"Teacher of the Year" quits over Common Core tests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely do not understand this fixation on process.

If you knew the answers to all of your questions -- exactly who selected the teachers, and for what, and whether the selection was made by e-mail or paper letter or phone call, and the names of the teachers and their cvs, and the exact verbatim input of each teacher about everything, and the names of the teachers' pets and what the teachers' hobbies are and whether they prefer their oatmeal cookies with or without raisins -- then what?

Then they could get in front of the process. They could explain their choices and offer the documentation that led to them picking standards, and why standards are so elevated for reading and math starting in K, even when a majority of students is unlikely to meet them.

It's the worst sort of management to meet behind closed doors, then present the CCSS as though they are carved in stone on tablets from on high -- never to be questioned, only to be bowed to in servitude.

If there had been an actual national discussion about standards, they might have had a prayer of a successful rollout. But the CCSS people were afraid of doing this, because they saw a rare opportunity of states desperate for cash -- so they rolled out Race to the Top, and states took the bribe without fully processing what the standards would mean.

They *WEREN'T* developed behind closed doors, there *WAS* a national discussion and you need to STOP LYING about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If there had been an actual national discussion about standards, they might have had a prayer of a successful rollout. But the CCSS people were afraid of doing this, because they saw a rare opportunity of states desperate for cash -- so they rolled out Race to the Top, and states took the bribe without fully processing what the standards would mean.

This does not make sense. The Common Core standards were developed by the states. Race to the Top was a federal grant program.

I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you if you think Common Core was "developed by the states."

The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers say that the Common Core standards were developed by the states. Are they lying? How do you know? If the states did not develop them, who did develop them? How do you know?

The irrational PP that keeps making these claims has obviously bought into the Heartland Institute lies that Common Core was created in a locked room with no input and now having been painted into a corner finds can't admit she's wrong and can't be talked down from the cliff. Pretty sad.

[Anonymous]

Again, multiple posters are claiming this -- as it is the truth. Where is the Common Core office, where are the people tending to these standards? There is none -- except the sham NGA.

Your precious standards are hated and are doomed.

Kids are organizing against it now:

LBUQUERQUE, N.M. —Albuquerque Public Schools has posted a letter on its website in response to more planned PARCC protests.
Related

PARCC protest: 250 high school students walk out

Students are threatening to continue walkouts and protests when the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers standardized testing begins. In an interview Thursday, Superintendent Brad Winter addressed concerns from parents, teachers and students.

“It's the first time that PARCC has been given and there's going to be some anxiety and I know that parents are looking to opt their students out,” said Winter.

APS said 894 students have opted out of PARCC testing as of Thursday.

The school district said students who walk out and protest during school hours will be counted as an unexcused absence. APS will consider it ditching and discipline for those students will follow, and could include suspension.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Again, multiple posters are claiming this -- as it is the truth. Where is the Common Core office, where are the people tending to these standards? There is none -- except the sham NGA.

Why do you say that the NGA is a sham? It's a real organization. I've been in its office. I even know somebody who worked there. Here, you can go to its office too:

Hall of the States, 444 N. Capitol St., Ste. 267, Washington, D.C. 20001-1512
Phone: [phone] | Fax: [phone]

Also, I don't understand what you mean by "tending" to the standards. Do they need care and feeding, like a pet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Again, multiple posters are claiming this -- as it is the truth. Where is the Common Core office, where are the people tending to these standards? There is none -- except the sham NGA.

Your precious standards are hated and are doomed.

Kids are organizing against it now:

LBUQUERQUE, N.M. —Albuquerque Public Schools has posted a letter on its website in response to more planned PARCC protests.
Related

PARCC protest: 250 high school students walk out

Students are threatening to continue walkouts and protests when the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers standardized testing begins. In an interview Thursday, Superintendent Brad Winter addressed concerns from parents, teachers and students.

“It's the first time that PARCC has been given and there's going to be some anxiety and I know that parents are looking to opt their students out,” said Winter.

APS said 894 students have opted out of PARCC testing as of Thursday.

The school district said students who walk out and protest during school hours will be counted as an unexcused absence. APS will consider it ditching and discipline for those students will follow, and could include suspension.

Irrelevant non-sequitur. People believe in Bigfoot and UFOs, too.

You still have posted no DATA or real EVIDENCE to support the repeated claims that the standards were developed in a vacuum behind closed doors, that they did not have input from teachers, child psychologists, education experts, et cetera, or that they are developmentally inappropriate or that the standards are bad.

Until you can actually provide DATA and EVIDENCE to support your claims, you are no better than the people who believe in Bigfoot and UFOs.

[Anonymous]

They *WEREN'T* developed behind closed doors, there *WAS* a national discussion and you need to STOP LYING about this.

Then, please show us the documentation.

[Anonymous]

You still have posted no DATA or real EVIDENCE to support the repeated claims that the standards were developed in a vacuum behind closed doors, that they did not have input from teachers, child psychologists, education experts, et cetera, or that they are developmentally inappropriate or that the standards are bad.

The lack of data and documentation IS the data and evidence. Don't be dense. You cannot prove your argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

They *WEREN'T* developed behind closed doors, there *WAS* a national discussion and you need to STOP LYING about this.

Then, please show us the documentation.

First you need to explain what you mean by "documentation".

Various posters have provided plenty of documentation. But the discussion has gone like this:

Poster: Here is documentation
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.
Poster: Here is some more evidence
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.
Poster: Here is some more evidence
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.

That's a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You still have posted no DATA or real EVIDENCE to support the repeated claims that the standards were developed in a vacuum behind closed doors, that they did not have input from teachers, child psychologists, education experts, et cetera, or that they are developmentally inappropriate or that the standards are bad.

The lack of data and documentation IS the data and evidence. Don't be dense. You cannot prove your argument.

There's a circular argument! The standards were developed in a vacuum behind closed doors; I know this because there is no evidence I am willing to accept that shows that they weren't developed in a vacuum behind closed doors.

[Anonymous]

Poster: Here is documentation
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.
Poster: Here is some more evidence
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.
Poster: Here is some more evidence
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.

Where is the data and documentation. On the CC website? No--except to say they did it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Where is the data and documentation. On the CC website? No--except to say they did it.

No, there has been plenty of other stuff posted. Since you evidently don't consider any of it "data and documentation', please explain what you do mean by "data and documentation".

[Anonymous]

Poster: Here is documentation
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.
Poster: Here is some more evidence
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.
Poster: Here is some more evidence
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.

Sorry. You have never given any evidence that does not come from the Common Core or NGA website. Your opinion is not enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry. You have never given any evidence that does not come from the Common Core or NGA website. Your opinion is not enough.

You're already forgotten this? That was fast.

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2013/oct/21/public-comments-common-core-hearing/teachers-were-not-involved-developing-common-core-/

As Florida surges toward full implementation of the Common Core State Standards, the din is rising from some fronts to pull back.

Gov. Rick Scott, whose tea party base offers perhaps the most strident opposition, is listening.

In public forums that Scott requested, several critics stepped forward to denounce the Common Core, offering a variety of reasons that range from "federal intrusion" to "data collection." One oft-repeated claim was that "teachers were not involved" in creating the standards that they will have to use in their classrooms.

Karen Effrem, co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, pointed to an article from the libertarian Heartland Institute that detailed how the Common Core writers were not classroom teachers. The initial work groups did not include many K-12 educators, either, according to lists provided.

"Although teachers were allowed to submit comments as the standards were developed, there is no indication that these comments were actually reviewed and incorporated into the final product because only a summary was released to the public," Effrem’s group stated in its Common Core analysis.

The criticism had become so prevalent that the Common Core State Standards Initiative, the official organization that organizes the standards, has included it in its "Myths v. Facts" document. The organization flatly rejects that teachers played no meaningful role: "The Common Core State Standards drafting process relied on teachers and standards experts from across the country."

There’s plenty of evidence to back that claim. Just ask the participants.

Both major national teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, note on their websites and in other communications that they joined the Common Core partnership and had teacher members on several review panels.

The AFT provided dozens of teachers to the development and review effort, president Randi Weingarten said.

The organizing groups, including the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, "came to us … and asked for teachers to review this," Weingarten said. "In some instances we had extensive revisions and said, if you don’t do these revisions, teachers will not support this."

Their involvement started before even the earliest drafts, she said, and continues today with the development of lessons and curriculum resources.

"Teachers were involved," Weingarten said.

Becky Pittard, a Volusia County elementary math teacher, served on the K-5 math work team of the standards development group. She said she was puzzled by any suggestion that teachers had no voice in the process.

"If they say we were not involved, that is not telling the truth," said Pittard, a 22-year veteran educator who has taken a leave from her classroom to help train Florida teachers for the transition to the new standards.

Pittard related how she and other teachers worked closely with the primary writers, corresponding via email and working online to improve and correct the draft proposals.

"I can tell you the equal sign standard is there because I insisted," she said, referring to a first-grade guideline on understanding the meaning of the symbol. "That was my ‘you have to have that’ standard. There was impact."

University of Arizona professor William McCallum, one of the math standards writers, confirmed Pittard’s recollection.

Organizers also brought teams of practicing teachers by grade levels to meet with the writers. He called their feedback "detailed, intensive, and influential."

"The standards went out for two or three rounds of review to the 48 states who had signed on to the initiative. These states were really our clients, and we paid close attention to their comments," McCallum said via email. "Many states assembled teams of teachers to review our work."

Florida did. Deputy chancellor Mary Jane Tappen sent a confidential email to selected teachers in November 2009 expressly for that purpose.

"You are receiving this email because you are a trusted and respected expert in your field," Tappen wrote. "Florida must provide input on this very first drafty draft of the Common Core National Standards by December 4. … I will be collecting and compiling all our work into one Florida response."

When seeking additional input in March 2010, Achieve -- the group helping to organize the Common Core effort -- received comments from 223 teachers, as well as 69 parents.

Our ruling

Common Core opponents claimed at a public hearing that teachers were not involved in the creation and development of the standards, or that their comments and feedback weren’t used. Participants in the effort, as well as documents detailing the process, reveal this not to be the case. We find this statement False.

[Anonymous]

You're already forgotten this? That was fast.

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2013/...olved-developing-common-core-/

As Florida surges toward full implementation of the Common Core State Standards, the din is rising from some fronts to pull back.

Politifact has thrown in a little anecdotal information. That does not count as documentation. Why don't you start with posting the minutes from the committee meetings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You're already forgotten this? That was fast.

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2013/...olved-developing-common-core-/

As Florida surges toward full implementation of the Common Core State Standards, the din is rising from some fronts to pull back.

Politifact has thrown in a little anecdotal information. That does not count as documentation. Why don't you start with posting the minutes from the committee meetings?

Poster: Here is documentation
anti-Common Core poster: No, that's not documentation.