Anonymous wrote:

New York went nuts. They took the Common Core standards, went and wrote a crappy curriculum that they said was based on those standards....

This is EXACTLY what MCPS did.

Yeah, Pearsons and Starr created a multi-headed monster as well! Ask any of your teacher friends.

Anonymous wrote:Those New York standards are ridiculous. We have friends in NY and I never hear them talk about these objectives.

what do you mean?

There is no curriculum 2.0, your teachers are scrambling to figure out what to do. The common core has been pushed on these kids too fast without proper development or vetting.

I have a friend whose daughter is not a natural learner, she lost a year in school due to a bad teacher in 2nd grade. My friend can afford to have a tutor come to her house every week, most people can't.

It's the children who are going to suffer... just remember what our U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan who told a group of state schools superintendents that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

Folks, the handwriting is on the wall... your kids fail because they aren't as smart as you thought they were, and your schools (read teachers) are not that good. The Common Core standards are fine, it's just that your kids and teachers suck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You have pointed out that a center piece of NY implementation failure was "They didn't field test this assessment, they just rolled it out and kids had a terrible time on the test, and all failed." A high level question is, "Will people be happy if all kids passed the test?" May or may not. MSA had been complained for being too easy. People in this forum complained that P is everywhere.

Rich school districts are not used to having lots of kids fail a test, and everyone is upset if a rich, smart kid gets all stressed out taking a test.

If kids in PG County fail the new PARRC tests, no one will give a damn, but if Montgomery County Betheda kids fail it in droves, people will not be happy.

Okay, now the play field is leveled for all kids, no matter socioeconomic background and skin color. If they lower the standard at this point, all the kids will be able to pass the examine.

Those New York standards are ridiculous. We have friends in NY and I never hear them talk about these objectives.

Anonymous wrote:
That's not nefarious. If kids in Bethesda start at a high level (for whatever reason: socioeconomic, well-educated parents, etc.) and these kids have the tools to do well - and have historically done well - UNTIL Curriculum 2.0/common core is implemented…then we MUST look at that curriculum as a problem.

It is analogous to having an Olympic gold-medal winning sprinter who changes training methods and suddenly places last in the sprint. You would look at his historical ability to perform well and you would question the new, unproven training methodology.

That's just logical. Same with looking at the new, untested, hastily-rolled-out curriculum.

People complain when things get tested. And people complain when things don't get tested.

And your analogy would only work if the kids in Bethesda suddenly did worse on the tests than kids in [insert the poorest part of Prince George's County here].

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You have pointed out that a center piece of NY implementation failure was "They didn't field test this assessment, they just rolled it out and kids had a terrible time on the test, and all failed." A high level question is, "Will people be happy if all kids passed the test?" May or may not. MSA had been complained for being too easy. People in this forum complained that P is everywhere.

Rich school districts are not used to having lots of kids fail a test, and everyone is upset if a rich, smart kid gets all stressed out taking a test.

If kids in PG County fail the new PARRC tests, no one will give a damn, but if Montgomery County Betheda kids fail it in droves, people will not be happy.

I agree. If the kids in Prince George's County fail, that proves that the Prince George's County schools are bad. If the kids in Bethesda in MCPS fail, that proves that the test is bad.

That's not nefarious. If kids in Bethesda start at a high level (for whatever reason: socioeconomic, well-educated parents, etc.) and these kids have the tools to do well - and have historically done well - UNTIL Curriculum 2.0/common core is implemented…then we MUST look at that curriculum as a problem.

It is analogous to having an Olympic gold-medal winning sprinter who changes training methods and suddenly places last in the sprint. You would look at his historical ability to perform well and you would question the new, unproven training methodology.

That's just logical. Same with looking at the new, untested, hastily-rolled-out curriculum.