap Common Core entirely, what is your preferred standard uniform curriculum? I don’t, though I disagree with Mike O on his anecdotal refutations and agree 100% with Steve Newton’s assertion that at a certain critical mass of governing standards, the line between them and curriculum is vaporized If you answer none, see question 2.
There are other problems too, as this well spoken young man in Tennessee says better than I ever could. This is 5:20 worth watching, particularly 3:40 on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PprP5TCZBRI
Oh, my goodness. All we need now is for Kilroy to chime in, then you’ll have everyone. Thanks first, Deldem for addressing this issue. If you go through all the comments above mine you see most people have no idea over what the fuss is about… That Common Core is all about standards seems to be the consensus….
Your point of not involving yourself with education sounded exactly like me now just a little over a year ago; funny how things can change. I had no clue what any letter acronyms meant, and Kilroy and John seem to have everything under control, plus there were other fish to fry. For me that all changed when I had to do a parent-child conversation to a top student, who just in the middle of a year, gave up. From A+ to F’s, very low F’s…. Fortunately this student’s DCAS scores were school puller-uppers, so something was in there, but the homework and participation were close to zero. I finally understood when I asked to see the homework. I did a piece on that, published the work nationally, and opened far more eyes than just mine.
Common Core is not about standards at all. That, is just how one would phrase the bill to use General Assembly terminology, the wording of how you would phrase the synopsis, if you wanted to get something through the General Assembly… Like with a Jacques or Sokola piece of legislation, to understand Common Core you have to ignore the synopsis, and go into the meat of the bill. Since we are talking about a governmental program, you really need to go into that.
There is only one reason I’m even in this battle. It is because of what happened to that one student. I hear the school conversations with their friends; all are suffering the same; so far most students do not have an advocate fighting for them. But they are out there. (John’s video above is one). Here is the best (embellished) analogy I have yet found to explain the duplicity with which Common Core gets sold…. Imagine someone in Sussex County comes up with a great money making idea. They will use their tremendous piles of chicken poop, clean it up, call it hydrolyzed protein, and stuff it into intestinal casings flavor it, and call it chicken sausage… It would pass the FDA protein, fat, and carbohydrate standards well enough to be called healthy food. (Not kidding, seriously, we have the technology to do this). The profit margin would be astronomical. Throw in some pepper flakes to offset the eminent bacterial smell, and put it in a pretty box with marketing… “Stop feeding your kids fatty pigs”, you say; “give them healthy chicken-based breakfast food instead…” Just that over time parents start to notice the chicken sausages are always left on the plate as the kids race for the bus, and the pig sausages never were… Finally the confrontation. “Eat your sausage or you’ll be ______ (grounded?) for this weekend” Then you get the response: “Mom, it makes me barf; it tastes just like poop…” “No it doesn’t” you state and to prove your point, you grab one and bite in in half. The sensation you experience is just about what you get when you go into a turnpike public bathroom, one with all the stalls full. You hold your breath but finally deeply inhale that thick, heavy, earthy, hot, decomposing bacterial smell we all know too well, which just the thought of the taste rolling off the air, tripping across your tongue, makes you want to barf everything you’ve eaten the past three days….
That is when you finally understand….
It is what is being taught… that is the problem. The stuff our children are getting for Common Core is … Poop. There is a huge problem with what is being taught in our classrooms, and that is why, the people opposed to Common Core are all over the political spectrum… This issue is not about politics to them. It is about children, particularly their children. They may be Republican Conservatives; if they have children they are solidly against Common Core. They may be Progressive Democrats. If they have children they are solidly against Common Core.
Of course, any time when you have a gut moving political event shaking people up, (which Common Core is) you will get fly by night politicians who jump on and try to ride the wave… The Conservative talkies blame Obama; the Progressives blame the huge mega-national corporations.
The person I blame is one: David Coleman. The person running the committee who created the mush that is being taught to our kids. Everything that has been publicly released, I have probably seen. Why you haven’t see it, is because It is difficult for a teacher to take the copyrighted copy and put it out on line. They are all traceable and they’d be fired within a week. So even when Mike O, (who I thoroughly trust btw because he worships Tesla), asked me for data, I wasn’t going to offer it up. So everyone out there knows, before beginning Common Core, if you are involved, confidentiality agreements have to be signed…
If you want to see how bad the materials are, we have published links to all the practice tests put out by the new assessment group, called the SBA for Smart Balanced Assessment. (Delaware’s National Test, dry run this May) It gives you a good idea. The prime assessment by the public when we published these, since every parent wanted to take their child’s grade test, was holy crap!. Most parents had issues with the convoluted methods and ways the questions were asked. Not even professional adults could understand what David Coleman was asking… If you can imagine the taking of a simple sentence, and then adding layer and layer of irrelevant and confusing data to that simple sentence, you kind of get the right idea. The tests do not test what you learn; they test how good of a guesser you are into the thought processes of one David Coleman…. Let me tell you. The consensus is that he is one sick dude.
So who is for Common Core? Why everyone who hasn’t tasted the poop. All those who don’t have kids in Common Core for example. It is marketed very well. It is a set of standards. It is state led (not really we found out); it allows you to get to the goals how you wish (not really we found out); it makes children smarter (not really we found out); it makes children college and career ready (not really we found out); it has the support of business ( of course, they get rich off it); it has the support of think tanks (again, they earned a third of a billion just making these up); it has the support of the heads of teachers unions ( ahhh, but not the rank and file members who were not privy to the Gate’s Foundation millions that unions received to research Common Core; there is a huge revolt brewing and heads may roll, right here in Delaware (may))…
For example… did you know that all 19 of Delaware’s Superintendents ( we have 19 school districts) just sent a letter to the head of the DOE saying we need at least hold off for two years? Would that happen, if all Common Core “cont’orversee” was over the “guv’ment” teaching “lib’ral” values?….
Did you know that in all Common Core states but Delaware, there is legislation to stop the process or hold it back several years? Even Tennessee, which is as pro school-reform a state can be in this nation ( they state they want 100% Charter Schools) is having serious difficulty with Common Core. The Tennessee House passed by a 80-11 margin to postpone common core implementation…
Delaware’s legislature is behind the curve. Only 4 people stood up against it last session: They deserve honorable mention. Kowalko, Baumbach, Osienski, and Potter. Everyone else caved to the governor’s pressure (via Schwartzkoph). Shockingly, even Kim Williams..
But the truth was that only these four had been approached by constituents; no one really knew the marketing was a lie.
Finally, from inside the DOE and it hasn’t yet been made public, (it will probably take a new administration), but if can you remember from last year how the test scores dropped? Well the inside data shows that it was the pilot Common Core classes which all pulled the scores down. The old school methods were working…
We are expecting, since more people will be common core trained this year than last, that we will see the second negative year-to-year drop for the first time in living memory…
Since being sucked into this fight, I tend to read everything i get my hands on. Test data, etc. Nothing against Jack, but his statements for Common Core are naive at best, dishonest at worst. For example the biggest one repeated is that Delaware needs to raise its standards because all the jobs go to those who are the best educated… Sounds acceptable, right? Then why are all our jobs going to rural India, rural China, and third world nations like Bangladesh, who are less educated than us? But not to Finland? Same in America? Texas? Best educated? Really?
No, jobs go to where corporations can pay ridiculously low wages, pollute with impunity, and get away with it… However states that do have very high education successes like Minnesota and Massachusetts, actually do have higher quality of lives, and higher taxes…. Funny how all three of those seem to go hand in hand…
So there really is no data to suggest that Common Core is better than no Common Core. I’m here to tell you from personal experience, it is much, much worse. The standards are “the marketing ploy”; the equivalent of a poison House bill’s synopsis; the list of sponsors supporting Common Core, serve the same function as do the sponsors listed at the top of that poisoned House Bill; primarily people who really don’t know or care what is inside, just want to be known as “being for education”….
Did you know that New York state failed 70% of its students last spring? Probably you heard in main stream media. But… did you know, that the fail rate was predicted exactly and recorded at a state school board meeting long before the test was even made? Probably not common knowledge. Did you know that all these tests are graded on a curve? It matters not what you know, but your grade solely is determined by where on the scale you lie! Did you know that Florida was failing far too many students, so after the test was taken, they told the testing company to rework the scores allowing them to claim their reforms were indeed working? Probably you do not know this.
You see? These tests are political mechanisms… Want to bring in charters and break up unions? Make the passing bar extremely high. Blame the low scores on the failure of the public school system. Want to make it look to all that as governor, you are truly superman? Make the passing level quite low so every son or daughter of a voter is proficient…. Based off the data from the New York test, and based on other national comparative tests, the students of New York are consistently and regularly improving each time the test is given. But the bar was set extraordinarily high, far too high, and parents revolted. For example if the cut score is set at a 70% fail rate, and all the scores were spread between 90 and 100, all those getting below 97 would fail… Anywhere else,… that 97 would be an A…
That is Common Core. People who have touched it, all get barf in back up their throat every time it is mentioned. It is an apolitical issue, uniting Democrats with Republicans, while at the same time, causing infighting within the Democrats and infighting within the Republicans…
In Delaware it could be a good weapon to ram up the gazoo of the Delaware Way.. ( not you Nancy; the system)… I think the consensus (that Delaware’s royalty has run things too long) is making the natives rebellious and has reached or is very close to reaching a tipping point, and this issue, as the majority of Delaware parents themselves start getting the poop taste in their mouths and begin looking at who to blame, will lead them to discover it was those standing in the center doing nothing here, (like Sokola, Scott, Short, Schwartzkoph) who may have done well on all other issues, but were the ones responsible for the driving of the bus at the exact point when it ran over their kids….
What to do? The educational fix?
Go to an 11:1 student/teacher ratio in every school k-5 (and in 9th Grade) i all schools where the low income level is over 50%. (That is most of Delaware, both north and south)…
Fund it by increasing the top brackets on the 1% to generate (as specified elsewhere) an additional $78 million.
Make Charter School funding not based on student enrollment, but instead, as is done for our VoTechs, as an additional line item expense inserted into the State Budget. They are luxuries, and if the state wants them, like a new park, or new bypass, the state should be the ones paying for them..
Eliminate what is called component 5 where the teachers receive over 20% of their evaluation from scores on the test. Perhaps 5% would be acceptable. Still hold teachers accountable, just don’t use a standardized test to do it. However, these tests do provide good data, so the high stakes part should go, while the tests stay in docile form. They are awesome for determining the specific, individual strong and weak points (algebra, fractions, antonyms?) of every individual child…
I have a feeling i left one of them off, but I’ve given everyone enough to read… Thanks, again, Deldem for asking. I had been wanting to write a holistic piece that introduces the uninitiated to the myriads of problems buried inside the chicken sausage-like casings of Common Core, and thanks to this push from you, i now have…
I’ve got a teenager who just gave up… There was nothing wrong with his homework, he just wasn’t doing it. The homework was solid stuff like essays,and pages of perfectly normal math problems. It’s not a Comnon Core thing, it’s a teenage thing. Once I cut off the video games and got him to do his homework BEFORE the test instead of after, the grades came back up. Grading policy was a contributing factor; that’s why I started on the warpath for tracking homework completion and FOIAing the minutes of the grading policy committee. It seems teachers were all too relieved to issue a zero, and move on, thereby removing their responsibility to make sure the student learned that lesson. When I brought it up, all I got was moral drama about the personal responsibility of a thirteen year old. I only have data for one student, but I suspect homework completion is the root problem for most failing students. Red Clay is now taking baby steps to address that problem through its grading policy.
Mike, your situation is not a “Common Core thing”, but thee are other situations, also anecdotal, regarding homework and curricular decisions made in the name of CCSS. Teachers and Administrators openly citing CCSS as the guidepost for their curricular decisions that are terrible. Some of the homework examples floating around the internet are being defended by the issuers as CCSS based homework.
Even if it’s not required, the “brand” of CCSS is taking the hit. So many hits that it is now bleeding. Why is this happening? Implementation boondoggle and crazy stories like this: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2014/02/claims_of_common_core-aligned_.html
Just once I would like to trace one of these CCSS horror stories back to a specific school or a particular vendor package.
I’m with Mike on this. Facebook, blogs, Twitter, etc. are overflowing with these untraceable horror stories, and that makes me wary. Every time one of these scary examples start making the rounds and ends up being debunked causes me pause. No one should have to lie to make their point. What it doesn’t make me is a Common Core supporter. I see the problems, but I haven’t seen them first hand – and I have a child in school.
Am I missing the changes CC is causing in my daughter’s education? This year she studied The Scarlet Letter, Shakespeare, Keats, as well as scientific peer reviewed research papers and news papers. I was thrilled with the diversity, especially the introduction of technical papers. Her math, science and history classes have been excellent, as well. I have zero complaints about the education she’s receiving.
This is a serious question: What am I missing in a student’s day to day education?
As far as high stakes testing and ridiculous teacher accountability… well… they’re already here (and have been here for quite some time). Yeah, I have huge problems with them. I guess what I’m trying to figure out is why CC is different from what we’re already fighting against – why is it more dire, more dangerous than what we’ve been living with and fighting against for over a decade? It’s this new sense of urgency (and I’m not claiming it’s unwarranted) that baffles me.
Common Core test problems are the new “death panels.”
John Young said it all to my mind. I also see the corporate leaders who funded the development of the Common Core Standards using it to push through the idea that schools will collect every scrape of information they can about every student and place it in a database that isn’t secure. This database will never be purged and parents, and later adult students, will have no control over who gets the material.
Image Steve that everything you did in school had been recorded, never to be removed, and you had no way to stop anyone from seeing it – ever! I don’t know
about you but there are some things I did in the third grade I’d rather not be made public fifty + years later..
Harry’s comment kinda makes my point. Common Core seems to responsible for all sorts of things. Again, I’m not defending CC. I’m just wondering if all the things that are happening (standardized testing, curriculum changes, databases, teacher accountability, etc.) are the result of Common Core (even tho most existed before CC), or is Common Core simply another layer? And if we get rid of Common Core (which I don’t have a problem with) do all these other concerns go away? I don’t think so.
And now you might understand why some of us with the means to do so sent our kids to private schools. That’s no picnic, either, but at least the problems were on a human level.
1. I am convinced we need standards. Those who have not lived in a single place their entire lives can attest to the variability of standards across the nation, which often is at least or two grade level differences.
2. As with all standards, the devil is in the implementation details and the components that that affect the comprehensive approach that is necessary for effective implementation of the standards.
3. An implementation failure in any one component results in a failure of the approach.
4. Any standard and their implementation is seen as a target of opportunity to advance issues of particular concerns for specific constituencies, similar to legislation with amendments that are completely unrelated to the intended purpose of the legislation.
My view, since I have reviewed the standards, is that they are well thought out and appropriate. However, the implementation has left much to be desired. Testing (measures – as in “that which gets measured gets done”) is a necessary component. After all, if you put something in place you really need to know if it actually works. I question whether the standardized testing is measuring outcomes, critical thinking skills, or memorization. Teacher training and evaluation need to be part of the mix and my sense is that teachers are generally wanting a rock, but no one ever brings them the right rock. Personally, I think that teachers will never be satisfied and neither will parents who often delegate the entire responsibility for education to teachers.
I have worked with and written standards related to project management for space systems, nuclear, and scientific research facilities for most of my career. So, I am kinda familiar with standards and how to get them implemented. One of the major problems in implementation has always been folks who view the implementation as an opportunity to further their own goals. This certainly is not unique to Common Core.
For the record, I’m against Common Core because I want the southern states to continue to pump out ignorant rednecks. That reduces the competition for good jobs.
lol ^like^
Geezer….You’re talking about slower lower I hope
TMV: As long as we have state standards, SuxCo will never hold sway. Most of the people making the noise are not Delawareans of working age but retirees who brought their conservative paranoia here with them. The children involved are not their children but their grandchildren.
I don’t know about anyone else commenting here but I’m the father of an eight year old child who is far removed from what today pases for conservative. I am a father who has followed the lie of the Common Core Standards for years. The CCSS was not developed by educators but by a group of corporate backed creatures for one purpose – to transform public education into a profit center for big business. The Standards are so poorly written that the committee selected by the authors of the CCSS refused to validate them!
I suggest anyone read the blogs Parents of Christina School District or Transparent Christina to get nore information. By the way the chilrden of the chief backers of CCSS ( Bill Gates leading the field) have made sure their children do not attend schools where the Standards are being applied. Gov. Jack Markell fully understands the the CCSS will harm students.
The market for educational materials has traditional been highly fractured and therefor not as profitable as it might be for large publishers. That much is true.
“Gov. Jack Markell fully understands the the CCSS will harm students.”
Bullshit. Take this immature crap somewhere else.
“but retirees who brought their conservative paranoia here with them”
Geezer, you often make that comment. But my limited experience thus far is that it is the “natives” that are out there beyond the fringe. I’m sure you could cite some specific people, as could I (mine would be most of the Sussex County Council, save Joan Deaver – who is a transplant). Yours might be our own Marshall Dillon and some of the denizens over on DP, but is there any real statistical information that retirees coming here are more conservative? The registered voter statistics show that they are relatively even and not much has changed in 12 years. Could it be that the wacks are just wackier, not more of them? Not saying you are wrong, but what do you see that I don’t?
Year (D)s (R)s
2000 39,812 38,059
2012 53,306 51,716
Net Change 13494 15247
Wireless Generation, owned by Rupert Murdoch, couldn’t exist without the CCSS. Amplify LLC a leader in CCSS technology depends on the Standards to make a profit. No, Jack Markell knows what he is doing, after all he needs a job after he leaves Dover.
I also see the corporate leaders who funded the development of the Common Core Standards using it to push through the idea that schools will collect every scrape of information they can about every student and place it in a database that isn’t secure. This database will never be purged and parents, and later adult students, will have no control over who gets the material.
Delaware opted out of the Common Core Data Mining program, so that whole paragraph above doesn’t apply to Delaware students. Just another lie and scare tactic like the math example. I hesitate to jump on the side of the Common Core opposition because they push this kind of bullshit.
The data mining is being done in Delaware. The DDOE has its own database where every scrap of information on every student is maintained. The DDOE makes no warranty that the data is safe and freely shares it with anyone they deem to have a legitimate interest with no way for the parents to say “NO”. Also, the data is never deleted and will shared with educational institutions as the DDOE sees fit. There is a close working relationship with data storage by Common Core backers.
Anyone notice that claim comes with no proof?
Actually, Harry’s comment @3:59 is 100% true, if a little overheated. Data is stored in servers in Dover and while there is no warranty, there are Federal penalties under FERPA for unauthorized release of data, so there is accountability. Currently Delaware has pulled out of its agreements iwith InBloom to share data, but that is a policy choice that is reversible.
The warranty as to the safety of data held by the DDOE refers to the certainty that, at some point it will be hacked. If the FBI, State Department, Defense Department, numerous banks as well as major department stores can be hacked there is no reason to assume our childrens data is safe. When you consider that the information is never deleted when the student leaves school or even dies the potential for abuse is enormous. Parents need to have control of what is on the database, where it goes and when it should be removed.
here’s something to look at on the subject –
http://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Common-Core-Fact-Sheet_new.pdf
Harry at 3:59 is 100% accurate.
The more I come to realize that CCSS were created in a bubble with no public (or real educator) input, the more I realized how much of a farce they are.
DSEA last week voted “no confidence” on the implementation of CCSS in Delaware. It has been one hot mess since day one, with teachers having to find and craft their own curricula to meet the standards because profiteering text book companies have so bungled their interpretation of CCSS that nothing is of high enough quality. Districts are trying to fill the gaps, but it’s not enough.
We are doomed with Smarter Balanced.
I have so much more to say on this…but I’m still at school cleaning up emails and working on lesson plans to align with these shitty standards.
Nancy’s 2 page document is succinct and lays out many of the reasons CCSS is being repelled by the massive inertia of K-12 systems across the nation.
Bottom line: it was written in near total darkness by wonks and pols. Doomed from the jump.
I’ll bite! 🙂
1. Do you oppose Common Core because you oppose any national uniform curriculum? No.
2. If you answered yes, then please join the Republican Party and petition for the abolishment of the Department of Education. If you answered no, then proceed to the next question. I answered no, but I actually wouldn’t mind the department being abolished and sending the billions in savings back to the states in block grants to our neediest schools to lower class sizes and provide more services. Delaware DOE took HALF of our state’s Race to the Top grant money and we’ve got shit to show for it.
3. Common Core has been criticized for insufficient training for teachers expected to use new teaching methods. Currently, does the initiative provide for any training, and if so, what training is provided for? How is that training, if provided, insufficient? What would you describe as sufficient training? Common Core initiative doesn’t provide for training. Just the standards. Now, as part of the Race to the Top grant, local school districts have used some of that grant money to focus on training, but the training has been haphazard and mixed across the state. Sufficient training is when teachers aren’t talked down to and asked to read 300 page college-level textbooks. Sufficient training and professional development for teachers is one where we can collaborate and model effective lessons and then receive the tools we need to best serve our students. As of right now, too many teachers are having to cut and paste their own curriculums (sometimes at amazingly high personal costs) because the textbook companies haven’t caught up to the CCSS and local school districts don’t have the funds to buy new correctly-aligned textbooks every two years.
4. Common Core has been criticized for its specific curriculum components. Which curriculum components, if any, do you find objectionable or in need of modification? Do some components need to be removed entirely, or are there some components that are missing from the curriculum entirely? As an aside, I saw one math problem on Facebook and I can see how the new method of teaching kids to see math in their head is difficult to teachers and students alike. Personally, I think their is nothing wrong with dropping that and going with the tried and true addition and subtraction tables. But I digress. Math is a hot mess. There’s in an overemphasis on students “conceptualizing” something as simple as 2+2. Instead of just teaching the students to fluently recall these math facts, students will be “marked wrong” if they don’t show this conceptually by drawing a picture or modeling. As well, with the reading, there’s a huge emphasis on informational, non-fiction texts.
5. I am sure there are some testing issues with Common Core, but I have not heard that addressed. So what are they? How can they be fixed? Our school piloted the new Smarter Balanced assessment this week. Two words: Train wreck. Technology was a mess and there were some serious quirks that will need to be addressed by DoE when this test goes live. Meanwhile, my students missed more than two days of reading instruction because of this field testing. Next week they are taking their first spring DCAS opportunity. All this missed instructional time to satisfy Bill Gates’s test-culture fetish.
6. If you want to scrap Common Core entirely, what is your preferred standard uniform curriculum? If you answer none, see question 2. I’d prefer a set of standards that included teachers and parents in their development. CCSS doesn’t fit those, ahem, standards. Gov. Markell needs to stop spewing the bullshit that this was a collaborative effort. Parents were kept out. Educators were kept out. Period.
Mike Matthews at 8:23 is 100% right.
“Could it be that the wacks are just wackier, not more of them?”
Absolutely. I was talking about the folks who consider CC “communist.” There aren’t many of them, but the two dozen or so who annoy elected people as a hobby are enough to scare the typical Delaware politician, who would lose to a rabbit in any contest involving courage.
“No, Jack Markell knows what he is doing, after all he needs a job after he leaves Dover.”
Again, bullshit. Jack Markell has enough money that he never needs to work again.
This is the kind of paranoid sillines I expect from the Delaware Politics crowd. Make specious charges like that and you undermine the factual part of your argument. It’s one of the reasons I won’t get on board with any of you education “reformers” — I hear bullshit-based speculation like that presented as fact far too often.
And the Pioneer Institute is the Massachusetts version of the Cesar Rodney Institute — a card carrying member of the State Policy Network AND ALEC.
http://www.truth-out.org/images/images_2013_09/2013_0906-1_chart-lg.jpg
ALEC is pro-CCSS: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18442-flow-chart-exposes-common-cores-myriad-corporate-connections
Also, Pioneer fact sheet being pushed by leading progressive liberal education icon, Dr. Diane Ravitch: https://twitter.com/DianeRavitch/status/449301736231280640
That chart supports Jim Garrison’s “magic bullet” theory.
The divide is pretty consistent. Those with hands-on experience in Common Core are vitriolic against it. Those removed from education fields, are blah, maybe even supportive of it because…… ???
Anyways, the Pioneer document is very accurate. Despite its source and despite its funding, I think every progressive who is knowledgeable of how this transpired, would agree with its facts. It is 100% accurate.
Compare it to one of the most progressive voices against Common Core, probably considered the national spokesperson against it, ever since she and John Stewart teamed up to rail against its idiocy on The Daily Show
Again, as all have mentioned above, Harry at 3:59 is 100% accurate. I’m shocked, shocked, that at this point in time, people believe this state administration is always telling the truth, just because of what they say… Actually I know Delaware Liberal’s own staff is not prone to accept Jack’s word literally…. Most of them at least.
And I ask John Y. to offer his perspective on Geezer’s charge that saying Jack knows he is hurting kids is bullshit. The consensus (see Matthews comments above) is that he is hurting kids; the question Geezer is raising is whether or not he knows he is or is doing it innocently while thinking he is helping… I know there is a picture out there of Jack Markell at a Christina Board meeting with the Board in attendance, and the issues around Common Core were discussed. I don’t have access to the tape right now, but John might, and then if accessed, one should be able to hear with their own ears as concerns directly relating to Common Core’s affect on children hit Jack’s ears… I ask for John’s take on this…. since that News Journal article is long ago off site.
I am not seeing much legitimate criticism or even reality-based understanding of the Common Core standards themselves. All I see are attacks on related issues like testing, accountability, or data management. Instead, go after those separate problems with thoughtful solutions. Attacking the standards is throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
I agree with Mike O and Mike M. The problem is not with standards. Standards are an abstract innocuous thing far far away in fuzzy land. For example there is a standard that one must not drive faster then 55 mph through Churchman’s Marsh on I 95…. Pffffft… The average speed is 75. So much for standards.
But Common Core is hurting Children. Therefore like family court, to not to do something to stop abuse because one can’t quite yet prove medically that the abuse is happening even though the signs that it is hit you in the face, may not the the right approach, even if it is the legal one… If children are hurting and once childhood slips away you never can go back and get it back, then something has to be done immediately to stop the hurting of children…
We don’t need standards. We do need teachers. Standards without teachers don’t do dick. We need to stop children from being hurt now. We can revisit the standards after we stop the tests. I think focusing on standards is a superficial intellectual pursuit, one that ignores the reality on the ground that this can and will ruin children’s lives.
Viva Finland! Let the teachers teach. I think we can all agree with that. The problem with “Common Core is hurting Children” is that it isn’t really true. Poor implementation? Sure. I differ to Mathews first hand experience. Co-opted and misused? It seems possible.
But common standards in pursuit of some core academic concepts don’t hurt children.
And that is my last comment in this topic.
kavips: Exactly. The charge that he’s hurting children on purpose is specious and unsupported by anything that’s been presented as a fact.
What is it that you recall Markell saying at this board meeting?
Based on the local opposition, one possible explanation is that Christina has really bolluxed up its Common Core implementation relative to other districts. Just a theory.
And as for Mike M. staying late to develop his own learning materials to meet the new standards – isn’t that the kind of power that teachers are always asking for? Be careful what you ask for, you may get it.
One of the potential benefits of national standards is that learning materials can be shared nationally. Maybe there is some teacher working late in Ohio or Oregon who is developing exactly the kinds of materials Mike is looking for. I understand those networks aren’t in place yet and are just a potential.
I posted a while ago about a prototype for just this sort of network where educators could share learning materials. I don’t know what became of it or if it was ever developed:
http://seventhtype.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/delaware-to-adopt-social-media-like-exchange-for-learning-materials/
Also, Pioneer fact sheet being pushed by leading progressive liberal education icon, Dr. Diane Ravitch:
And? This paper is a mixture of facts (who created the standards) and unsupported claims (The standards are not rigorous. According to who?).
That Twitter link is Ravitch sharing this paper — does she specifically endorse this someplace?
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/07/22/the-conservative-case-against-the-common-core-standards/
Geezer. I can’t find the source and since it took place last May, I need to defer to John Y or Kowalko who was there… To be clear, I wasn’t stressing that Markell was saying he was hurting children.. No one would ever say that, but my memory is that he was on the receiving end of comments by people who were blaming him for hurting children, therefore proving at least he was not ignorant that people had that feeling towards him. Since I was thinking of something else and most likely I was probably in a sidebar conversation at the time, I don’t remember who or what. Just the general idea that he was roasting in public opinion and glad I was not standing in his shoes.
Upon coming back to it after so long of time, I’ll guess that it may have been over the concept that since the original disagreement was over how to spend $20,000 in merit bonuses on educators, that pulling the entire $2.3 million of RTTT funding as a power move, could only hurt, not help children…. I’m sorry. Wish I could be more help.
As for Jason, who will wisely will not say anymore on the topic,… I understand his point, but for others here is the other side which was brought up by New York Teacher’s Union head stating how Common Core was hurting children… It was prefaced ( not shown here) with others examples of how their children suffered under New York’s Common Core testing regime… The audience (whose response is probably more damning to common core than the speech itself) , consisted of mostly parents of children who had taken NY Common Core tests.
Agreed with all that this is an emotional topic and many of its decisions on both sides may not be totally based on rationality… But then again, what human endeavor ever is?
kavips: Thanks for the answer.
I’m sure people have told Markell this is hurting children, but that’s not the same thing as hurting them on purpose. Reasonable people can disagree about this despite all of them thinking they are helping.
Jack Markell has attended zero Christina School Board Meetings in my 4+ years on the Board.
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http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/24/the-fatal-flaw-of-the-common-core-standards/
I agree with John that a true standard would have been developed under the auspices of ANSI. The way ANSI works is they communities of interest (COIs) actually develop the standard using ANSI methodology. After a long process this winds up as an ANSI standard, which ANSI then sells back to those who are interested (which is a beef I have because it was my and others intellectual property that contributed to developing the standard). A key component is a consensus vote with right of appeal at both the developer level and the ANSI level.
Regardless, the standards themselves, which articulate the knowledge a student should have, seem fairly well thought out. The trouble is always in the implementation. It is thus with all standards not just Common Core. Which is why most standards/standard developers employ guides to intent and implementation that are separate from the standard.
I’d be skeptical that you *could* create ANSI standards for education. Start with what ANSI thinks it does:
I don’t dispute that the standards-setting process could have been much more inclusive and accountable. But I don’t think you can get to the kinds of measurements of quality and safety for education that you can for a ladder. Nor do I think you can get to *who* is responsible for that quality, either.
If someone has posted this elsewhere, forgive me for putting it here, but I sort of was remembering that someone didn’t know enough about Common Core, and for that we got this whole post…
Since then, a 40 minute one-sided description of Common Core has come out, detailing why people are against it…. If you wonder why people are vehemently contesting a stupid set of standards, just open this and let the YouTube play in the background and click in and out when you hear something you want to see. It is 40 min long, so is very hard to watch the whole thing. But if you don’t know anything about the controversy, and people throw Capital Letters at you every time they try to explain it… it’s a good start to understand why it is a big deal for America, and not just education…