Why are people so upset about Common Core?

[Anonymous]

The Common Core simply requires that they be thoughtful about their expectations for reading and writing during those assignments, and that their expectations are aligned with what is expected in other classes.

So, does the Chemistry teacher give the child a composition grade along with the Chemistry grade? That's not a very good idea.

[Anonymous]

Time Magazine has an article about the controversy on Common Core and why some states are abandoning it. The standards are meant to be an improvement in the sense that they set higher standards for measuring student performance. It shouldn't be a surprise then that students and teachers are having a hard time meeting those tougher standards and some kids and some teachers are failing. The result - some kids are developing school anxiety and teachers don't like their jobs anymore. The solutions are to either lower standards or find ways to meet the tougher standards.

The overall conclusion in the Time article was that some states rushed to adopt the standards (and get the federal money) without investing in the infrastructure that was needed to support implementation of the Common Core standards.

This was one of the arguments Virginia had against adopting Common Core. That they had developed an infrastructure around implementation of their standards and Common Core didn't come with any infrastructure. Virginia would have had to build that anew and lose the investment made in supporting Virginia standards of learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

People started misinterpreting them because they are idiots.

Yes, this is what we want. People calling other people names because they disagree about something. If this is Common Core, then count me out.

We can agree and I won't call you an idiot for merely disagreeing with me. But when people get all up in arms about something, and write blog post after blog post and start spreading misinformation via Facebook and Twitter, all because they are willfully misinterpreting something, and they DO NOT DO THE RESEARCH and fail to back up claims with facts... they are idiots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The Common Core simply requires that they be thoughtful about their expectations for reading and writing during those assignments, and that their expectations are aligned with what is expected in other classes.

So, does the Chemistry teacher give the child a composition grade along with the Chemistry grade? That's not a very good idea.

Common Core is the standards, it doesn't direct schools on how to assess them. However, Chemistry teachers have graded things like lab reports, or questions from a text book for a long time, and have incorporated those things into student's final grade. Part of being proficient in Chemistry is being able to learn Chemistry from various modalities, and to report what you've learned. Common Core simply ensures that the expectations that teachers have from year to year in these skills progress in a logical manner. Rather than moving from a 9th grade Biology text book written on a 12th grade level, to a 10th grade Chemistry book written on a 6th grade level. Or that if students learn to cite references in a certain way in a certain grade, they're held to the same expectation in their History papers as their English papers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The Common Core simply requires that they be thoughtful about their expectations for reading and writing during those assignments, and that their expectations are aligned with what is expected in other classes.

So, does the Chemistry teacher give the child a composition grade along with the Chemistry grade? That's not a very good idea.

Common Core is the standards, it doesn't direct schools on how to assess them. However, Chemistry teachers have graded things like lab reports, or questions from a text book for a long time, and have incorporated those things into student's final grade. Part of being proficient in Chemistry is being able to learn Chemistry from various modalities, and to report what you've learned. Common Core simply ensures that the expectations that teachers have from year to year in these skills progress in a logical manner. Rather than moving from a 9th grade Biology text book written on a 12th grade level, to a 10th grade Chemistry book written on a 6th grade level. Or that if students learn to cite references in a certain way in a certain grade, they're held to the same expectation in their History papers as their English papers.

How does the testing fit in across the country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The Common Core simply requires that they be thoughtful about their expectations for reading and writing during those assignments, and that their expectations are aligned with what is expected in other classes.

So, does the Chemistry teacher give the child a composition grade along with the Chemistry grade? That's not a very good idea.

Exactly, if you notice the CC proponent keeps using words like thoughtful and flexible aligned without getting into concrete details. It's all very superficial and fluffy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The Common Core simply requires that they be thoughtful about their expectations for reading and writing during those assignments, and that their expectations are aligned with what is expected in other classes.

So, does the Chemistry teacher give the child a composition grade along with the Chemistry grade? That's not a very good idea.

Common Core is the standards, it doesn't direct schools on how to assess them. However, Chemistry teachers have graded things like lab reports, or questions from a text book for a long time, and have incorporated those things into student's final grade. Part of being proficient in Chemistry is being able to learn Chemistry from various modalities, and to report what you've learned. Common Core simply ensures that the expectations that teachers have from year to year in these skills progress in a logical manner. Rather than moving from a 9th grade Biology text book written on a 12th grade level, to a 10th grade Chemistry book written on a 6th grade level. Or that if students learn to cite references in a certain way in a certain grade, they're held to the same expectation in their History papers as their English papers.

How does the testing fit in across the country?

When a state switches to new standards, they change their annual assessment to align with them. Because creating an assessment is a huge, expensive task, and because states want to be able to compare their results with each other, most states who have chosen to adopt the Common Core have joined one of two new assessments that are being written: PARCC, and Smarter Balanced Assessment.

These assessments will look at the skills that are addressed in the Common Core: Literacy and Math. The Literacy test will undoubtedly have a fair amount of nonfiction on it, and some of the nonfiction passages will probably have science or social studies themes, but kids won't be assessed on science and social studies content, since each state has their own standards in those areas. So, there might be a passage about an event in American History, but all the information needed to understand the passage will be provided. There won't be a question such as "Compare this with . . . " referencing another event that isn't addressed in the passage.

[Anonymous]

When a state switches to new standards, they change their annual assessment to align with them. Because creating an assessment is a huge, expensive task, and because states want to be able to compare their results with each other, most states who have chosen to adopt the Common Core have joined one of two new assessments that are being written: PARCC, and Smarter Balanced Assessment.

These assessments will look at the skills that are addressed in the Common Core: Literacy and Math. The Literacy test will undoubtedly have a fair amount of nonfiction on it, and some of the nonfiction passages will probably have science or social studies themes, but kids won't be assessed on science and social studies content, since each state has their own standards in those areas. So, there might be a passage about an event in American History, but all the information needed to understand the passage will be provided. There won't be a question such as "Compare this with . . . " referencing another event that isn't addressed in the passage.

And, who benefits the most? Publishing companies. Follow the money.

[Anonymous]

However, Chemistry teachers have graded things like lab reports, or questions from a text book for a long time, and have incorporated those things into student's final grade. Part of being proficient in Chemistry is being able to learn Chemistry from various modalities, and to report what you've learned. Common Core simply ensures that the expectations that teachers have from year to year in these skills progress in a logical manner.

Exactly. Let's reinvent the wheel with the unintended consequence of paying lots of money for it that could be used helping the students in other ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The Common Core simply requires that they be thoughtful about their expectations for reading and writing during those assignments, and that their expectations are aligned with what is expected in other classes.

So, does the Chemistry teacher give the child a composition grade along with the Chemistry grade? That's not a very good idea.

Exactly, if you notice the CC proponent keeps using words like thoughtful and flexible aligned without getting into concrete details. It's all very superficial and fluffy.

You certainly can, and should, expect students writing a chemistry lab report to use good organization, clear writing, and solid support with details backed by research, in their reports.

Rubric for a Scientific Argument in a Lab Report

Information and text are arranged in a format that is identified from the lab report information sheet. The lab report is arranged in the following manner:
- Title
- Introduction
- Procedure
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Resources

Arrangement of Text-
Text is arranged in a coherent, logical manner that is appropriate for the topic and specific audience identified in the lab report.

Paragraphs are well put together with a coherent “flow”. They are persuasive and connect to surrounding material.



Title of Report:
The title clearly identifies the topic and the main point of the document

Thesis Statement:
Is found in the introduction section of the lab report. Includes the following:
- A testable scientific main idea.
- The statement predicts an outcome of some sort about the main idea.
- There is evidence given to prove the argument
- The thesis statement is specific and looks at a particular question or theory.

Introduction:
The introduction includes the thesis statement and gives the main idea (argument).
General information about the topic is given. The reader would understand the significance of the topic

Materials and Methods:
The procedure for the laboratory experiment is included in this section.
The procedure is written in paragraph form and can be easily repeated by another scientist.
It is written in past tense to illustrate what was done during the laboratory.
All materials used in the laboratory are clearly indicated in the body of each methods paragraph.

????
Discussion:
Outside evidence (proof or information) is thoroughly discussed and introduced in the discussion section.
The results are discussed here as well, in addition to the outside information. A strong connection is built between the two pieces of important information.
A counterclaim is introduced to oppose the argument introduced in the thesis statement.
Evidence for the claim (argument) and counterclaim are given to successfully persuade the reader towards the original claim

Evidence to Support the Claim:
A minimum of three pieces of evidence, which clearly support the claim and oppose the counterclaim, are introduced and discussed in detail.
The evidence provided to support the claim is highly reputable, taken from multiple sources and the sources are provided for the reader.

http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1142&context=ehd_theses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

However, Chemistry teachers have graded things like lab reports, or questions from a text book for a long time, and have incorporated those things into student's final grade. Part of being proficient in Chemistry is being able to learn Chemistry from various modalities, and to report what you've learned. Common Core simply ensures that the expectations that teachers have from year to year in these skills progress in a logical manner.

Exactly. Let's reinvent the wheel with the unintended consequence of paying lots of money for it that could be used helping the students in other ways.

No reinventing of the wheel is necessary. The Common Core State Standards suggest that 70% of a student's reading in high school come from non-fiction sources. That is all.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/education/critics-of-common-core-state-standards-are-off-base-teachers/article_116d6f28-c2bf-11e3-b983-10604b9f6eda.html

For instance, one criticism says Common Core's heavier emphasis on nonfiction texts reduces the study of classic literature.

Nick Kremer, Columbia Public Schools' coordinator for secondary language arts, and Becky Stanley, his counterpart at the elementary level, said there is a warranted shift to more nonfiction, but classic fiction is still taught.

At the elementary level, reading used to be about 90 percent fiction and 10 percent nonfiction.

Now, it will be 50-50, which will help prepare students for the secondary level, when teachers will use 30 percent fiction and 70 percent nonfiction.

"At the elementary level it is a shift because there needs to be more nonfiction," Kremer said. He pointed out that once students get into college and professions, most required reading is nonfiction texts, not fiction books.

But, those ratios cover a student's entire day, including social studies and science classes, not just language arts classes. And English teachers are still teaching literary classics many adults will remember reading in high school.

For example, Lynn Hagen, who teaches ninth grade at Battle High School, said her students have read the "Lord of the Flies," "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Huck Finn" among other fiction this year.

"Common Core doesn't dictate what books teachers use," Stanley said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The Common Core simply requires that they be thoughtful about their expectations for reading and writing during those assignments, and that their expectations are aligned with what is expected in other classes.

So, does the Chemistry teacher give the child a composition grade along with the Chemistry grade? That's not a very good idea.

The chemistry teacher gives the child a grade, based in part on the child's ability to understand scientific writing about chemistry. Done and dusted. That doesn't seem very complicated to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The Common Core simply requires that they be thoughtful about their expectations for reading and writing during those assignments, and that their expectations are aligned with what is expected in other classes.

So, does the Chemistry teacher give the child a composition grade along with the Chemistry grade? That's not a very good idea.

Common Core is the standards, it doesn't direct schools on how to assess them. However, Chemistry teachers have graded things like lab reports, or questions from a text book for a long time, and have incorporated those things into student's final grade. Part of being proficient in Chemistry is being able to learn Chemistry from various modalities, and to report what you've learned. Common Core simply ensures that the expectations that teachers have from year to year in these skills progress in a logical manner. Rather than moving from a 9th grade Biology text book written on a 12th grade level, to a 10th grade Chemistry book written on a 6th grade level. Or that if students learn to cite references in a certain way in a certain grade, they're held to the same expectation in their History papers as their English papers.

How does the testing fit in across the country?

When a state switches to new standards, they change their annual assessment to align with them. Because creating an assessment is a huge, expensive task, and because states want to be able to compare their results with each other, most states who have chosen to adopt the Common Core have joined one of two new assessments that are being written: PARCC, and Smarter Balanced Assessment.

These assessments will look at the skills that are addressed in the Common Core: Literacy and Math. The Literacy test will undoubtedly have a fair amount of nonfiction on it, and some of the nonfiction passages will probably have science or social studies themes, but kids won't be assessed on science and social studies content, since each state has their own standards in those areas. So, there might be a passage about an event in American History, but all the information needed to understand the passage will be provided. There won't be a question such as "Compare this with . . . " referencing another event that isn't addressed in the passage.

Do you see the issue now? This is no longer a state initiative, this is a federal initiative. And since SATs and ACTs will change as well (they are being rewritten to CC standards as we speak), you will see charter and private schools being forced to use the same books, etc. . in order for those kids to test well on the college boards. English will be always be less controversial than math, because as you say the passage is there to see. Mathematics is going to be a huge issue, because the test questions WILL reflect the methods used on the PARCC tests, etc.

Is that something you advocate?

There is a reason teachers are complaining they cannot see test questions, and why transparency isn't there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

However, Chemistry teachers have graded things like lab reports, or questions from a text book for a long time, and have incorporated those things into student's final grade. Part of being proficient in Chemistry is being able to learn Chemistry from various modalities, and to report what you've learned. Common Core simply ensures that the expectations that teachers have from year to year in these skills progress in a logical manner.

Exactly. Let's reinvent the wheel with the unintended consequence of paying lots of money for it that could be used helping the students in other ways.

Yup. This person consistently ignores the changes to the college boards. There's a reason that's being done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The Common Core simply requires that they be thoughtful about their expectations for reading and writing during those assignments, and that their expectations are aligned with what is expected in other classes.

So, does the Chemistry teacher give the child a composition grade along with the Chemistry grade? That's not a very good idea.

Common Core is the standards, it doesn't direct schools on how to assess them. However, Chemistry teachers have graded things like lab reports, or questions from a text book for a long time, and have incorporated those things into student's final grade. Part of being proficient in Chemistry is being able to learn Chemistry from various modalities, and to report what you've learned. Common Core simply ensures that the expectations that teachers have from year to year in these skills progress in a logical manner. Rather than moving from a 9th grade Biology text book written on a 12th grade level, to a 10th grade Chemistry book written on a 6th grade level. Or that if students learn to cite references in a certain way in a certain grade, they're held to the same expectation in their History papers as their English papers.

How does the testing fit in across the country?

When a state switches to new standards, they change their annual assessment to align with them. Because creating an assessment is a huge, expensive task, and because states want to be able to compare their results with each other, most states who have chosen to adopt the Common Core have joined one of two new assessments that are being written: PARCC, and Smarter Balanced Assessment.

These assessments will look at the skills that are addressed in the Common Core: Literacy and Math. The Literacy test will undoubtedly have a fair amount of nonfiction on it, and some of the nonfiction passages will probably have science or social studies themes, but kids won't be assessed on science and social studies content, since each state has their own standards in those areas. So, there might be a passage about an event in American History, but all the information needed to understand the passage will be provided. There won't be a question such as "Compare this with . . . " referencing another event that isn't addressed in the passage.

Do you see the issue now? This is no longer a state initiative, this is a federal initiative. And since SATs and ACTs will change as well (they are being rewritten to CC standards as we speak), you will see charter and private schools being forced to use the same books, etc. . in order for those kids to test well on the college boards. English will be always be less controversial than math, because as you say the passage is there to see. Mathematics is going to be a huge issue, because the test questions WILL reflect the methods used on the PARCC tests, etc.

Is that something you advocate?

There is a reason teachers are complaining they cannot see test questions, and why transparency isn't there.

16 states and the District of Columbia are part of PARCC, less than half. It's not a federal initiate. It's a joint initiative between those 16 states and DC.

As far as the SAT and ACT changing, yes, I do believe in the changes. I think the tests should reflect the sequence in which things are currently taught in the majority of schools. Right now the SAT has been shown to have substantial bias. Changing it so that it's more closely aligned with what's actually taught in the majority of classrooms in this country will reduce some of that bias, and give kids who don't have access to outside enrichment a chance. If evening the playing field in this manner leads to people discovering that students at some private schoolare so far behind that as seniors they can't score well on a test of what public school students are doing in 9th or 10th grade Geometry (SAT 1 Math) or 10th or 11th grade Alg. 2 (SAT 2 Math 1), then that's an indication that those schools need to change their programs. Charter schools already teach to and are assessed on state standards, and this doesn't change under Common Core.