Common Core's epic fail: Special Education

[Anonymous]

But you weren't surprised by the results of those tests, right? You already knew where kids were based on your own testing and interactions with students, right? The tests just verified what you already knew

And, we didn't waste time practicing for the tests like they do now. Teachers could be creative then.

[Anonymous]

Before NCLB and Common Core, if there was a beautiful day after a nasty stretch, I would think nothing of giving the kids an extra long recess. Not anymore.

[Anonymous]

Good teachers are extremely important, but, unfortunately the tests are driving the teaching methods. The principals want lots of practice on the tests. Fact.

This makes me really sad. I hate the idea that people who are not with the students believe they understand the students more and can drive the process successfully. They cannot. The students and the classroom dynamics are much too complex. Teachers are treated like robots and students are parts on the line. "Data driven". We are losing our humanity in this process.

[Anonymous]

This makes me really sad. I hate the idea that people who are not with the students believe they understand the students more and can drive the process successfully. They cannot. The students and the classroom dynamics are much too complex. Teachers are treated like robots and students are parts on the line. "Data driven". We are losing our humanity in this process.

And, the push is now to connect it to teacher evaluation. It will be especially hard to get good teachers in low economic schools.

[Anonymous]

What can we do to turn this around? I fear we are going to have more and more maladjusted people walking around because the focus has been so narrow. Socially adjusted people are more important than test scores. If a person cannot function in society, who cares what the test scores were? The teacher must be allowed to decide what the priorities are for any given student (and work on those).

[Anonymous]

Before NCLB and Common Core, if there was a beautiful day after a nasty stretch, I would think nothing of giving the kids an extra long recess. Not anymore.

Those kids learned more about love, compassion, and enjoying life from you because of your actions. At the end of the day, those are the important things in life that keep us sane and healthy. Now look at where our kids are---stressed out and less healthy overall. It's pitiful.

[Anonymous]

1. Write your congressman and tell him how you feel. Ask to repeal NCLB.
2. Tell your state congressmen that you do not want Common Core--that will only make NCLB worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Which standards were in those three systems?

What does it matter? It's not the standards, it's the teaching and the students.

If the standards don't matter, then why so upset about the Common Core standards? After all, the standards don't matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This makes me really sad. I hate the idea that people who are not with the students believe they understand the students more and can drive the process successfully. They cannot. The students and the classroom dynamics are much too complex. Teachers are treated like robots and students are parts on the line. "Data driven". We are losing our humanity in this process.

And, the push is now to connect it to teacher evaluation. It will be especially hard to get good teachers in low economic schools.

That depends on the way the teacher evaluation system uses the test scores.

Which is an issue with teacher evaluation systems, not with the Common Core standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before NCLB and Common Core, if there was a beautiful day after a nasty stretch, I would think nothing of giving the kids an extra long recess. Not anymore.

How did the Common Core standards affect your giving the kids an extra long recess?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I believe that the teacher>the standards>the standardized test. The standards do not drive the teacher. The truly good teacher is driven by an intrinsic motivation to help students learn. Can a teacher improve scores on a test by drill and kill? Sure. But do those scores tell us that she/he is a "good" teacher?

NCLB started when my daughter was in fifth grade. Huge difference in the teaching methods and the atmosphere once it kicked in. Things were better before NCLB --hands down.

I think that we can be nostalgic for the days before NCLB, but I don't think we should be nostalgic for how wonderful the public education system in the US was before NCLB -- because it wasn't. There were big problems that NCLB was supposed to help fix.

[Anonymous]

There were big problems that NCLB was supposed to help fix.

But it hasn't.

[Anonymous]

Which is an issue with teacher evaluation systems, not with the Common Core standards.

Yes, it is. Go count the number of standards for each grade level. Then, get back. Testing is tied to CC. Lots of standards to test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There were big problems that NCLB was supposed to help fix.

But it hasn't.

But it's better to have some accountability than none. There was very little accountability before NCLB.

http://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/resources/articles/legalissues/raiseaccount/index.php

"Statewide Testing Requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act
Annual testing in reading and mathematics in grades 3-8 is a requirement of NCLB by 2005-06. Testing in science is mandated by 2007-08, once in grades 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12"

CC standards have issues; the standardized tests for CC standards have issues. They need to fix those issues, or maybe even come up with different standards/tests, but going back to what we had before is not the solution. There were way too many kids being left behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There were big problems that NCLB was supposed to help fix.

But it hasn't.

That is an argument against NCLB. It's not an argument in favor of how the schools were just dandy before NCLB. They weren't.