"Teacher of the Year" quits over Common Core tests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The claims that "teachers weren't involved" and that it was "behind closed doors" and "developed and run by Pearson with no input from front line teachers" et cetera are FALSE on every count.

Well, I am a teacher and know a lot of teachers and none of us were asked for input.

NEA, AFT and other organizations representing millions of teachers DID ask for input and did outreach. Seems to me that you didn't hear about it is your own problem.

[Anonymous]

^ "implementation was botched IN THE STATES."

That's not a Common Core problem, that's a STATE AND SCHOOL DISTRICT problem.

It doesn't really matter whose problem this is because we all own the problem now. It has to be fixed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And, more, from the National Education Association, representing and speaking on behalf of 2.9 million teachers that again speaks to the fact that teachers WERE involved in the development process:

http://www.nea.org/home/46665.htm


NEA’s Involvement in the Common Core State Standards
How and Why NEA Has Been Involved in the Development and Implementation of the Standards

The partnership that developed the Common Core State Standards is headed by the National Governor’s Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The group invited NEA to be a partner in the enterprise. NEA decided to join the partnership for two major reasons.

First, it is clear that that there is broad support from many groups of stakeholders for common standards. Second, NEA wanted to be sure that the concerns and voices of teachers were considered as these standards were developed. That has happened as the project staff met with groups of mathematics and English language arts teachers who were NEA members and National Board Certified.

There is evidence that they listened carefully to our members and incorporated many of their suggestions into the subsequent drafts of the standards. Three of our teachers from the review group were on official review committees for the standards.

When the first drafts of the Common Core State Standards for College and Workplace Readiness in mathematics and English language arts were released, the Common Core State Standards staff and writers met with two groups of NEA members. One was a group of mathematics teachers and the other was a group of English language arts teachers. All the teachers in the groups were National Board Certified Teachers.

The standards project staff listened carefully to our teachers and made substantive changes in the standards based on the recommendations of our teachers as well as those of teachers from other organizations including the American Federation of Teachers, the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

The claims that "teachers weren't involved" and that it was "behind closed doors" and "developed and run by Pearson with no input from front line teachers" et cetera are FALSE on every count.

Except that many teachers on those board DID NOT SIGN OFF ON THE standards. They think they are BAD STANDARDS.

Other teachers say THEY WERE IGNORED.

So it's all nicey-nice that the NEA put this out. A press release from a group like this hardly makes it true -- it makes it SPIN.

So you claim, anecdotally, and without data...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

^ "implementation was botched IN THE STATES."

That's not a Common Core problem, that's a STATE AND SCHOOL DISTRICT problem.

It doesn't really matter whose problem this is because we all own the problem now. It has to be fixed.

Yeah, so states and school districts better start getting their shit together then. Dumping the standards still doesn't change the fact that it was the states and school districts that screwed the pooch, as opposed to it being a standards problem.

[Anonymous]

^ "implementation was botched IN THE STATES."

That's not a Common Core problem, that's a STATE AND SCHOOL DISTRICT problem.

Maybe it's time for Gates and company to fund some help for the states and school districts in order to implement Common Core. I'm sure there are some "experts" who could head this up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

^ "implementation was botched IN THE STATES."

That's not a Common Core problem, that's a STATE AND SCHOOL DISTRICT problem.

It doesn't really matter whose problem this is because we all own the problem now. It has to be fixed.

Yeah, so states and school districts better start getting their shit together then. Dumping the standards still doesn't change the fact that it was the states and school districts that screwed the pooch, as opposed to it being a standards problem.

The PARCC tests -- allegedly written to the standards -- do indicate it's the standards that screwed the pooch, since more than half the states are dropping out.

[Anonymous]

NEA, AFT and other organizations representing millions of teachers DID ask for input and did outreach. Seems to me that you didn't hear about it is your own problem.

No, they did not ask for input. They did not do "outreach" on this. That is really not the job of the unions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

^ "implementation was botched IN THE STATES."

That's not a Common Core problem, that's a STATE AND SCHOOL DISTRICT problem.

It doesn't really matter whose problem this is because we all own the problem now. It has to be fixed.

Yeah, so states and school districts better start getting their shit together then. Dumping the standards still doesn't change the fact that it was the states and school districts that screwed the pooch, as opposed to it being a standards problem.

Sadly, many of them would have fucked up the rollout regardless of how good or bad the standards are. But, it's convenient to just blame the standards than actually deal with the bureaucracy and dysfunction.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, so states and school districts better start getting their shit together then. Dumping the standards still doesn't change the fact that it was the states and school districts that screwed the pooch, as opposed to it being a standards problem.

This is the kind of arrogance that is not endearing the states to the standards. With this kind of love and support, who would want to stay with the CC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

NEA, AFT and other organizations representing millions of teachers DID ask for input and did outreach. Seems to me that you didn't hear about it is your own problem.

No, they did not ask for input. They did not do "outreach" on this. That is really not the job of the unions.

Yes, they did ask for input and they got lots of input, too - and that's proven. They asked, regardless of whether it was their job to ask for it or not.

But I would contend that in fact it is part of their job as a union, to enhance and improve respect of teachers as a profession.

[Anonymous]

Sadly, many of them would have fucked up the rollout regardless of how good or bad the standards are. But, it's convenient to just blame the standards than actually deal with the bureaucracy and dysfunction.

If this was known, why were the states pushed to adopt the standards at all? If this was known, why didn't the feds take other steps to improve the "bureaucracy and dysfunction" problems?

Why were standards thought to be the end all for improving things if this was already known?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yeah, so states and school districts better start getting their shit together then. Dumping the standards still doesn't change the fact that it was the states and school districts that screwed the pooch, as opposed to it being a standards problem.

This is the kind of arrogance that is not endearing the states to the standards. With this kind of love and support, who would want to stay with the CC?

Ah, got you. We're all supposed to just shut up, roll over, play dead, and put up with grotesque mediocrity and dysfunction in our public school systems lest we come off as "arrogant."

[Anonymous]

NEA, AFT and other organizations representing millions of teachers DID ask for input and did outreach. Seems to me that you didn't hear about it is your own problem.


No, they did not ask for input. They did not do "outreach" on this. That is really not the job of the unions.

Yes, they did ask for input and they got lots of input, too - and that's proven. They asked, regardless of whether it was their job to ask for it or not.

But I would contend that in fact it is part of their job as a union, to enhance and improve respect of teachers as a profession.

I belonged to the union when I taught I was never once asked for anything but money. FWIW, the union leaders at hq decided who the union would support in elections. They did not ask the members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sadly, many of them would have fucked up the rollout regardless of how good or bad the standards are. But, it's convenient to just blame the standards than actually deal with the bureaucracy and dysfunction.

If this was known, why were the states pushed to adopt the standards at all? If this was known, why didn't the feds take other steps to improve the "bureaucracy and dysfunction" problems?

Why were standards thought to be the end all for improving things if this was already known?

Who says it was known? I just happen to be one person who is a little more cynical about state and local governance than most. And again, CC wasn't a "Fed" thing to begin with, it was initiated by the states, led by the states, developed by the states, and rolled out by the states - the feds came on at the tail end of the process, mainly just to provide a little funding to help states with adoption. And that means, state rollout would evidently have been EVEN WORSE if the feds weren't supplementing states with additional resources.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they did ask for input and they got lots of input, too - and that's proven. They asked, regardless of whether it was their job to ask for it or not.

Seriously? That's great. Please post the results of the input--I'd like to see the data, comments, etc.