Common Core And Parcc

[rps]

One of the ads that come with Phil's forums concerns Common Core. It alludes to the PARCC Assessment and Common Core as being implemented without your consent. I tracked the ad and read the material. Because I teach, and because I follow Arkansas Department of Education directives, I would like to comment on Common Core, the PARCC assessment, and related matters.

First, Common Core and the PARCC assessment were not implemented without your consent.

Common Core is a concept for education developed by education experts working in conjunction with science, business, and university experts. At its heart, the system recognizes that there are different ways to learn and different ways to do things. Teaching kids to memorize and answer questions from that memory is only one way to learn and arguably the least effective. Other children need visual or tactile tools in order to learn and master subject material. Common Core concepts try to eliminate any "only one right way" to learn anything or do anything. It is the opposite of teachers reading from a script, making the students read a passage, and then complete worksheets. For two years now, I have been working to implement Common Core principals in what I do in the class room. The result is way more wortk for me as I must adjust the lesson activities (not the goal) to fit the students abilities and show more than one method to reach the goals. The result for the students is the have better opportunities to master the material.

The word master is key to the Common Core concepts. The cirriculum planning inherent to Common Core depends upon the student mastering concepts, intellectual tools, and methods before proceeding to the next step. You master math facts before you learn place value and set theory and so on. You learn to write complete sentences before you learn the topic sentence/reason/evidence/reason/evidence/reason/evidence/conclusion paragraph.

One parent diatribe video I have seen includes a rant about how a common core teacher is teaching children 127 step process to do simple division. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Common core teaching is more about student learning than teaching a step by step method.

Another common slam is the Common Core will standardize education by lowering the standards. I teach 7th and 8th grade English and Social Studies. I have a better than average education and many years of experience writing and reading. I compared the existing Arkansas literacy standards to the Common Core standards on an item by item basis. Uniformly, the Common Core standards for reading and writing are far more rigorous than those in place before.

After Common Core was developed, many states saw the wisdom and chose to implement the concepts and the proposed cirriculums that went with them. 45 states in all have enacted the Common Core.

That caused a second stage. How were the states to determine if the students could meet the standards? By implication, that testing would also determine the efficacy of the teaching by people like me.

The states decided that every state for itself testing would be incredibly expensive and cumbersome to develop. The states joined groups that then developed testing materials for all the states in the group. PARCC is one of those groups. 17 states with more than 20 million students are included in the group. The cost per test is substantially smaller in this way, and the comparison of relative performance far more accurate.

Some materials on the internet and on "news" clips would have you believe that PARCC and the other groups have an agenda, are controlled by some conspiring group or another, or want to change your children. Others equate the changes to some plot to eliminate God or some socialist revolution led by Obama. Quite frankly, much of what I have read is fueled by fear, hatred, ignorance, and by groups who do have an agenda - taking advantage of that fear and ignorance.

So, before you buy into some of the things advertised or on the web take the time to educaate yourself. As a starter, here is a link to a site that presents arguments in favor of and opposed to Common Core.

http://blamecommoncore.com/

[Guest]

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[Justin Spencer]

As the parent of an 8 year old and 10 year old, I have struggled some with common core this year. I guess we have implemented the math portion, not sure about reading. At first it confused the heck out of me and I also thought they were teaching way too many steps for easy problems. At parent teacher conferences we talked in depth about this with the teachers and gained an understanding of what the goals were. I am more than willing to give this system a fair shake, the numbers prove that as a nation something needs to change in how we teach math and sciences. I think the kids that start in common core will have an easier time than those that have been thrown in by 3rd or 4th grade. My kids now seem to be doing well with this system, it just takes a little more work on the parents part to keep up with these new methods of teaching so we can help our kids.

Thanks rps for putting this on here, it sounds like you think this will ultimately result in our kids understanding easier and therefore doing better and being more prepared for continued education, am I reading you correct?

[rps]

Justin, I do see benefits to come for the children. It may well kill those of us who teach - we are being asked to change how we do things and to discard old lesson plans (some of which were very good) for a different approach. It may also be hard on parents like you who care.

If I may, one small example that sums up the differences and the effect it has on students that started out with the other system. My first unit for 7th grade this year was reading for understanding and how to learn by taking notes. I started with a simple suggestion of an order to follow with new text. Then I set them to taking notes from that text. Within a class of 26 I had a core of 6 or 7 want to please teacher/hard workers. Before even reading the text, one of them asked how I wanted them to take those notes. She was not happy with my answer -> so that you can look at them and remember what is important. I added that good notes had abbreviated information about the ideas, reasons, and descriptions. Another asked how brief. Again my answer did not sit well -> as brief as you can and still remember everything important. Their first attempts amounted to rewriting the text in their journals and when I graded them the comments I wrote about "too long" caused them to erupt in protest. I then showed them a classic three column notes format, a bullets concept, and what I actually developed for my own use through college and law school (it involves symbols, arrows, single words, and drawings). One of them asked which one I wanted them to use. When I said none of them, the little girl cried. I tried to explain she should develop her own method that worked for her she cried harder. My principal received a call the next morning from the parent about my refusing to teach her child. I met with the mother and tried to explain both the concept and the goals. From my viewpoint, it would have been easier to teach the Letter and Roman numeral system I was taught in school by the priests, but under Common Core we want to get to the goal without requiring conformity to a preconceived sense of "the right way."

[Feathers and Fins]

Randy you know I respect you and think of you as a friend but I will chime in from the employers point of view.

Simply put there is only one way and one answer to 4+4, I cannot nor can most people I know use a employee that wants to use common core teachings in solving mathematic problems that in the real world can cost a company thousands of dollars. I am required to do accurate take-offs and precise estimates ( not bids ) but precise to the penny estimates. I have seen the math end of common core and can tell you it will NOT work in the real world. It might be good for averaging grades for schools assessment grades by the state but that's it.

[rps]

F&F, you are absolutely right. The answer must be what it is. Common Core is not about changing the answers. Instead it is about changing how we teach to insist upon mastery of skills and the ability to relate one skill to another. An example would be to require an employee to evaluate three products that produce something, but in different ways with different stocking requirements, to determine which product will be the most productive to your company. And then present that conclusion in written memo form for circulation to the comapany board.

By the way, my wife teaches math at the high school here. Nancy teaches AP Statistics, AP Calculus, Algebra II, and PreCalc. It will change what every math teacher in front of her must do. Her review of the standards tells her it will put pressure on the teachers to assure certain skills are mastered earlier than previously.

[Feathers and Fins]

Randy your example is nothing more than the practice of product research and quality, something that has been around for long before I started working. I do it every day at work constantly keeping up on product reliability and cost. This is not what I have seen from common core though, if it was I would not be so against it.

Jammi teaches High school math s well and until the schools get back to teaching and more importantly FAILING and HOLDING BACK students who should not be advanced because they cannot master the rudimentary skills required then nothing no matter how much of "equal" footing for school grading purposes for the politicians to feel good will make a difference.

Schools need to get back to flunking students who do not have the skills should never be advanced. By the time a student reaches High School they should have the basics in math ( Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division ) I would also say they should by then have Pre-Alg and Alg 1.

I know the common core is supposed to " prepare them for college and the work force " however I do not see it. What kids need is classes on how to properly interview, class on book keeping and other courses that truly prepare them for adulthood and the responsibilities of it. We are not IMO teaching the kids to succeed in adult life.

[rps]

Oddly, I think we are saying the same thing but from slightly different places. I agree with the need for rigor, thus I support Common COre as it gives an opportunity to change how things have been done the last several decades. You are leary of Common Core as it does not directly address what you see as the failings of education in the last several decades.

[Feathers and Fins]

Correct it does not correct nor have the capability to correct it. I honestly do not see education correction happening until the Fed and State stays the heck out of it. Unfortunately they will never understand that there are some students who refuse to learn, those need to be removed from regular school and placed in a secondary school, a (troublemaker school ) if you will... Hey they had them when I was in school and our graduation rate was higher and there were not near the distractions and attitude influences that are in todays schools.

I swear I want to bang my head on my desk when an applicant comes in wearing his hat to the side his pants around his ankles and say YO MAN I NEEDS ME AN APP. And whats better is when they fill it out and the dumbass cant even follow the directions of LAST NAME FIRST!

[Justin Spencer]

I was cussing and frustrated and agreed with Scott 100% for the first couple months, I have slowly come around to seeing the benefits of common core. Many kids never figure out how to learn, I have tried to teach my kids how I used to learn things but it doesn't always work for them, common core is attempting to give them the tools to figure out the best way for them to learn as individuals and not forcing a certain way that for many does not work. Those of us who did well in school did so because we were able to figure things out on our own, and developed our own methods of study, I hope cc will help those that aren't as good of students become good students as they figure out new ways of learning.

I think this will be good for our children, rps is right it will be harder on the teachers and I already know it is harder on parents, but it is shameful how far behind we are from much of the world, so teachers and parents need to suck it up and give this thing at least one generation to see if it helps bring us back in line with much of the world. If not we can go back to being stupid the old fashioned way.