What is common core?

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With all due respect to your BIL the drop in performance of students over time has more to do with the testing environment than it does with common core.

Testing has lowered the educational bar rather than raised it. As teachers struggle to get their students to pass these tests, we have less and less room to spend time on the actual needs of the students.

This is especially frustrating from a high school teacher’s perspective because by the time they get to me they are deficient in many basic skills, but can pass a standardized test with flying colors.

Standardized tests aren’t going to help you pass Freshman English once you get to college.
 
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He’s talking about overall writing ability and comprehension, though, not test scores.

If your writing is terrible, that’s not exactly a good thing.
 
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ltwin said:
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.
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My wife teaches math to education majors. Basically, she teaches them the math that they will eventually teach to elementary school students. (it’s a huge help for our kids when they need homework help and my wife can say, 'this is the way the teacher was supposed to teach it to you . . . .")

It’s a difficult course because they need to learn different ways to teach different concepts and need to understand the “why” behind the basics, which isn’t always easy.

Layer that on top of the fact that not a lot of people who go into education are “math people” to begin with, and I agree with your summation.
 
blackforest said:
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.
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It may have been created at the national level, but it was not a policy of the Federal Government.
blackforest said:
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.
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Many states have rejected Common Core and are not being penalized at all. And any coercion that was happening was in violation of ESSA (the successor to No Child Left Behind).
 
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I would bet your understanding is wrong.

After reading one too many articles that were very critical, I did some direct research. Since my higher education is strongest in math, I focused on that. I downloaded the actual standards and read a couple of them 5th, 8th grade). I found them very well done. They spelled out what kids should understand and the concepts. Nothing was watered down.
Having said that, I read some criticisms of how things were actually being taught under common core, so I looked into that and found that the actual methods of teaching the required concepts is often left up to the textbook companies. And this resulted in some flawed implementations, imo.
 
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Likely. But as I can only go by what I’m told and what I read - that regardless it wasn’t developed by educators directly (ACT and TCB are ultimately private entities, regardless of reputation, as are the other places I found) and was only implemented by educators with no prior testing, my jury remains out on CC.
 
My daughter goes to public school. When were my wife and I were privately talking to the principal before my daughter started Kindergarten, she mentioned Common Core with a look of disgust. So, I asked the principal what she though of common core. Her response was telling. She said, “some parts are very good, but there are other parts that are really not…”
 
I agree the jury is still out. And our local Catholic schools do not follow it. Certainly math educators and matheticians wrote the standards I read. Of course, as I said, the implementation is the big question. The method of teaching the concepts was not part of common core.

As to other subjects, I did not look into them in near the detail.
 
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Jury also out on Advanced Placement classes or International Baccalaureate classes?
 
As they’re proven and have been around for about 30 years and are known to be effective? No.

CC, with all the controversy and its convoluted methods that have yet to prove effective? Absolutely.

It’s not the fault of the teachers. It’s the fault of the states.
 
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TCB creates and maintains the Advanced Placement curriculum and tests. My point is that they aren’t just some random for-profit ed group. They have proven their competence over the course of several decades.
 
I know that. I’ve taken the GRE, the SAT, ACT, various AP tests. The AP and IB programs have existed at least thirty-five years and are effective and show measurable results. The SAT has of course been around longer than that (I took it in the seventh grade as part of the Duke TIP program, and that was 34 years ago, and I know my sister took it in 1980 - so it’s probably pushing fifty at this point, and I’m too lazy to look up the year). The GRE, which I think is actually an ETS exam (or it used to be) also stands on its own merits.

CC, according to what I’ve read, was never tested - it was developed and adopted. There’s a difference. And as far as my limited research shows, it’s done nothing for the advancement of this country’s educational standing - which is what it was touted to do, in part. I can’t say I’ve heard military families say it makes moves any easier - which was something else it was supposed to do, provide a common core curriculum at the national level. And states are starting to reject it, so that is also telling in my book.

This isn’t the fault of the educators in the least. They’re working with what they’ve been given. But something’s not right here.
 
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Pup7 said:
CC, according to what I’ve read, was never tested - it was developed and adopted.
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Standards generally aren’t tested. There might be trial periods or they might be roled out slowly, but sometimes that doesn’t even happen.

The states are capitulating to the demands of their citizens because CC has been a PR nightmare. The CC standards aren’t very different from most states’ standards. Even the states who “drop” CC are still basically teaching the same stuff.
 
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But by differing methods, correct? Those that are proven?

Even standardized tests have “test questions” that are used to gauge effectiveness before they are implemented as part of the actual exam. I can’t believe that “standards aren’t tested” before they’re implemented as a matter of rote. Then again, knowing some stunts the DOD has pulled, it shouldn’t surprise me that a national education board pulls similar style reindeer games.

I can’t believe it’s as wonderful as we were led to believe it was. Our education standing has not changed, as far as I’m aware. I may not have kids but I know a lot of moms, both in real life and in FB groups. I can’t say I’ve ever read or heard a single positive thing from parents about it. And people should have a say in how their children are educated - every taxpayer should.

As for the PR nightmare - where there’s smoke there’s usually some fire.
 
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Well, my Civics standards, for instance, are directly determined by the state legislature. No testing there and very little educator (name removed by moderator)ut.
 
I thought Common Core was only English/Language Arts and Mathematics?

When there’s an objection, the taxpayer tells the state. Look at the sex ed uproar in my home state. The state can mandate, but the citizens have the power to change curricula.
 
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Nope. As a social studies teacher I also incorporated the ELA standards into my curriculum.
 
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