General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI'm confused about "Common Core". Are we for it or against it?
Serious question.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
TheKentuckian
(25,023 posts)Find any answer you seek within the Big Tent.
What are you for? Are you not within the Big Tent? If you are then we believe as you do and you as we and together we will have an answer for you and me, just pull that lever marked D and all will be right don't you agree?
exboyfil
(17,862 posts)in my children's school I am against it. They forced my daughter's Geometry teacher to change her curriculum between my two girls to align with it. I do not think it improved the education of my younger daughter. The teacher had been doing a great job for 20 years.
As I look at it I have a difficult time understanding what they are trying to get at in some cases. I am not an educator so I look at things by specific subject content. I do not have a clue about the method of teaching. For me it is about subject matter knowledge and the ability to articulate and use that knowledge. I can look at teachers and determine if they are effective for my children. I understand that they have to support the slower learners, and I don't beat them up about it. My kids and I will make our own way as necessary by pulling them out and homeschooling them and paying for classes as necessary. I do not like to see my children's time wasted. My oldest, who did not take a single English, Social Studies, Math, or Science class from the high school after her sophomore year, observed that she did not miss much by not taking these classes at the high school (she is sitting on over 50 hours of college credit). She found the learning process to be inefficient for her at the high school.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to have a common curriculum (the Mass Curriculum Frameworks) and tests to see how well that curriculum is being taught (the MCAS). It's worked out very, very well. Our students consistently score the best in the country on nationwide tests (NAEP), and if Mass is broken out as a separate country if scores as one of the few best in the world (PISA and another test I forget the name of). So I'm in favor of this concept.
"Common Core" is basically the same thing as the Mass programs except processed by corporate interests and dumbed down. Mass has said we'll move to it, and this year some of our students are taking the Common Core test in addition to the MCAS to see how it works out. By all accounts the new tests are far easier than the MCAS.
So while I'm in favor of the concept, I don't see why the whole country shouldn't just adopt what works great in Mass instead of something new that's been created by the corporatists and corporations. Also, do we really want nuts like the folks in Texas who banned Thomas Jefferson from their curriculum to have a say in the nation's curriculum? I think we need to keep states who embrace insanity separate from modern states.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)
bemildred
(90,061 posts)
PlanetaryOrbit
(155 posts)I think we Texans should have just as much say in a national curriculum as anyone else.
LostOne4Ever
(9,288 posts)I think we Texans should never have any say ever again. Especially seeing as some of the shit our state government has shoved down our school kids throats is batshit stupid.
And since we pretty much decide the textbooks that the rest of the country uses...im pretty sure they are sick of having that shit forced on them as well >.>
Oh, and welcome to DU 
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)Moat tests don't really test life skills. I should know, I was a great test taker.
greatlaurel
(2,004 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 15, 2014, 02:45 PM - Edit history (2)
The Common Core was developed without the input of education professionals. I read through the science common core and it is nearly unintelligible. It drones on and on in corporate speak. In Finland, they have national standards and their science standard is a page and half.
Common Core was developed by the Gates Foundation, the Walton Foundation and the Broad Foundation in conjunction with the Pearson corporation. These outfits are all rabidly against public education. They push massive amounts of testing to enrich the computer companies and the testing companies.
Common Core is an unmitigated disaster for public schools and for students. Just like Cuomo, Arnie Duncan and President Obama are addicted to the corporate cash that is being spent to rob our public schools of billions of dollars. It is a great investment from the corporate point of view to get a great return on a few million dollars given to politicians to get billions of dollars that they will skim form the public schools. Wall Street is all for Common Core and charter schools, so we know it will not be good for the 97%.
I advise you to go Diane Ravitch's blog to read articles that go into in-depth on Common Core and charter schools. It is eye opening.
Here is a link to an article about Bill Gates cheerleading for Common Core. http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/14/what-bill-gates-told-national-board-for-professional-teaching-standards-about-common-core/
Here is a quote "The article says that the Gates Foundation had spent $75 million on the standards, but we know from Mercedes Schneider’s study of the Gates’ website that the foundation has spent nearly $200 million to pay for every aspect of the Common Core: the writing, the reviews, the evaluation, the implementation, the promotion and advocacy by numerous groups inside the Beltway and across the nation."
He says it is the key to creativity in the classroom. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is destroying all creativity in the classroom. Ask any teacher where it is being implemented. But it does increase corporate profits!
I generally support President Obama, but his education policies are a total disaster for public education. Charter schools are re-segregating our schools at record speed. I am willing to bet the Obamas' must not know any public school teachers.
senseandsensibility
(17,000 posts)And thank you for writing this.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)
Tree-Hugger
(3,370 posts)Ditto to those who say this should be an OP.
greatlaurel
(2,004 posts)The message needs to get out about the disastrous attack on public education.
Education was my ticket out of poverty. I want the same opportunities to be available for every child regardless of their socioeconomic background.
When I get a chance, I will post as an OP. Bill Gates has no clue how to educate children. Just because he is rich, does not mean he is all knowing about every subject. I do not see why people do not get that. I get that to politicians money talks.
Thanks again for the positive feedback.
roody
(10,849 posts)flowing to corporate interests rather than to students. One part is that the tests will be given on computer, not paper.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)Basically common core sets up a national scope and sequence, so ideally second graders should all be learning single digit multiplication and state history and reading from a set list of relatively easy chapter books. Which is great to the extent that if your family moves you kid probably should be doing something similar at her new school to her old one, and all third grade classes should be able to start in the same place.
But the problem is that there's really no explanation for what to do when things aren't ideal. If you've got two kids in that class who are behind on their math and three who don't read all that well and one who is an English learner who can't read in English at all, plus three kids who are gifted and bored to tears by the work at their supposed grade level, what do you do with all of them? As I understand it there's really no description at all in Common Core of HOW you're supposed to do deal with kids who aren't learning everything well at exactly the right time.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)DU at its best.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)when we became a family. In her old school she had barely squeaked through, graduating first grade by the skin of her teeth. Her reading and math scores were abysmal.
The new school she entered had just become the pilot school in the Riverside district for the new Common Core curriculum (they call it Core Knowledge here) and everyone was excited to try it out.
By the end of the second grade she had made tremendous improvements in her academic achievements, had become a voracious reader, learned to actually enjoy math, and had developed a genuine interest in learning about anything and everything. She's now a fourth grader and has accumulated more AR points (a point score awarded for reading and passing tests on books, each of which is rated for grade level) than the entire 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades put together! She regales me daily with information about Chinese dynasties or whatever else her class is learning about.
Common Core may have issues and may not work for everyone, and may be saddled with ideological baggage to which I am not privy, but from a sheer learning perspective it seems to have been an enormous boon for my little girl.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Every administration has one. The last was No Child Left Behind.
A lot of educational consultants will make a lot of money. In the end, nothing much will change.
How well people do in school tracks IQ in populations. Few 90 IQ folks get phds, some 159 IQs flunk out. But for populations in a first world country your IQ predicts how well you do in school.
No one has figured out how to permanently raise IQ. Head Start does it for a while but the kids regress to their native IQ in a few years.
Cimmon Core will change nothing.
CK_John
(10,005 posts)The plan is to make teachers over 40 seem as if they are not tech savvy and bring in new graduates for 3 yrs at Walmart wages. Planned chaos with teaching staff. Another lean and mean solution.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Once we adopted national testing, a national curriculum was a foregone conclusion
Basically, the right hates the idea of a national curriculum to begin with. People on the left who don't like it don't like specific decisions that were made, not the existence of a national curriculum itself. At least for the most part.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)"I'm in favor of Common Core because it aspires to change the focus of education from individual-content items such as dates, numbers and events, i.e., simple responses, to one where people learn to think about the bigger picture and the relationship between concepts and skills."
Pisces
(5,599 posts)Teachers need to be trained on how to teach Core Knowledge, this is probably the biggest disconnect. In my short experience with this curriculum I can only say that my kids love going to school and love their science an social studies
classes. They leave excited and come home excited. It works for us, and it certainly works for our school. They do not teach the test here, yet our children score very high for state. The test questions from early on have a log of
cognitive questions that are essay style. Math has a lot of word problems starting from very young. My children
have excelled and they have surprised me on the connections they make in to their school lessons and everyday
living.
I do think that if your child is behind, has very little adult input it may be difficult for them. This, however, is the case
with any curriculum as seen by our poor performance and many school. I don't think there is an easy fix or a
curriculum fix for those issues. We are talking about lack of parent participation.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)It says nothing about how to achieve those standards. The curricula to do so are up to the individual state.
Far left Dems and far right Repubs are both opposed.
More central Dems and Repubs are in favor.
Edit to add: this is a very simplified, short-hand breakdown.
LiberalAndProud
(12,799 posts)Sometimes the federal government overreaches. This is on of those times, imho. We elect school boards and pay teachers. Get the politicians OUT!
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)but then got distracted. I expect this post to be somewhat informative
http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2014/03/what-sam-hill-is-common-core.html