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.

Anonymous wrote:

Does not bide well for the future of this country that so many are in favor of mediocrity because what kids in other countries is just too hard for our snowflakes.

No. The standards are taking away from what makes our snowflakes great. The standards will not improve our education. They will create robots who are taught how to think and what to think.

Anonymous wrote:

Only in America would we have partisan outrage over bringing up educational standards to the levels achieved in the rest of the world.

Does not bide well for the future of this country that so many are in favor of mediocrity because what kids in other countries is just too hard for our snowflakes.

You are free to go to one of those other countries. If you think we are so partisan, you haven't traveled much. We have great education in America. The comparison to other countries is a red herring.

This is a GREAT country. You dishonor our snowflakes in uniform who are all over the world right now.

Anonymous wrote:

in fact, Common Core standards are not all that different from what most schools with established standards already had in place for years.

Something must be different or people wouldn't be noticing. It's about the standards. People who post on here may be more partisan than most. Most parents in America are not that ideological. They are very pragmatic, especially when it comes to their kids. There are a few outliers. The states that are pulling out are not doing it for ideological reasons. The changes are impractical for them right now, especially based on their budgets. People just don't see how it's all worth the money. And five states never took it on (thankfully one is Virginia).

Does not bide well for the future of this country that so many are in favor of mediocrity because what kids in other countries is just too hard for our snowflakes.

Only in America would we have partisan outrage over bringing up educational standards to the levels achieved in the rest of the world.

Does not bide well for the future of this country that so many are in favor of mediocrity because what kids in other countries is just too hard for our snowflakes.

in fact, Common Core standards are not all that different from what most schools with established standards already had in place for years.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

If the standards change, then the curriculum should also change

And, that is why people are upset. The curriculum for K is an example. The standards are inappropriate, therefore the curriculum to match it is not appropriate.

If the standards change, then the curriculum should also change

Anonymous wrote:

So you think it would be better if the states kept testing based on curricula they no longer use?

I thought that CC was not a curricula---that it is standards. Does CC provide a curricula as well?

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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