Reply to "Teacher of the Year" quits over Common Core tests

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]If you are telling me that the teaching corps doesn't know anything other than to teach to the test then you are admitting that they don't know how to teach, period. And that's something that's at the root of many of our problems in teaching - that education schools and our system really isn't doing a good job in preparing teachers. A good teacher would be able to work with standards and provide robust content without having to teach to the test. A good teacher doesn't need rewards in order to be creative. A good teacher doesn't have to teach to the test, that teacher will get the results if the content, curriculum and delivery is solid.

What you are saying is also once again telling me that administrators don't know what they are doing, and that's the even bigger part of the problem.

Basically there is a huge amount of dysfunction in our educational system - and getting rid of testing and standards really isn't going to fix any of that.[/quote]

You have conveniently left students out of your discussion.  Students should be the drivers of what goes on in the classroom.  When you put in high stakes testing, you have the test being the "driver".  And you have the administrators enforcing that system because they are being held to it as well.  The dysfunction can be traced back to the high stakes testing and the whole idea that instruction should be "data driven".  There are great schools out here and they have been made to waste time with the testing.  There are not so great schools and their kids have had to spend more time on test prep and less time in classes that would be much more interesting and broadening for them (which is so sad).  I'm not sure who is gaining with this federal oversight.  [/quote]

Yes, students should be the driver, and the academic skills that students need most of all to survive in the modern world are literacy and math skills - which is exactly what Common Core focuses on.  Ultimately, if students are semiliterate, don't have enough of a vocabulary or grammar skills to put together coherent sentences, and don't know enough math to make change, or to budget and manage money, then they aren't going to go far in life - and for decades we've been cranking out millions of graduates who don't have those skills.  That really has to change.

It's sad that the people railing against standards and testing think even trying to attain some level of proficiency with those core skillsets is unreasonable.  It's setting students up for failure in life.
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