What is common core?

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Domer90

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I have seen it written/discussed, but I don’t know what it means. Can anyone help?

Thank you
 
It’s one of many
many
many
Educational theories floatin’ around these day.
Bill and Melinda Gates are the prime movers and shakers behind it.
They tell me it’s somewhat liberal leaning.
 
There are probably much better resources than Catholic Answers for this question. . .to be blunt, such as a google search for “What is common core?”
 
I wanted to know also in terms of how it relates to the Catholic faith. Thank you.
 
It’s a set of objectives that are supposed to be covered from grade level to grade level in Reading, Writing, and Math. Upper grades also have objectives in Sciences and Social Studies. i.e. by the end of Grade 8, students will be able to do such and such.

Most teachers already more-or-less taught them before Common Core existed, but it’s meant to add some more concrete goalposts for each grade level.
 
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From what i understand, common core is a curriculum framework.

It was implemented so the children are taught consistantly so that they have equal standing on standardized tests.

Some Catholic parents do not like it, and some support it.
 
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Domer90 said:
I have seen it written/discussed, but I don’t know what it means. Can anyone help?

Thank you
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Common Core
The state education chiefs and governors in forty-eight states developed a set of clear college- and career-ready standards for K through 12 in the English language arts/literacy and mathematics. Now there are forty-one states and the District of Columbia that have voluntarily adopted and implementing the standards. The standards are designed to ensure that high school graduates are prepared to take courses in college programs or enter the workforce.
 
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As someone else said, it is not related to Catholicism at all.
It’s just a set of educational standards for secular subjects, meant to improve and standardize education across many geographical areas and states and apply a consistent metric.
There is no “Catholic position” on it.
Some parents think it makes education better and some think it makes their children’s education worse.
 
My understanding is it was actually invented by psychologists, not educators, which is its primary problem. I know they say “the state eduction governors” and so on, but the premise wasn’t developed by educators. Or so I’ve been told by friends I have who are teachers.

As far as I know, it hasn’t improved anything it was supposed to when it comes to standardized test scores in the US, and states and school systems are starting to drop it.
 
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The two worst things you can do to educate children is first to stick them in a crowded classroom and second to impose any one-size-fits-all approach. I understand and empathize with the budget constraints that put teachers and schools in this position, but systemically speaking, it’s not right.

I think it may be a key reason why homeschoolers perform so well on tests. There’s no magic-bullet homeschool approach or curriculum, and my kids aren’t Nobel Prize-level geniuses. It’s just that we don’t move on until I know they’ve mastered a concept, and we get it all done in a fraction of the time that it takes to accomplish everything in a large classroom. Small private schools also enjoy this advantage.

I don’t know the solution for public schools, but I think that words like “grit” and “rigor” are better suited to scrubbing toilets than educating children. Teach-to-the-test culture objectifies them into little pawns impelled to meet bureaucratic benchmarks.
 
OK. There are a lot of misconceptions here.

First, the US does not have a national curriculum. Each state sets its own education standards (the guidelines for what public school students learn in each grade and course).

Second, Common Core is an attempt by state education leaders to create a set of very basic standards that all states would adopt. It is not and never was meant to be a national curriculum, just very general guidelines for what students should know in Math and English.

Third, some states voluntarily adopted the Common Core and have revised their own state standards to align with it. Some states haven’t.

Fourth, your child’s crappy math textbook or bad teacher is not Common Core’s fault. Math textbooks are not created by Common Core. Textbooks are created by textbook companies.

Fifth, Common Core is not a “one size fits all approach.” Common Core really has very little to do with what your child is actually learning. That is shaped most by the individual teacher, the particular school/district curriculum, and the state standards and policies.

Sixth, Common Core has nothing to do with testing. Standardized testing and over-testing of students is caused by Federal and state polices and implemented by state education departments.

There are legitimate issues with Common Core. For example, many complain it focuses too much on “skills” and not “content” (i.e. facts).

I’m a high school teacher.
 
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Pup7 said:
My understanding is it was actually invented by psychologists, not educators, which is its primary problem.
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This is not true. An educational psychologist would only have helped to ensure that the standard were properly aligned from a human development standpoint. The standards themselves were the result of a study of K-12 standards across the country.
 
ltwin said:
OK. There are a lot of misconceptions here.

First, the US does not have a national curriculum. Each state sets its own education standards (the guidelines for what public school students learn in each grade and course).

Second, Common Core is an attempt by state education leaders to create a set of very basic standards that all states would adopt. It is not and never was meant to be a national curriculum, just very general guidelines for what students should know in Math and English.

Third, some states voluntarily adopted the Common Core and have revised their own state standards to align with it. Some states haven’t.

Fourth, your child’s crappy math textbook or bad teacher is not Common Core’s fault. Math textbooks are not created by Common Core. Textbooks are created by textbook companies.

Fifth, Common Core is not a “one size fits all approach.” Common Core really has very little to do with what your child is actually learning. That is shaped most by the individual teacher, the particular school/district curriculum, and the state standards and policies.

Sixth, Common Core has nothing to do with testing. Standardized testing and over-testing of students is caused by Federal and state polices and implemented by state education departments.

There are legitimate issues with Common Core. For example, many complain it focuses to much on “skills” and not “content” (i.e. facts).

I’m a high school teacher.
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This exactly.

I am also a high school teacher although I am currently at home with my kiddos.

I taught the state standards. Common core standards were only a reference and a very basic one at that.
 
A quick search shows CC was developed by trade organizations and private interests.

So not psychologists, but not solely educators either.

Student Achievement Partners
ACT
The College Board
Achieve, Inc

A guy by the name of David Coleman figures prominently - and by all accounts he’s not an educator, either.
 
ltwin said:
First, the US does not have a national curriculum.
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This is true. But the point of Common Core is to drive curriculum.
Second, Common Core is an attempt by state education leaders to create a set of very basic standards that all states would adopt. It is not and never was meant to be a national curriculum, just very general guidelines for what students should know in Math and English.

Third, some states voluntarily adopted the Common Core and have revised their own state standards to align with it. Some states haven’t.
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They’re federal. They were created at the federal level by private interests in Washington D.C. The Gates Foundation funded Achieve, Inc., a private non-profit, to craft them. The eleventh-hour involvement of the National Governor’s Association provides the facade of them being a state-initiated endeavor, but they’re definitely federal.

Also, it wasn’t voluntary. Coercion was involved. Eligibility for Race-to-the-Top funding and No Child Left Behind waivers have both been contingent upon Common Core compliance.

I’ll address more when I have more time.
 
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I said they were the result of a study of K-12 standards from across the country. I didn’t say all the people involved were educators. 😉 ACT and College Board are solid though.

For instance, College Board is responsible for all the A.P. Curriculums, tests, etc. Their Curriculum teams include people from a variety of education backgrounds.

Have you ever read any of the Common Core standards? They are very basic.
 
Here is an example of a Common Core standard. It’s from the grade 9-10 standards. This is for writing.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.1.A
Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
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Not a lot to object to here. You’ll find the same thing in pretty much every set of state standards.

I have never understood why the Common Core standards are perceived as threatening by so many people. Perhaps it is because I am a teacher and I have first hand knowledge about how these things are translated into curriculum.
 
Yep. I have. And I’ve seen it in action with my nieces and nephews in two states.

My BIL is a tenured college professor who’s been in the business for twenty years. He has had very little good to say about education post-CC and freshman level performance, except that he’s glad states are starting to drop it.

It’s not the fault of the teachers. I blame the states. I think they were sold a bill of goods because from what I read, test performance hasn’t improved.
 
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