Discussion for article #225929
Yes- it is important to bring the rhetoric down. But as someone who opposes the common core and does not fit into the crazy lot, I will say that my objections are not actually addressed by these arguments. Common core is poorly conceived and not adequately tested- it is mandated across the country without adequate attempts to develop it. (There should have been laboratory states/districts etc to test it before a full scale roll out) Teachers are being asked to teach to standards for which no material has been developed. They are then being tested and evaluated based on this incomplete system. Additionally- common core as it is implemented (in a desire to get the data cited here) doubles down on testing which is a terrible way to educate. My kids are tested for state data, teacher evaluations and school evaluations- they spend more time prepping for tests than learning. Great- there is data- but it also sucks the joy our of learning. Common core in its conception is about teaching critical thinking, but its implementation is the antithesis of this.
The analogy to business is telling- because the educational reformers come from business- and fundamentally do not understand that education is not run like a traditional business. Children need nurturing, down time and space for creativity - the arts etc are essential to developing complete human beings and citizens. But those things that cannot be quantified don’t count in common core. They don’s show up on the business spreadsheet because they cannot be quantified. So they are squeezed out. As a life long supporter of public education, I find myself looking for private schools for my kids to escape this mechanistic way of teaching and learning. In attempt to compete globally- the US has decided to import the Korean/Indian modes of education- ones that do not actually help nurture creativity and out of the box thinking (they come to the US for college for that!) . We should model our education after the Finnish system which ranks number one or two in the world, avoids standardized testing nearly altogether and teaches its students in an effort to help them become full citizens and not merely cogs in the machine.
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“We often wistfully suggest that the American government should run more like American businesses.”
I think you left out a word. Surely this should read, “We Republicans often wistfully suggest that the American government should run more like American businesses.” And the rest of us react in horror at you Republicans for suggesting such an abhorrent notion.
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We are a dumb nation and getting dumber. There is a move afoot to do away with public education and replace it with a two tiered system where the rich attend private schools of high quality and everyone else’s kids hang around deteriorating buildings being taught by uncertified energetic kids or retired brick layers as they wait for their dismal futures to begin in retail. Pushing kids to learn more basics faster is not a crime. Learning Algebra and Geometry and Biology and Reading and Writing are good ideas. Testing can easily be overdone or underdone. The real difference between a public school that will make productive use of something like Common Core (yes the roll out was hasty and incompetent) is number one the leadership of the school system and two money. In structuring educational programs the rule “money talks and bullshit walks” is relevant and many of the “creative” attempts at things like charter schools are nothing more than attempts to steal money from education. I don’t think Common Core is the problem, I think greed by the wealthy and laziness of school administrators are.
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Declaration up-front here - I create middle and high school math textbooks for a living. This includes Common Core books back to 2009.
Common Core was not poorly developed, the folks who developed it generally have decades of experience, both in classrooms, and testing theories and approaches at the university level. Yes, they completed this surprisingly fast, but you are discounting the history they brought to bear in developing the standards. The team who developed the standards and their results are the strongest part of this project.
Teacher support is definitely a question since, like the prior, widely divergent state standards, teacher quality is also widely divergent. Often where teachers are sub-par, the teacher support by states and districts are often complicit in their failure. Holding these teachers/districts/states to a common standard merely points out these low points in our national education landscape. Compounding this, and this also applies in many “better” performing districts, standards are approached only as something to test against (teaching to the test). The idea behind CC is that you are not teaching to a test, the test is supposed to measure learning progress. In way too many schools this bipolar approach is par for the course - we have our class to teach, and now here’s something you need to do to pass the test. And that is why so many of the test questions appear bizarre to parents, because it isn’t a list of give me the answer problems, they are also looking at how students think through and get to an answer.
And finally, Where we probably agree is in the total BS of high-stakes testing. Unfortunately there are too many corporatist assholes who think business metrics to what is not an engineering task. There is too much fantasy about what education can accomplish for all students. Yes the CC standards are high, but they are designed to ensure that if you leave school competent by these standards, you are prepared to meet your future, and an asset to our national enterprise. Here’s the part nobody talks about, and all parents deny - somebody still needs to ask me if I want to super-size my meal. Not everyone can be a rocket scientist. And this becomes all to clear when you see the results of teaching to the CC.
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It’s a shame the so-called public school “reformers” ripped off the term “Common Core” from the College of the University of Chicago, where, I can assure you, it was anything but boring. The REAL Common Core was a series of fascinating courses that provided every student in the College with a foundation in Social Science, the Humanities, and the Physical Sciences, regardless of what they would ultimately major in. It was the greatest learning experience of my life. But the “Common Core” Arnie Duncan, et al, are peddling is the exact opposite of this, stressing rote learning over critical thinking, and is, apparently, boring to boot! If I were the UofC, I would sue!
The integration of analytical thinking and deductive reasoning into lessons that teach math problem-solving skills is a noble venture, but the Common Core curriculum seems to throw both teacher and student into the deep end of the pool.
This has led to some understandable apprehension and frustration by teachers, students, and parents who have already been dabbling in the new math program.
Unfortunately, these genuine concerns have been overshadowed by nonsensical chatter of a socialist, left-wing conspiracy designed to brainwash today’s youth – a fear-fomenting propaganda campaign emanating from the talking heads in the tea party-backed blogosphere.
Common Core is frequently lumped in with Bloombergian high-stakes testing, which is hugely messed up, and with the increasing pressure on schools to “teach to the test” and devote enormous resources to testing regimes that, not incidentally, enrich testing companies like Kaplan and Pearson that splash a lot of donations around come election years.
But the bottom line is that putting the policy focus on testing – instead of addressing the gross inadequacy of funding at many schools to address the problems of poverty that their students bring with them (malnutrition, homelessness, chaotic family lives, etc.) – is just another goddamn bullshit status quoist punt meant to maintain a tiered system of public education, or to undermine it and privatize it, thereby enriching the charter school operators and testing companies, etc. Because if we aren’t willing to fund public education, why not turn our nation’s poor children into tiny, snot-nosed profit centers? Make the little buggers work for that free school lunch, eh?
The President should be ashamed of his complicity in this scheme to abandon our children and/or deliver them into the cold, uncaring hands of the for-profit education industry.
Two interesting recent articles worth reading on the topic - the NYT Magazine cover article (2 weeks ago?) on teaching math. Basically, the US has innovated in creating math teaching ideas, but those ideas have not percolated down to the classroom level. Another failure of the system that teaches future teachers.
The other is in the New Yorker, about the Atlanta school system, where teachers at an inner-city school were changing student test scores because administration insisted on continual improvement. That cannot be done, especially in a community where kids are raising themselves, sleeping in doorways, and surrounded by drugs and violence. Anyone who claims standards can be implemented ought to spend a year in that kind of school.
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Thanks for publishing this piece. More understanding is needed to cut through the bullshit that we hear. I agree with the stance on this - we should implement it. But it’s going to take more money to lift the inequities inherent in the two-tiered system: good teachers will forever abandon poorer districts because they are paid better elsewhere. Period.
Well stated, RachelGans. There is surely good reason to bring the rhetoric down, but there are just as surely many good reasons to question Common Core. I have been collecting some of the most cogent arguments against CCNS here: http://commoncorecriticisms.wikispaces.com
It depends heavily on which state, which school system and which school as to whether or not the rhetoric needs to be “toned down.” In too many places, teachers are being stifled and stymied because the administration is determined to follow the standards (as they understand them) to the letter.
Even if - and that’s a big “if” - the Common Core were brilliantly written and wonderful in its pedagogy, the idea that it’s going to solve any problems that exist in American education is ridiculous since by the time the standards are implemented across the country, they won’t be held in “common” any more. Already there’s much inconsistency depending on which State Department of Education official/expert or local school system superintendent/curriculum coordinator one listens to; there is nothing uniform about the implementation. Having two different assessment groups (Smarter Balanced and PARCC) doesn’t help particularly when one realizes that every state gets to set its own cutoff scores.
Too, the Core only covers two (sort of) subjects: Math and English/Language Arts. Every other subject, including the highly-touted STEM subjects (except for the M) is ignored.