Common Core is Corporate "Bunk"
But it gets even crazier. Responding to the charge that testing narrows learning to a bare minimum in a race to the bottom, the new Common Core Standards, introduced in 45 states, will ensure everyone is exactly doing the same "highly rigorous" learning, by promoting ideas like "higher-order thinking" or cutting fiction from reading lists.
The school "reform" movement contradicts its own cry for choice and competition by making every school "common". And in even balder hypocrisy, big business suddenly condones top-down government regulations that stifle creativity and innovation.
NY parents, students and teachers are visibly unhappy with the rushed adoption of the protocols, leaving teachers impossibly scrambling to cover concepts to previously taught in higher grades. Even state officials admit they expect major declines in scores, this the very first year teacher evaluations are tied to them. Instead of being phased in gradually, Common Core is being "dropped on" this year's kids, giving 7-26% less time than prior years, depending on grade.
Fred Smith, a well-credentialed testing expert vivisects the new tests here in the Washington Post, pointing out that hidden "field items" use the tests to make our kids focus-test next year's material for the commercial test vendor without parental notification.
Carol Burris, an acclaimed principal from Long Island likens it to a plane being built in the air. Burris previously co-authored a letter in protest of inaccuracy and waste in the teacher evaluation system which has been signed by 1,535, or almost a third of the state's principals, since the NY Times first covered the "revolt" in 2011. But Burris presented a scathing indictment in this week's Washington Post, presenting data to suggest the Common Core promises are simply "bunk".
Making a Masters Degree Worthless
Since implementation, the NCLB money diverted from school budgets to enrich privatized testing companies could have funded an army of certified teachers. The same Masters degree required for every classroom teacher ensures he or she is already fully capable of teaching AND evaluating their students, yet this task was outsourced years ago to corporations like Pearson, Scholastic, Harcourt and McGraw-Hill.
A resignation letter penned by a veteran teacher and published in the Washington Post makes this point well:
"My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and administer their own quizzes and tests"or grade their own students' examinations. The development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly line than to the classroom."
In Are State Evaluations Helping or Hurting Schools? a former "Superintendent of the Year" reminds us that the new numbers game and its perverted incentives make teacher collaborations less likely. But students are also able to manipulate the numbers game. Recently a parent told me she thought her son should have been held over in sixth grade because he failed every academic subject and was clearly not trying. He was promoted because he scored a two, a minimal threshold on the state ELA and math exams, so he told his mother he planned to goof off again this year, gambling he can "test out" of the grade once more [and he did].
Then too, students who were held over because of low scores complain of stress and anxiety as the tests approach yet again. This agitation often manifests as misbehavior, cutting, fights, avoiding work or lashing out and was measurably on the increase last week as our classes were readied for testing time.
The Aftermath
After the testing, motivation only worsens. In the "lame duck" period following the tests, many students feel like all the important work is over and try to slack off -- all the way through to June. Our kids have had annual state testing since third or fourth grade, so every year it's more difficult to counter the anti-climactic vacuum of intense pressure coming from on high.
To compound this, the students have their math and ELA teachers removed from classrooms to score tests for 5-7 days, just during this critical post-test period. This doubles the learning time lost to the exams, before we even consider practice testing. I worked with a first year ELA teacher who struggled the entire year to bring order and structure to his classroom, only to have it dashed when he was out for over a week grading the ELA. In his absence, the paper balls were flying, but even when he returned, bored and disillusioned students rightly questioned why their teacher had not been there teaching. My grade saw seven field trips this May following testing, so it truly seems more like camp then school.
As an everyday teacher for seven years and a parent of two pre-teens, I see how high-stakes NCLB testing saps the joy out of school for kids. I had to cut two more lessons from my curriculum last year when they permanently expanded state testing from four days to six. More testing means less learning, less doing, less discovery. Parents may be just realizing the extent of this -- here the Wall Street Journal reports on parent boycotts and opt-outs in districts around the state.
With no research showing the practice to be helpful, it's no wonder President Obama, the US Secretary of Education and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel all sent their kids to a school that does not use testing to inform teacher evaluations. Reeking with hypocrisy, NY Commissioner of Education John King has his kids in a private Montessori school.
UPDATE: A slew of educators and parents are describing this year's ELA as epic a "fail" as last year's "talking pineapple" debacle. Among the complaints, Pearson's recycling of stories which give a clear advantage to some kids and skew results. Also corporate plugs and product placements, and extraordinarily high numbers of kids unable to finish in time, making lots of children cry. See ChalkFace or NYC Public School Parents blog for the gory details.
UPDATE II (4/25): NY Parents speak out in protest of a state deal to share our private data with commercial vendors, without our consent.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
2
