Is Common Core going to work?

[AngryAmish]

Education is not my field but like everyone who went to school I have an opinion about the matter.

While coming from the best of intentions I think Common Core will join No Child Left Behind, New Math and every other educational fad over the last century. There will be a lot of sound and fury, some special interests will get paid off, educational consultants of many stripes will make some money implementing the new regulations and..nothing much will change. (Except California's experiment in whole reading - that sucked)

People are only as smart as they are. Smart kids will do well, duller ones less well. Good teachers will realize what works and what does not work then use the good while scrapping the bad. By and large teachers do a pretty good job and will continue to do so.

Kids first and foremost must feel safe in school. A good kid will not want to go to a school where they feel unsafe. After that we should try to have a variety of programs that appeal to most every child.

on edit: The best analogy I can think of with presidents and education fades is like a college athletic director and football coaches. Every new athletic director gets to hire at least one coach. It has been proven over time who the coach is does not matter much. Likewise, presidents get to institute education reform but the specific reform doesn't matter.

[cali]

1. I'm not an educator either

I've been reading a bit about Common Core and I have my concerns.

Having said that, it looks like states have a fair amount of flexibility in implementing it.

[AngryAmish]

3. MAybe I'm broadcasting my ignorence

(like I need to do that)

anyway, does anyone have a good, non-biased link to what is going on?

[GladRagDahl]

2. Good points

We've had Core learning in Virginia schools for over a decade. I haven't liked it much as the teachers seem pressed to "teach to the test". Children who pretest poorly or have a record of testing poorly are pulled out of their regular classes for special tutoring to specific test requirements. This bothers me. A lot.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. You do realize that the concept...

of "common sense" is often missing from the educational elite who thrive on revolutionary new ideas for teaching our kids.

[Proud Public Servant]

5. Nope

If we want an education system like other developed countries', we need to start with

1) Funding education (including pre-k) like other developed countries; and
2) Hiring teachers with the same qualifications as teachers in other developed countries.

Everything else is lipstick on a pig.

[Orrex]

6. I'd like to add one other point

3) Hire administrators with a background in education rather than in big business


But your two points are excellent and right on target.

[tblue37]

8. And doing something about the barren, destructive, impoverished

backgrounds that prevent so many kids from reaching their potential!

[frazzled]

7. A few (essay) questions for you

(1) Define "work"

(2) Has the status quo "worked"?

Finally, teachers have always had curriculum goals via their districts or states. Good teachers will use them wisely and teach well, poor teachers will use them poorly and teach poorly. The same will hold true for Common Core, which is merely a set of learning objectives, not a prescriptive set of specific curriculum items that must be "taught." Having read through them a bit, it doesn't seem to me there is really any teaching to the test to be done with them.

While you are right about students having a wide range of abilities and interests, I think when we talk about education at these meta levels we are not focused on these kinds of individual variation. We're interesting in raising the general educational level of all children in the country--and of defining what counts as being generally "educated" in the modern age. I think one of the goals of Common Core has also been to even out the discrepancies between what stands as education in different states: say, Massachusetts (which already had a challenging curriculum in place and tends to do well in national measures) versus Alabama.

I don't think the Common Core was developed as some panacea to "work"--that is, to make every kid into some sort of A+ student. It's just an outline of what we, as Americans, should consider to be a solid education in the early 21st century. Here's an example from the reading objectives:

Reading
As students advance through each grade, there is an increased level of complexity to what students are expected to read and there is also a progressive development of reading comprehension so that students can gain more from what they read.[21]
There is no reading list to accompany the reading standards. Instead, students are simply expected to read a range of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informative texts from an array of subjects. This is so that students can acquire new knowledge, insights, and consider varying perspectives as they read. Teachers, school districts, and states are expected to decide on the appropriate curriculum, but sample texts are included to help teachers, students, and parents prepare for the year ahead.[21]
There is some critical content for all students — classic myths and stories from around the world, foundational U.S. documents, seminal works of American literature, and the writings of Shakespeare — but the rest is left up to the states and the districts.[21]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core_State_Standards_Initiative

None of this sounds all that controversial to me.

[AngryAmish]

10. 1) Raise the scores of children on objective aptitude/achievement tests.

It won't work on aptitude tests because , well, aptitude is aptitude. Can't change that too much without huge social disruptions, if at all.

Achievement would mean better ability to use the english language, more use of foreign languages, increasing knowledge of math, history and other relevent subjects.

2) Status quo works as well as can be expected. Could be better.

[frazzled]

14. Raising scores on aptitude/achievement tests is not part of the initiative's objective

So that can't be the answer.

See Mission Statement at http://www.corestandards.org/

[FarCenter]

9. Arne Duncan: ‘White suburban moms’ upset that Common Core shows their kids aren’t ‘brilliant’

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents Friday that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/16/arne-duncan-white-surburban-moms-upset-that-common-core-shows-their-kids-arent-brilliant/

With this reaction, Common Core will probably not "work".

[liberal_at_heart]

18. Arne Duncan can go screw himself. I will relish the day when Common Core goes the way of

New Math and No Child Left Behind.

[JaneyVee]

11. I'm a fan of common core. Anything to raise education standards and

Critical thinking is ok by me.

[zazen]

12. but common core hasn't been rigorously piloted

so we really don't know if it does that. Just like other reforms pushed by Gates (eg, the New Schools/small schools movement), it's implemented well before we have any serious data on its outcomes. Turns out the New Schools approach was dumped after thousands of schools were wrenched apart and turns out, the "reform" didn't improve outcomes. In NC we STILL have the New Schools office created by the slavish administration with the mandate to go about Gates' business. Even though the reform has since been disproven, there they sit, sucking up dollars and doing the usual let's pretend we have a crisis special events with lots of smoked salmon and the usual corporate players. All of that money could be going to teachers' salaries.

I'm an educational researcher--have worked in this area for 20 years--and have a child enduring the common core. I'd home school her if I could afford it.

I have a deadline right now or else I'd elaborate on at least 15 features of its implementation that are really, really misguided. It is HARMING children. It is the worst "reform" I've seen in my lifetime.

It does anything BUT promote critical thinking. Start with Diane Ravitch and then google a few links. It is moronic. I have to control my temper literally every day, I'm so angry with the time-wasting, ill-conceived, neoliberal hogwash that diverts precious resources into ruining my daughter's love of learning.

Just because Glenn Beck hates it doesn't mean it's great. It's awful.

[JaneyVee]

15. My kindergartner seems to be learning things much more complex than

I did in kindergarten. It is challenging and he likes the challenge. Jeez, there was a time when middle schoolers learned physics and Latin and could name the capital of every country on earth.

[zazen]

17. wait till you navigate 25 poorly designed web sites each week

to try to cobble together what it is they're supposed to master for their high stakes, trick-question AP level test.

Experiential learning is great--and it's supposed to be accompanied by portfolio-based evaluation, with multiple choice maybe for diagnostic purposes. You should not have this kind of assessment for this kind of teaching, especially when experiential learning and flipped classrooms are managed as poorly as they are now.

Common Core combines poorly designed curricular materials that aren't even in one textbook anymore, that are dispersed over bad web sites and portals and duplicated teacher-designed ppts in 4 pt font (to save money they reduce the print size), which the kids are supposed to master at a level five grade levels ahead, with assessment that requires a huge breadth and depth of knowledge they can't possibly get from such a mess.

We have umpteen degrees between us and her Dad's published an award winning book on IT design, and we can't make sense of the materials she's supposed to master. How in the hell are kids with parents with high school educations who don't have two extra hours every night and extensive IT access supposed to make sense of this? We're talking badly designed teacher created ppts with MISTAKES in them, used as the basis for "critical thinking," and then half of class time taken up with learning tricks of how to ferret out answers on multiple choice questions.

Honestly, AP American History would be easier for my 8th grader than what she's enduring right now. At least you have core textbooks and know what you're supposed to understand and master. My daughter has to study from handouts of her own hastily written notes, often transcribing conceptual flaws from the teacher-created materials.

I'm all for the halcyon past you describe, if it existed. I think it entailed deep reflection of monographs without lots of silly ed-reformish exercises interspersed with punitive testing. And recess. I'm also for supplementation with well-designed web-based materials, supplementation and well-designed being key words there.

Do you know the teachers in NY State were calling in during their EOGs last year asking how to clean vomit off of the test score sheets? That's how stressed the kids were. Wait till your kindergartener hits 2nd grade and they start prepping him for EOGs, which start to "count" the following year. I truly hope it's better then, for everyone's sake.

[Fumesucker]

13. Of course it will do what it was designed to do

Help destroy public education so that private entities can make vast profits off "education".

In that sense it's going to be a smashing success.

[MissB]

16. For our district, probably. Why? Because

of the high SES of families in the district.

Most of our teachers have masters degrees. They are well paid, even. The kids in district don't worry about where their next meal is coming from or where they will live next week.

The implementation I'm seeing at the high school level is fine. I did get kinda cranky with my oldest yesterday when he mentioned that he doesn't do the homework for his geology class. Turns out the teacher doesn't collect it, so he looks at the problems and makes sure he knows the material. He is pulling an A in the class (straight A kid), so I backed off.

I'm liking what I see for the English classes for both of my kids. The structure works really well only because the class size is about 20 kids/class. They can develop essays over time and get feedback and understand the rubric. It's made both of the kids better writers.