ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

I totally agee with Sandra C. from W.Roxbury, MA and the rest of the respondents. What on earth are we doing appointing government as god of education? Seriously.

I am an inner city public schools Kindergarten teacher. I am gravely concerned about the total avoidance of the issue of poverty and the myriad of effects poverty imposes on children. The Common Core standards, at least in Masschusetts, are not significantly different enough from our MA curriculum frameworks to justify the massive amounts of money to create assessments, curriculum, etc.Where are are the profits and who is benefitting from the Common Core? Publishers and those that seem to already have a monopoly on tests and scoring of tests and more assessments. The Common Core standards have not been proven to address the socio/economic risk factors that plague so many children's educational success.

I have been watching this nations educational system self destruct for years. Teaching tests for statistics or government monies is suicidal. We can see this in action on a daily basis. Go to a store, buy something, and then ask for change without using the register. Talk about a deer in the headlights look.
It is extremely sad for the people who put faith in our government and educational system only to become extremely disillusioned if not angry after they graduate, if they actually do. I teach college, and many of my students do not have a clue about writing, studying, or even managing their time. They haven't in many cases, even understand their roles and responsibilities in their own educational process. Sad.
One reply stated that poverty is a huge problem. Yes, and education, not government handouts (at least for now) is the answer in large part.
Okay, I will play, what is the purpose of the math question????
7 with old math, could be 22 with common corp.

I work with the preschool age, and all of this makes me worry about what is going to happen next. The needs and rights of the individual child are getting lost in the pile of standards, rules, and regulations being passed. There do need to be some standards and accountability, but we need to put what is best for the children at the center.

I agree with Mr. Cody. I've read some of the standards for kindergarten and first grade, and they are not developmentally appropriate. In addition every child is supposed to get to certain benchmarks at the same time. Now when has that ever happened in any of our classrooms? But the thing I find most horrifying is that the materials being developed to accompany the CC, at least those I have seen (mostly from NY State) are top-down lesson plans, with accompanying work sheets and homework assignments. There is no respect given to teachers to decide on their own (or with their colleagues) how best to create specific lessons, activities and projects for their students. I think we are in for some bad times in education until these standards are completely rejected, or at least taken back to square one so that they are created based on what we know about child development, good pedagogy, and so that they can be tested in some way.

Poverty is our biggest enemy and as this article stated, there is nothing in the common core to deal with that. Families, society and children are quite different now than they were in the past. What children bring to the educational table demonstrates a huge discrepancy in their cognitive bank; common core does nothing to address this. More and more children are at a "loss for words" and come to preschool with such a deficit in their vocabulary that they cannot master the concepts that will enable them to be creative thinkers and problem solvers. Common core does not address this. Some children will be unable to master the content of common core....what will be done with them? Developmentally appropriate practice demands that we look at all children within their age and stage of development, their individual development and the cultural context in which they live. Does the common core acknowledge these things? It does collect data. Data makes it easy for non classroom teachers to label what is going on in the classroom and prescribe, from some point other than the classroom, which teachers are successful and which teachers are not. Has this ever been helpful? There is some ethereal quality that goes into excellent teachers that cannot be describe or measured by data. Data driven policy sounds good, but it is not related to real children and real classroom. I have been working with young children since 1965 and now I am teaching teachers of young children. Perhaps better pay, might raise the quality of preschool education which is the foundation of all else that follows? Perhaps honoring teachers and demanding that only the best students enter education, these are things that could be done, but common core does nothing to deal with these things either. I am tired of folks who are not in the classroom telling us what we need to do to be more effective teachers. Education does not belong in politics.

We are already seeing evidence of children failing at 5, before 1/2 the year is over. This is criminal. You cannot fail at 5 or 6 years old. If you do, this sets the tone for the rest of the child's school experience.

The expectations for kindergarten children is not only too difficult but it is lop-sided. What is needed (knowing sounds and shapes of the letters) is all but ignored for other skills that are less important. The alphabetic foundation must be established first. (It feels like we are going back to Whole Language in many ways - sight vocabulary, for one.)

If a child doesn't meet benchmark (which is arbitrarily set) they fail. The CCSs are like a one-size-fits-all cookie cutter system. If you don't fit, you don't succeed.

Having been working with first young children and now teaching teachers, since 1965, I have seen this swing before and it has never worked. Children are not alike. What they need to know and can/know is different. Data is just that, data. It does not make teachers better or more appropriate and it does not make children learn better. When data drives education, the children and teachers suffer. I am not talking against accountability or the necessity of having intentional teachers, however, the collection of data does not make them intentional, knowledgeable teachers. Children, families and our society is changing..perhaps not for the better, but increasing the load of expectations on teacher and telling them what they must teach will not change that. Poverty is our biggest problem and the common core does nothing to examine the differences that children bring to the educational table.

What about that simple notion that children learn through play based on their interests. Every child has the basic right to this. There is no standardized testing needed. You imagine if the time spent on testing was spent understanding the child and where to take their learning. Maybe the world would be a better place.

I can see some validity to the Common Core, but unfortunately as Amy stated, future teachers need to be educated on how to make Common Core work. Sadly, as Jill mentioned, I was one of those parents who did some research, pulled mine out in elementary school and home schooled them through high school. No regrets here. I have no doubt that they are doing far better than they would have had I left them in public school. For those who still worry about the lack of socialization, we belonged to a very large, well organized home school group and had several group classes taught by experienced, degreed parents in the group. Field trips occurred weekly. I pray things improve before my children have children. They have all voiced they will do as I did if they are not satisfied with the results of what ever system is in place at that time.

the U.S. is terribly behind other developed countries when it comes to educating our kids. Our materials are "dinasour aged" compared to what can & is/available. Until we invest more into our schools, this will always be the case. Unilateral testing or not, there will always be an inbalance in our schools due to local economic conditions. Testing or not, we need a complete overhaul of how we teach our kids & what we use to teach them with and let our fantast teachers get back to being able to TEACH rather than administer the tests that are required

(My teacher daughter's thoughts) "I completely disagree. So far Common Core has been excellent as it creates more rigor in the classroom yet still allows for wonderful differentiation. Instead of teaching to the middle, when done right, the expectations are set high with ways to differentiate for the middle and lower levels of abilities/readiness. It's all in the way districts interpret it and implement it, and my district (or at least my principal) is doing it right. We've received a lot of training and have continued professional development with practical strategies to use in the classroom. As a gifted education instructor who is tired of ceilings being placed on our highest ability kids due to NCLB, I love how correctly implemented Common Core is giving them the opportunities and challenge they need as well as the needs of all the other kids through correctly used differentiation. And I'm sick of teachers who complain that they don't have time to differentiate. It is vital for all kids, and if you do it right, it actually makes the job easier and much more efficient."

The Common core is not perfect but the standards across the nation do need to be more equitable. Most states well before Common Core came out were already testing their children at different grade levels and basing school ratings, funding, etc. on those tests which already caused teachers to "teach to the test." If you really look into what the Common Core is about, it is moving away from worksheets and rote memorization and more towards children's critical thinking and problem solving. One problem is our universities need to be educating future teachers to teach this way to make Common Core work..

As for #10, I completely agree that is our biggest problem. But no educational standards of any kind will fix that. That goes much deeper into social issues which a government that cannot cooperate on anything will solve.

I agree with Anthony Cody's analysis of Common Core. I would add to his last point in saying that along with poverty one of the crucial issues facing families and education is the lack of parental involvement in the education of their children.

Seems easy to criticize or agree wholesale with issues such as what is called now "common core" (what?, why...?), but although some important elements seem missing, I agree that half-baked, and perhaps plain wrong alternatives to "save" education can not be made right with noisy political statements. I agree that these proposals can, and should be more informed and helpful, but I also disagree that requiring accountability is wrong. I belong to a professional engineering society which was not a participant in any meaningful way in the definition and adoption of "engineering". technology, mathematics or science elements in it. So how can we trust the work and documents produced by real-life inexperienced organizations using our resources, supposedly to help us educate our children out of poverty? The way it looks is that someone is creating and peddling these so called "more rigorous" standards without any significant participation of properly competent people who should have been more involved. So it looks like again, we will all be paying for the expensive hit-and-miss shakeups carried out by the same incompetent, professionally inexperienced institutional structures. Sorry.

I appreciate the comments about the Common Core. I think it imperative that all of us understand some of the byproducts of establishing such a set of goals and the implications for the lives of children. Probably the most significant of the ten is #2, that the goals do not take into account the natural developmental processes. The second is that there is no process for adjustments.

The biggest risk is rigidity. There is too much teaching to the test and not enough education. Skill and knowledge development is important, but so is the development of dispositions to learn, social problem solving, imagination, creativity and so on. Real education is bigger than the common core.

If one scans through the goals that are set, and extrapolates to the areas that are not yet specified by the common core, one can estimate that it will take a decade or more to get through the third grade for many children! On the other hand, the core does provide a set of benchmarks where educators and parents can judge for themselves if their children are getting the schooling that they need.

On the whole, though, if educators use the goals wisely, take into account development and the bigger goals of a real education, the common core can provide clear directions for us as a nation. We will have to be prepared though to finance the real implementation with more and longer school days.

I feel that it's developmentally inappropriate. Children are required to memorize material rather than learning because they don't cover a top long enough to ensure they have a clear understanding. The children aren't allowed the enjoy school because it's test, test, quiz, quiz. They say "No Child Left Behind" but sadly they are being left behind. I have heard of more children failing since the Common Core has been adopted in MS. Parents have informed me they are disgusted and plan to switch to private school or home school. Not only is it wearing out the children but the parents.

Amen to the article on the ten errors of the Common Core. Why is it that people in government do not take the advice of their constituents even though they are supposed to be working for them. It is insane that this curriculum was ever implemented without the input of professionals in the field of education.
The United States is so concerned with being best at everything, yet we are so far off when it comes to education. We should really follow the models of some countries, like Finland, which is one of, if not the number one country in the world when it comes to educating children.

Thank you for printing the truth in a simple to understand format -- and especially for plainly stating what most educators know: the "Common Core" not only will not work, but will be more detrimental to the education of our children and our society. How can we reach a broader audience and the policy makers?!?!

Couldn't agree more with the points made in the article!!!!

In the fall of 1972 while doing my student teaching, my supervising teacher shared this wise tidbit of information with me. "Joe, do not fret about public demands; outcries or complaints about educators. Schools are just a REFLECTION of society and/or the neighborhood they serve." Thank you Edith Miller!!

The most accurate and agreeable statement of these 10 comments is #10. The government and business interests have manipulated the economy for the benefits of "PG"-personal greed, while creating a society of haves and have nots. Common Core is just another tool to create polarization of the proletariat, while fostering divide and conquer of the educational system and the public trust. The main problems in society and educational systems deals with poverty and unstable home environments.

This absolutely true!! B.F. Skinner-Give me a child of normal intelligence and physical abilities, and I can make them be whatever I want them or they want to be. Like that statement or not about behaviorists, it does apply to the influences of the environment. Unfortunately, government and business refuse to recognize and realize they have created POVERTY for over 50% of the population. (or was that their intent to begin with and gain more control through public schools of educators and lives of future generations?)
10. The biggest problem of American education and American society is the growing number of children living in poverty.... The Common Core does nothing to address this problem.