Teachers, parents souring on Common Core across U.S.

[Anonymous]

Prior to the CC standards, MD had the Core Learning Goals. They're very similar. Skills are skills after all.

There are two differences I see, however, based on my experiences: that the new standards emphasize process (which connects to critical thinking) and that our curriculum department had more time to align the new guides to match the CLGs.

Understanding the standards requires time. Each curriculum writer (and sadly, MCPS isn't using teachers as part of the process) should have enough time to work with the standards in order to understand just how complex they are. Ideally, an entire committee of teachers who have worked with students from all over the county should be the experts in designing the frameworks.

But when you have folks outside of the classroom 1) determining what's right for students an 2) creating frameworks for ALL students (including high school students, for example, reading at an elementary level), you have a recipe for a disaster.

You can't blame the standards; you can blame the non-educators for making decisions FOR teachers who have only become pawns in this dangerous game.

Pawn signing off!

[Anonymous]

Common core is common sense.

LOL! "Common sense" is not relying on so-called "experts" in ivory towers to determine what our kids should learn.

[Anonymous]

editing grammatical error!

Anonymous wrote:Prior to the CC standards, MD had the Core Learning Goals. They're very similar. Skills are skills after all.

There are two differences I see, however, based on my experiences: that the new standards emphasize process (which connects to critical thinking) and that our curriculum department had more time to align the new guides to match the CLGs.

Understanding the standards requires time. Each curriculum writer (and sadly, MCPS isn't using teachers as part of the process) should have enough time to work with the standards in order to understand just how complex they are. Ideally, an entire committee of teachers who HAS worked with students from all over the county should be the experts in designing the frameworks.

But when you have folks outside of the classroom 1) determining what's right for students and 2) creating frameworks for ALL students (including high school students, for example, reading at an elementary level), you have a recipe for a disaster.

You can't blame the standards; you can blame the non-educators for making decisions FOR teachers who have only become pawns in this dangerous game.

Pawn signing off!

[Anonymous]

Common core doesn't have anything to do with "following rules.

Then, what is the point of having them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Common core is common sense.

LOL! "Common sense" is not relying on so-called "experts" in ivory towers to determine what our kids should learn.

What, specifically, is wrong with the standards, OP?

Specifics. You know, evidence to back up your argument?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Common core is common sense.

LOL! "Common sense" is not relying on so-called "experts" in ivory towers to determine what our kids should learn.

The standards are not flawed; how they've been interpreted is a different story, however.

[Anonymous]

What, specifically, is wrong with the standards, OP?

Specifics. You know, evidence to back up your argument?

Go check out the other threads on CC. Plenty of evidence there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Common core is common sense.

LOL! "Common sense" is not relying on so-called "experts" in ivory towers to determine what our kids should learn.

The standards are not flawed; how they've been interpreted is a different story, however.

And what the common core cheerleader fails to acknowledge is that the devil is always in the details. If it is difficult and confusing to implement, it doesnt matter how good the standards are. The whole concept is fundamentally flawed. This is why education is not mentioned in the Constitution. The founders recognized that tge locals and states were better suited to education because it is too far removed from the people at a federal level. And too cumbersome to changed flawed programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What, specifically, is wrong with the standards, OP?

Specifics. You know, evidence to back up your argument?

Go check out the other threads on CC. Plenty of evidence there.

No, I want to hear it from you (or OP, if you're not OP).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Common core is common sense.

LOL! "Common sense" is not relying on so-called "experts" in ivory towers to determine what our kids should learn.

The standards are not flawed; how they've been interpreted is a different story, however.

And what the common core cheerleader fails to acknowledge is that the devil is always in the details. If it is difficult and confusing to implement, it doesnt matter how good the standards are. The whole concept is fundamentally flawed. This is why education is not mentioned in the Constitution. The founders recognized that tge locals and states were better suited to education because it is too far removed from the people at a federal level. And too cumbersome to changed flawed programs.

Good thing Common Core was a grassroots effort from the state and local level.

[Anonymous]

I am a parent. I have 2 kids, one has experienced the MCPS curriculum pre 2.0 and another is going through 2.0. The starkest difference has been in how Math has been taught. The standards have fallen to such an extent that there is no way I would not intervene and teach my child at home. My kids are not guinea pigs,.

[Anonymous]

Good thing Common Core was a grassroots effort from the state and local level.

Myth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And what the common core cheerleader fails to acknowledge is that the devil is always in the details. If it is difficult and confusing to implement, it doesnt matter how good the standards are. The whole concept is fundamentally flawed. This is why education is not mentioned in the Constitution. The founders recognized that tge locals and states were better suited to education because it is too far removed from the people at a federal level. And too cumbersome to changed flawed programs.

The standards are not difficult and confusing to implement.

They are, however, different from standards states had earlier. In some cases the standards are more difficult than standards states had before. Whenever a school district or county or state adopts new standards or a new high stakes test, there will be a transition period which will be uncomfortable or upsetting to some teachers, and it is to be expected that students will not do as well on the new tests, especially if they are harder than the old ones. In addition, new tests can be poorly designed.

When states and counties and school districts try to bring in interim tests "designed like the PARCC or SMARTER BALANCE" these tests may also be poorly designed or have errors on them.

I know students in our MD school took what was essentially a practice PARCC tests (designed by the county in a manner similar to PARCC, or how they thought PARCC would be) and a bunch of students bombed the math test because they were unused to a multiple choice test that allowed you to select "all the correct answers". On many cases they selected ONE correct answer and then just stopped -- they were not used to the idea that multiple choice questions could have more than one answer bubbled in. Now that teachers know this, they have been preparing kids to locate dand bubble in ALL the correct answers. So a failing test score on these practice tests doesn't indicate that Common Core is a failure. There's just always a transition period when you bring in new standards, and new assessments.

I honestly think people need to calm down about Common Core. It'll take a couple of years to make the transition, but once we do, it will be a good thing to have similar standards and similar assessments across the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a parent. I have 2 kids, one has experienced the MCPS curriculum pre 2.0 and another is going through 2.0. The starkest difference has been in how Math has been taught. The standards have fallen to such an extent that there is no way I would not intervene and teach my child at home. My kids are not guinea pigs,.

Writing instruction however has improved, Imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I taught in VA pubic schools the first year that the SOLs were introduced and teachers said the same exact thing. It WAS exhausting and the change was difficult for everyone. Now, years later, VA is very happy with their SOLs and are sticking with them instead of switching to Common Core.

I wouldn't say that teachers are happy with SOL standards. The CC are worse, but that doesn't mean it is a good thing.

Well, back then the SOLs were adopted in VA you would have thought the world was going to end. Teachers were crying, principals were threatening to quit, parents complained that their kids were being pressured and threatened to pull kids out of testing on test days.

I think it was in '97 that schools were evaluated and given accreditation based on how many kids passed the SOLs and that first year, only 2% of all schools passed. AGain you would have thought it was the end of civilization, the agony, the heartache. Textbooks were rewritten, some of them were crappy, things got better. students learned to write to a prompt instead of just write whatever the hell they wanted in writing workshop. Social studies was tested now, so kids were taught more history. Gradually more and more kids were able to pass the SOLs. The first 3 years were rocky.

Here's what Jay Matthews had to say about the SOLs in 1998

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/va/testscores/scores010999.htm

More than 97 percent of Virginia's public schools have flunked the first round of the state's new student achievement tests, according to figures released yesterday – a failure rate so high that some local school officials and parents say it threatens the credibility of the state's testing program.