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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]If lots of students fail the standardized tests, will the standards be changed or will the tests be changed?

Chicken or egg?

Good question. Most likely, political heads will roll. Common Core has already been defunded, and once they can get rid of Duncan who is wielding his NCLB waivers as threats to force the Common Core and testing, people will likely pull back from the core.

It's too bad -- it was a good idea. But the standards are written in a way to micromanage learning and the testing boxes in teachers to teach to the test.[/quote]

[quote]	
Post 02/17/2015 07:48     Subject: Re:"Teacher of the Year" quits over Common Core tests

No. CC is just a standard. CC does not develop curriculum.

The curriculum is generally developed to achieve the standards. If the standards are inappropriate--and many are--the curriculum will be inappropriate.[/quote]

The whole thing comes down to the lack of a democratic process.  It is contentious because it was not debated and vetted ahead of time.  If you use "executive action" to put in something as broad and sweeping as these standards for public education, you had better have some pretty good grass roots support.  They didn't have that support because most people had no idea what was in the standards.  Least of all the most important people in the process, the TEACHERS.  Once they found out about the standards, people started jumping ship (some of them teachers as this article points out).  Some of the best teachers jump first because they are in teaching for the right reasons.  The whole thing was a big mistake.  Also, being inflexible about the standards by putting in related testing right away was probably a mistake.  Combined with the NCLB testing mandate and evaluation related rules (in some places), the camel's back was broken.   It's not very surprising.  I do hope that whatever was good can be salvaged, but people are pretty upset about the process in all of this.  Congress is a mess and can't seem to get anything done, but that should not have forced this kind of process.  Pushing from a different direction would have been better.  There was not enough ground support. 
[/quote]

1) Common Care WAS a grassroots effort. Doesn't get more Democratic than that.

2) The vast majority of teachers have not "jumped ship." Just a few malcontents, and some Kelly Ripa-dubbed "teacher of the year."

3) Teachers are *not* the most important people in the process. What makes you think that? That's like saying an infantryman is the most important part in a battle. He's not -- the general and the strategist is.[/quote]

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