PARCC monitoring student's social media, wants schools to "punish" them

[Anonymous]

But it's easy for people who aren't in the school to "fix" and say "we did something".

Especially, when the vast majority of those people know nothing about classrooms. One of the people on the committee was a state legislator. MAKES NO SENSE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another huge elephant in the room is poverty and shipping jobs overseas. Lift people out of poverty and scores will go up...but need to give it some time.

And the best way to reduce offshoring and reduce poverty is by making kids more employable. And the way that happens is that you give them BETTER math and literacy skills, not by bitching about and watering down / getting rid of standards.

The world is getting MORE complex, not less. It's getting HARDER to get hired, not easier. This is why we need to RAISE the bar, not lower it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another huge elephant in the room is poverty and shipping jobs overseas. Lift people out of poverty and scores will go up...but need to give it some time.

And the best way to reduce offshoring and reduce poverty is by making kids more employable. And the way that happens is that you give them BETTER math and literacy skills, not by bitching about and watering down / getting rid of standards.

The world is getting MORE complex, not less. It's getting HARDER to get hired, not easier. This is why we need to RAISE the bar, not lower it.

Actually, if your goal is reducing poverty, I think it's much more effective to actually address poverty directly, here and now, rather than to raise educational standards in the hope that this will make poor children more employable some day in the future.

But evidently actually addressing poverty directly is yet another thing that we used to be able to do in America but now can no longer do.

[Anonymous]

And the best way to reduce offshoring and reduce poverty is by making kids more employable. And the way that happens is that you give them BETTER math and literacy skills, not by bitching about and watering down / getting rid of standards.

Agree that math and literacy are important, but the picture is much broader in terms of "employability". The socialization that goes on in families and later in the school is just as, if not more, important. Employability means the person can function in the workplace socially as well. Schools have a broad mission in getting people ready for work---much broader than the Common Core standards.


http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTNWDR2013/Resources/8258024-1320950747192/8260293-1322665883147/Q5-Skills_or_jobs.pdf

Skills are acquired throughout life. People learn, adapt, and form
their skills through a multitude of interactions and mechanisms
within the household and neighborhood, during the formative
years of schooling, at work, and in training. Cognitive skills include
verbal ability, working memory, numeracy, and problem-solving
abilities. Social skills are based on personality traits that underlie
behaviors such as teamwork, reliability, discipline, or work effort.a
Technical skills enable the performance of specific tasks. Because all
jobs require a combination of skills that are formed in multiple ways
and in diverse circumstances, policy makers face complex challenges
in forging the best path for skills development.
The first months and years of life are the most crucial for skill formation.
This is when intelligence and learning abilities, the foundations
for the development of core cognitive and social skills, are
cemented.b Brain maturation occurs in steps, with new skills building
on earlier ones. If the foundation is strong, higher-order cognitive
and social skills can be added later on. This leads to higher
adaptability in rapidly changing job environments and the acquisition
of job-specific techniques. In the slums of Mumbai, a special
program run in parallel to primary schooling raised children’s self
esteem, self-efficacy, and aspirations, increasing scores on schoolleaving
examinations and initial labor market outcomes.c
But while
foundations are laid early on, skills are also shaped after childhood
and in working life.
Attention to the measurement of skills has gained prominence
worldwide. Achievement tests provide information for parents,
instructors, and administrators, and enable a better understanding
of systemwide performance and achievements. While the skills
measured on these tests appear to be purely academic in nature,
test scores reflect more than individuals’ cognitive skills. A good
part of the variation in achievement tests can be attributed to personality
traits or social skills as well as to incentive systems. These
personality traits and social skills are critical in predicting individuals’
life outcomes, including educational attainment and earnings.
More recently, efforts have gone in the direction of assessing
adult competencies, by measuring the variety, intensity, and frequency
of skills used in the workplace. These measures range from
assessing different types of manual and workplace skills of a more
routine manner to complex capabilities, such as problem solving
abilities.

[Anonymous]

And the way that happens is that you give them BETTER math and literacy skills, not by bitching about and watering down / getting rid of standards.

Problem is that you are assuming the standards are better. You are assuming an awful lot.

[Anonymous]

^ Yes, this person makes it sound like these new standards are vastly superior to previous ones. At the same time it was previously mentioned that these new standards were taken from previous ones. It makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

^ Yes, this person makes it sound like these new standards are vastly superior to previous ones. At the same time it was previously mentioned that these new standards were taken from previous ones. It makes no sense.

It makes perfect sense, if the new standards are a compilation of the best previous standards.

[Anonymous]

It makes perfect sense, if the new standards are a compilation of the best previous standards.

So, you say they are "better"
You say they were written by "experts"

Neither is true or documented in any way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It makes perfect sense, if the new standards are a compilation of the best previous standards.

So, you say they are "better"
You say they were written by "experts"

Neither is true or documented in any way.

You are galloping from argument to argument. Nobody was saying anything about "better" or "experts". The argument was that it is not possible for the Common Core standards to be both based on previous standards and better than previous standards. However, it is possible.

[Anonymous]

However, it is possible.

Possible--but they are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

However, it is possible.

Possible--but they are not.

That is a different argument.

You are welcome to provide evidence to support your assertion that the Common Core standards are not better than the various previous state standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

^ Yes, this person makes it sound like these new standards are vastly superior to previous ones. At the same time it was previously mentioned that these new standards were taken from previous ones. It makes no sense.

You are of course welcome to try and provide data and evidence to support the notion that the situation prior to Common Core was better.

...Which we already know you won't and can't, so your argument is already moot.

[Anonymous]

The elephant in the room is the money. The standards really don't make any difference. But, taxpayers and kids are paying the price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And the best way to reduce offshoring and reduce poverty is by making kids more employable. And the way that happens is that you give them BETTER math and literacy skills, not by bitching about and watering down / getting rid of standards.

Agree that math and literacy are important, but the picture is much broader in terms of "employability". The socialization that goes on in families and later in the school is just as, if not more, important. Employability means the person can function in the workplace socially as well. Schools have a broad mission in getting people ready for work---much broader than the Common Core standards.


http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTNWDR2013/Resources/8258024-1320950747192/8260293-1322665883147/Q5-Skills_or_jobs.pdf

Skills are acquired throughout life. People learn, adapt, and form
their skills through a multitude of interactions and mechanisms
within the household and neighborhood, during the formative
years of schooling, at work, and in training. Cognitive skills include
verbal ability, working memory, numeracy, and problem-solving
abilities. Social skills are based on personality traits that underlie
behaviors such as teamwork, reliability, discipline, or work effort.a
Technical skills enable the performance of specific tasks. Because all
jobs require a combination of skills that are formed in multiple ways
and in diverse circumstances, policy makers face complex challenges
in forging the best path for skills development.
The first months and years of life are the most crucial for skill formation.
This is when intelligence and learning abilities, the foundations
for the development of core cognitive and social skills, are
cemented.b Brain maturation occurs in steps, with new skills building
on earlier ones. If the foundation is strong, higher-order cognitive
and social skills can be added later on. This leads to higher
adaptability in rapidly changing job environments and the acquisition
of job-specific techniques. In the slums of Mumbai, a special
program run in parallel to primary schooling raised children’s self
esteem, self-efficacy, and aspirations, increasing scores on schoolleaving
examinations and initial labor market outcomes.c
But while
foundations are laid early on, skills are also shaped after childhood
and in working life.
Attention to the measurement of skills has gained prominence
worldwide. Achievement tests provide information for parents,
instructors, and administrators, and enable a better understanding
of systemwide performance and achievements. While the skills
measured on these tests appear to be purely academic in nature,
test scores reflect more than individuals’ cognitive skills. A good
part of the variation in achievement tests can be attributed to personality
traits or social skills as well as to incentive systems. These
personality traits and social skills are critical in predicting individuals’
life outcomes, including educational attainment and earnings.
More recently, efforts have gone in the direction of assessing
adult competencies, by measuring the variety, intensity, and frequency
of skills used in the workplace. These measures range from
assessing different types of manual and workplace skills of a more
routine manner to complex capabilities, such as problem solving
abilities.

So you are giving academics a short schrift in favor of soft skills. Well, if you think DCPS has historically been doing a good job of teaching kids soft skills then you are sorely mistaken there as well! Witnessed a whole bunch of shoving, yelling and a fight on a city bus just this morning! SORELY mistaken.

In fact, one wonders if they do ANYTHING well. FAIL.

[Anonymous]

You are of course welcome to try and provide data and evidence to support the notion that the situation prior to Common Core was better.

...Which we already know you won't and can't, so your argument is already moot.

"the situation"?? Define please.