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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The benchmark testing and constant, mostly useless meetings to discuss the data are mandated by the school district.   These meetings and constant testing are driving me crazy as a teacher.

We have data OUT THE WAHOO about how kids are or aren't meeting the standards.   What we don't have are meetings about how to change teaching or better yet, change the curriculum (the materials we are using to teach the students).   What we also don't have are offers to hire more teachers to help teach these kids who are behind.   We don't have offers of money to pay teachers more to stay after school and teach kids individually.   We don't have money to offer targeted summer school or weekend classes.   And we don't have offers to group students by ability level in classes for instruction (it's ok to take "small groups" by ability level but you still have to run a 4 ring circus to do this.)

And we don't have license to teach a below grade child, at a below grade level.   We are still supposed to be exposing the child who is in 4th grade but reading at a K/pre primer level,  to fourth grade reading concepts and skills, while simultaneously (magically, by osmosis?) teaching him how to decode words.

There's really nothing wring with the Common Core standards.   But it is going to cost schools more to actually teach kids to meet these standards.  And they will really need to give up their fancy-schmancy curricula, and let teachers actually teach (which includes direct instruction, and drill and practice in the younger grades) If they want to see kids learn to master the foundational skills.

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Another great post by an actual teacher in the trenches. Thank you.

Common Core's demands that everyone be taught at grade level whether they are actually there are not are going to be a disaster for 70 percent of kids in this country. They will get behind in Kindergarten and never be allowed to catch up.[/quote]

I'm the teacher PP you are responding to.   No, the problem is NOT with the Common Core standards.   They do NOT state that students have to be taught only on grade level.   In fact, I love how they list the foundational skills in reading and writing -- very clearly.

I have students in 4th grade who cannot read fat-cat-sat-mad-red-den type words.   These students need direct instruction in decoding.   They have not yet been identified as LD because they are ESOL students.   They need to go back to K 1st 2nd grade foundational skills objectives in Common Core -- CLEARLY Labeled.   But the school district is telling me instruction needs to happen at the 4th grade level or else we are not "exposing" the students to the grade level curriculum and they will never catch up.

This is coming from the school district NOT from Common Core standards.   The standards are fine. [/quote]

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