Anonymous wrote:We are touring schools and the principal at one told us that the education field has moved away from standards and to common core. He said their private school offers a more traditional approach to education. First of all, I thought standards based education = common core? Isn’t the idea that there is a national set of standards, albeit pretty low ones, that make up the common core in public schools? Second, what does traditional mean, I assume it means textbooks, spelling lists, and learning from a teacher rather than inquiry based learning technology and apps. This is one of the first schools we have looked at so far so we are new to all this.

"Common core" is a euphemism for "poor education". If you looked at the garbage teachers are pushed to teach (not so much the content, but the methods) then you will understand why it is garbage and why overall test scores and abilities have dropped nationwide since its inception.

Anonymous wrote:Common core is a set of guidelines that each school follows so if a child changes school they should get the same knowledge in each grade. Its a good thing.

Common Core is a set of common standards. It is set of skills students should be able to do by the end of the grade level. It is not based on any one curriculum so if your kid moves, they will most likely be using a different curriculum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are touring schools and the principal at one told us that the education field has moved away from standards and to common core. He said their private school offers a more traditional approach to education. First of all, I thought standards based education = common core? Isn’t the idea that there is a national set of standards, albeit pretty low ones, that make up the common core in public schools? Second, what does traditional mean, I assume it means textbooks, spelling lists, and learning from a teacher rather than inquiry based learning technology and apps. This is one of the first schools we have looked at so far so we are new to all this.

Green flag. He is saying they are not following the broader educational trend towards a watered down curriculum and instead are sticking with curriculum and pedagogy that work.

(Btw, VA does not follow Common Core precisely because CC is so watered down. Instead, VA has its own VA Standards of Learning.)

That said, PP is correct that one ought to be observant on tours, quietly taking pictures of the textbooks so one can investigate their suitability later on, looking for electronics use, and so on.

One school we toured sounded good during the tour. Afterwards from a quick photo taken during the tour, we saw their reading was Fountas & Pinnell, so we looked that up. After we understood that F&P was bad news for reading, we dropped that school from our short list. One always needs to perform due diligence.

F&P is a lousy way of measuring reading level, but it doesn't dictate use of certain books. So I'm wondering what you saw on the photo that made you realize the school was using it.

Common core is a set of guidelines that each school follows so if a child changes school they should get the same knowledge in each grade. Its a good thing.

Anonymous wrote:OP what type of schools was this religious private or secular?

True, traditional can be a red flag when it comes to Christian schools. I accidentally toured a fundamentalist, trad values Christian school, thinking it was a more liberal, modern Christian school.

OP what type of schools was this religious private or secular?

Common core sucks.

Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) is a good language arts curriculum for elementary. It is freely available online at Core Knowledge Foundation web site. So you can look at it. APS and MCPS adopted it maybe 2 years ago now.

Oh, and Core Knowledge is not related to the Common Core.

Anonymous wrote:We are touring schools and the principal at one told us that the education field has moved away from standards and to common core. He said their private school offers a more traditional approach to education. First of all, I thought standards based education = common core? Isn’t the idea that there is a national set of standards, albeit pretty low ones, that make up the common core in public schools? Second, what does traditional mean, I assume it means textbooks, spelling lists, and learning from a teacher rather than inquiry based learning technology and apps. This is one of the first schools we have looked at so far so we are new to all this.

Green flag. He is saying they are not following the broader educational trend towards a watered down curriculum and instead are sticking with curriculum and pedagogy that work.

(Btw, VA does not follow Common Core precisely because CC is so watered down. Instead, VA has its own VA Standards of Learning.)

That said, PP is correct that one ought to be observant on tours, quietly taking pictures of the textbooks so one can investigate their suitability later on, looking for electronics use, and so on.

One school we toured sounded good during the tour. Afterwards from a quick photo taken during the tour, we saw their reading was Fountas & Pinnell, so we looked that up. After we understood that F&P was bad news for reading, we dropped that school from our short list. One always needs to perform due diligence.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure they didn’t say they moved from standards to Core Knowledge, or they moved from Standards of Learning (a specific set of standards from VA) to Common Core standards (a different set of standards used in multiple states)?

Oh yes, maybe he meant State Standards of Learning to Common Core. Does that mean the curriculum has been watered down in the public schools according to his comment?

That seems like a reasonable interpretation.

"Second, what does traditional mean, I assume it means textbooks, spelling lists, and learning from a teacher rather than inquiry based learning technology and apps. "

Almost certainly, yes.

FWIW I would regard statements like this as a green flag, but I would want to see curricula and get a better understanding of how the school works in practice. "We have textbooks, but the textbooks are on a laptop", for example, would probably not be for what I was looking.

You are conflating a bunch of things.

What is taught? That can be based on common core or SOL or a different set of standards. Every school has standards and expectations, so your question is where does this school get its standards and what are they in each grade/class.

What is the specific curriculum? Is it X textbook or teacher made worksheets or something else?

How is technology/laptops used?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure they didn’t say they moved from standards to Core Knowledge, or they moved from Standards of Learning (a specific set of standards from VA) to Common Core standards (a different set of standards used in multiple states)?

Oh yes, maybe he meant State Standards of Learning to Common Core. Does that mean the curriculum has been watered down in the public schools according to his comment?

That seems like a reasonable interpretation.

"Second, what does traditional mean, I assume it means textbooks, spelling lists, and learning from a teacher rather than inquiry based learning technology and apps. "

Almost certainly, yes.

FWIW I would regard statements like this as a green flag, but I would want to see curricula and get a better understanding of how the school works in practice. "We have textbooks, but the textbooks are on a laptop", for example, would probably not be for what I was looking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure they didn’t say they moved from standards to Core Knowledge, or they moved from Standards of Learning (a specific set of standards from VA) to Common Core standards (a different set of standards used in multiple states)?

Oh yes, maybe he meant State Standards of Learning to Common Core. Does that mean the curriculum has been watered down in the public schools according to his comment?

That seems like a reasonable interpretation.

"Second, what does traditional mean, I assume it means textbooks, spelling lists, and learning from a teacher rather than inquiry based learning technology and apps. "

Almost certainly, yes.

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure they didn’t say they moved from standards to Core Knowledge, or they moved from Standards of Learning (a specific set of standards from VA) to Common Core standards (a different set of standards used in multiple states)?

Oh yes, maybe he meant State Standards of Learning to Common Core. Does that mean the curriculum has been watered down in the public schools according to his comment?

Are you sure they didn’t say they moved from standards to Core Knowledge, or they moved from Standards of Learning (a specific set of standards from VA) to Common Core standards (a different set of standards used in multiple states)?

We are touring schools and the principal at one told us that the education field has moved away from standards and to common core. He said their private school offers a more traditional approach to education. First of all, I thought standards based education = common core? Isn’t the idea that there is a national set of standards, albeit pretty low ones, that make up the common core in public schools? Second, what does traditional mean, I assume it means textbooks, spelling lists, and learning from a teacher rather than inquiry based learning technology and apps. This is one of the first schools we have looked at so far so we are new to all this.