Is Education ‘Reform’ Wrecking the Common Core?

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/education-reform-wrecking-common-core-1381936985

Personnel programs such as teacher merit pay that were supposed to improve the financial efficiency of schools are now being discarded for financial reasons. New competitive forms of schooling such as cyber charters that were supposed to reform the system through competition are now in need of “top-bottom reform.” Teachers who are held more accountable for children’s motivation to pursue education are discouraged to seek more education for themselves. Schools that are supposed to rescue children from poverty are bearing the brunt of deep cuts in spending.

Amidst this colossally dysfunctional scenario descends the new national standards known as the Common Core, what many believe constitutes education reform 2.0. Is it any wonder people are skeptical?

Whether you’re a big fan of the new standards or not, it should be clear that the old way of doing “education reform” will not work for the Common Core. Yet that seems to be the strategy rolling out, and no one seems to be coming forward to propose a better way forward.

By all indicators, teachers are generally favorable to the new standards. But like its predecessor No Child Left Behind, the Common Core is proving to have many unanticipated consequences.

Who would have thought, for instance, that adopting new academic standards would necessitate kindergartners barely able to hold pencils being made to take bubble-in tests?

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[zazen]

2. Common Core policy and implementation are misguided, wasteful, counterproductive

at least at my daughter's middle school. I'm working on an op-ed on 10 issues with it alone. I wish I could home-school my daughter. It's the worst corporate ed reform I've seen in my lifetime.

[eridani]

3. Please post it here when you finish. I'd like to see it, and I'm sure others will also n/t

[lunasun]

7. Please post op ed here or link Thanks in advance

[Squinch]

4. That first paragraph is about the best description I have seen about the idiocy of ed. reform.

[LWolf]

5. The common core standards themselves?

They are a list of standards, not bad nor good in themselves, like any other list of standards. Personally, I prefer the old "frameworks," which gave content and skills in a scope and sequence with a narrative to keep them in context, but that's just me. I haven't been excited about very long lists of isolated skills that we call "standards."

It's not the standards themselves, though, but the abuse and misuse of those standards, and that's what we've been dealing with since the "standards and accountability movement" came to power.

The CCSS is no exception. The abuse and misuse is already in full swing.

[duffyduff]

6. Both deserve to die a quick death. n/t

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. "By ALL indicators"?

>>>>By all indicators, teachers are generally favorable to the new standards.>>>>>>

As Jack Nicholson said to Faye Dunaway in Chinatown, "That runs contrary to my experience."

OK, I'll bite: what are the indicators?

[Sgent]

9. What do bubble tests, pencils, or testing in general have to do with Common Core?

Common core is a list of standards, it is not (by itself) curriculum, nor is it a test, nor does it require testing.

All common core is, is a standard says that a 5th grader should know this, a 6th grader that, etc.

If states / school districts want to test on that basis, its a different issue. However, everyone has been tested from time immemorial. I received a B in 9th grade biology 25 years ago, so obviously I was tested and expected to know *something*. Hopefully with common core if I receive a B it will mean I know the same things as some one the next county, city, or state over or across the country.

You could reasonably argue (and people have) that the standards are bad for various reasons -- not age appropriate, not needed or valuable skills / knowledge, not rigorous enough, etc. But arguing against common core because of testing requirements seem disingenuous, since they are not synonymous.

[madfloridian]

10. Testing companies getting rich off Common Core like they did off NCLB

From The Guardian:

Should Pearson, a giant multinational, be influencing our education policy?

Pearson, the giant London-based multinational, is the world's largest education firm as well as running Penguin books and the Financial Times. Attention is now focusing on its seemingly ever-growing influence on English school life.

Pearson's level of involvement in state education in the US, particularly through testing, has become high-profile in recent weeks. Last month, hundreds of parents reportedly protested outside the firm's New York offices, unhappy at the company's $35m (£22m) contract to provide controversial high-stakes tests for the city's schools. A statement from the group ParentVoicesNY said the protest was about "the excessive power and influence the billion-dollar, for-profit company, Pearson, has over [New York City's] education department".

Pearson also reportedly has a five-year contract worth nearly $500m (£318m) to provide tests for schools in Texas, and sets tests across other states including Florida, Kentucky, Arizona, Virginia and Maryland.

The paper quotes Diane Ravitch:

"The corporation is acting as a quasi-government agency in several instances, but it is not a quasi-government agency: it is a business that sells products and services. What part of the field of education does Pearson not manage?