Common Core

Assessment is one of the best things ever in my opinion. that is what let's EVERYONE know where the student is at, if they need improvement in a subject and if they quality for help at school. If they are above where they should be and by how much if they quality for gifted services to challenge them or if they are really far ahead of they should be moved to a higher grade. That's all found out through assessments

It sounds like 'New Math' (by Tom Lehrer) all over again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIKGV2cTgqA

The trouble with education in this country is they are always looking for 'new and improved' and it keeps them changing theories (or at least their names) and revolving through the whole mess over and over and over again.
They keep reinventing the wheel because they enjoy the cycle so much.

At this point I think 'the experts' are incapable of making any real progress.
And besides - they'd need a group therapist so they can come together to decide on what the definition of 'progress' should be.
It's time we look at other countries who's education systems work - and then implement those methods over here.

Given the choice - I'd go for Finland - they have an excellent education system - they don't start kids in school till age 7, and they learn a lot without drowning under a ton of constant homework.

http://www.businessinsider.com/finland-education-school-2...

Common Core was dumped on us this year in California. Our daughter went from loving school, especially math, to hating it all in 3rd grade. Her homework often has ME in near tears and I'm a college-educated professional with 25 years of experience in the workplace. We're often spending 1 1/2 hours on homework.

No longer do they just memorize equations like 8x3. Instead, they're broken down into other equations, explained through dots and sticks, explained through circled numbers and all sorts of other nonsensical ways. Every day is something new that we have to figure out. Don't even get me started on the crazy terminology, either, or having to explain why you got the answer you did (As my daughter often writes, "Because I read it and figured it out.").

I fear what her generation is going to be like in the workplace. Employers don't want people who make simple problems complex and take forever to do basic tasks. We're setting them up for failure.

I'm all for analytical thinking and teaching kids who are struggling new ways to look at information. Change for the sake of change, however, is a huge mistake.

I am an elementary reading specialist with a kindergartner and a 2nd grader. As a teacher and a parent, I like the CC. As a teacher, I am more sure of what I am teaching. Instead of a teacher edition that says to teach compare and contrast, I have standards that give me more specifics that I know are going to build on what the previous grade did and prepare them for what the next grade will expect. I have never taught a reading curriculum that has done that before. I also really like how the CC teaches kids to use higher level thinking. It teaches more analysis and expects kids to find evidence that supports their response.

As a parent I like that I can see exactly what skills my kids are learning and how those skills are going to progress throughout their entire K-12 education. That has never been possible for me to see before. The standards are exactly the same for K-12. What changes is the complexity and rigor of the standard.

For example, this is a standard for my kindergartener: Identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

This is the same standard for my 2nd grader: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

This is the same standard for a 12th grader: Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

The majority of the complaints I see about the reading standards have to do with the texts that kids are expected to read. If you look at the CC as they were written (www.commonstandards.org), there are no mandatory texts to read. A standard M. suggest a text, but it is only a suggestion. For example, this is a 3rd grade standard copied directly from our CC: "Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures." If students are being expected to read certain texts, that is a district or state implementation. The mom who said her 10th grader's English focus this year was on women in society, that must be a district decision. I just looked at the 10th grade English/Language Arts standards and there is nothing about women in society. (Our system hasn't adopted the social studies standards. Maybe it is a SS standard, but it isn't an English standard.) Our district has basically told us that we can use whatever text we want to use to teach the standards. At least at the elementary level, we don't have a single required text that the district or state requires us to use.

One of the things that really gets me the most is the complaints I see about math. I have seen several examples of supposed CC math problems going around the internet. The poster usually says something along the lines that they are a CPA or majored in math and they can't understand their 2nd grade student's math homework. I look at those problems and I think that is how I taught my 3rd grade students 20 years ago!! One of the examples I've seen is almost identical to an assessment question that my 3rd grade students had to answer 5 years ago. And yes, I expected them to write an explanation of how they solved the problem. That was at least two years before the CC was made public. It had nothing to do with the CC. It had everything to do with the curriculum I was teaching. Everyday Math (a very common math curriculum) has expected kids to explain their answers forever! The Everyday Math curriculum teaches a lot of mental math and teaches the process and not just the memorization of facts. Again, it is the teaching of higher level thinking. Several people commented on how confusing it was to have all the drawing of blocks, dots, and circles. That is how I was taught to do math in the 1970s and how I taught math to my students in the '90s and '00s. It isn't new.

As far as testing...you can thank the federal government for that going back to when Bush put the No Child Left Behind laws into place. Again, the testing has nothing to do with CC. States have designed tests based on the CC, but they would still have to give the tests even if they weren't adopting the CC. Trust me, teachers hate it probably even more than parents do. But, our hands are tied. More and more districts are using computers for testing. Doing the tests on the computer gives instantaneous results. We no longer have to wait 6 weeks or more to get back results. Our kindergarteners take their first computer assessment in January. They take it again in M.. 1st-5th grade take the assessment in September with the option to give it again in January. I think giving the test in M. is also optional. Those are standardized tests that are given to meet federal and state requirements. We also use that data for determining students who need extra help in math and reading. Every student takes regular tests in every subject. Sometimes on a weekly basis. Those tests are used to monitor progress.

I strongly encourage you to read the CC standards in their purest form, as they are originally written. They aren't as bad as the opponents seem to think. More than likely, it is what the state or district has done to make the standards their own.

My son is in 10th grade and it's impacting his science, math, english & history classes. From what I understand it's also impacting kids from about 3rd grade and up. I think the worst impact is middle school.

I think the stated mission of common core is good - how can you argue with it - the mission is to bring kids in America up to the education accomplishments of the rest of the industrialized nations. Unfortunately, the statistics that are trotted out for US students includes in the average all the under-performing schools in neihgborhoods with bad school districts (there's one the next county over where some of the board members have allowed the schools to run into the ground while they pocketed millions). If your kid goes to a good school and graduates with a working knowledge of math and science, english & history then he's going to be at the same level as these other nations. The schools that need to be re-structured are those primarily in inner cities. But since it's not policitally correct to target only the under performing schools for reform - ALL schools have to do it.

So here's what I've seen in the last few years here in NY:
Math is taught using a very different approach. The intent is to teach the kids how to think - not to give them steps to memorize. But that's not generally something you can teach. Kids eiher get it - or they don't. My son last year had algebra - because it was the 1st year of full common core they gave parallel tests all year and the higher of the two grades were used. So al year he had two sets of tests. He performed MUCH better on the non-CC - and barely passed the CC tests. He's generaly pretty good at math and used to raelly like Math. This year he's taking geometry and hates it. But I'm reading his problems and I fully understand why - there are some very non-sensical approaches to problem solving. They take the student in a higly circuitous route to find the answer.

It's trickier when you get to things like Science. 10th grade science is supposed to be biology. His teacher told us CC has changed the entire focus to man's impact on the environment. The teacher said she is inserting biology back into the curriculum - but that it's been watered down dramatically to be all about man-made climate change (which is, BTW, only a theory that has many holes in it) and has very little actual biology contect.

History and English are now slanted fully towards left-leaning, "Progressive" (in the political sense) concepts. The over-arching theme to which all 10th grade English will connect to is the role of women in society. So allyear long, every book they read, every short story, every thing they write - will somehow connect to the role of women in society - including oral pressentation about how women were treated in various literary works. They're now in Shakespeare. Now, as a woman raised in the 60's and 70's - the first college grad in my large family, & a financial executive, I'm all for strong, successful women. But not at the expense of strong successful men. What are we teaching our young men?

As for history - 10th grade history is Global studies - or in college we called in western civilization - from the cradle of civiliization in Persia through the Babylonian, Greek and Roman empire through the 21st century and the conflicts in the middle east. BUT - as the teacher told us - it's all taught from a "global perspective" - the American perspective will not be included in any way (why not as one of many perspectives?). American history is 11th grade we were told.

So - as you can probably tell I'm pretty passionately against CC - not becuase it's hard, but becuase it's dumbed down the essential parts, aligned everything with left-leaning political ideals, and inserts concepts about American being an evil imperialist nation into the rest of it. There's no mention of American exceptionalism or the good that America brings to the world - in fact the slant is generally the complete opposit. I'm so glad my youjngest child has only 2 1/2 more years of government education - that's more than enough to rot his brain.
As parents we have so much de-briefing to do...

There is the issue of common core approved curriculum, which is separate from the common core program as a whole. If your state has not adopted the whole thing, then likely you are just seeing some of the common core approved curriculum. Math is the most controversial. My daughter is in private school where they adopted common core math 4 years ago. Being concerned but open minded, this is my conclusion so far. Common core math has many good things about it. Its more conceptual and helps kids understand the why and not just the how. Math the way you and I likely learned it focused more on memorization and learning the fastest most efficient algorithms. I think math the way i learned it was probably too left brain focused, and I think common core math is too right brained focused. For sure it is lacking in memorization of math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication 1-12). Unless your school is using a math facts supplement, I would certainly suggest doing a math facts supplemental program at home.

Common core is not a curriculum, it is a set of standards. In the right hands, teachers can do an amazing job with it. However, most teachers are struggling with having to quick throw something together, knowing these unproven method are going to be tested and their entire career will be based on the success of new tests that aren't even done being written yet, let alone evaluated and vetted. The evil is not in common core, per se. The evil is in NCLB and the endless testing.

As a practical matter, what i have found is that there is no textbook or practice book that is prepared for this, so they get thrown into multilevel curriculum without adequate skill building.

Common Core is fine. It's how it is sometimes implemented that is a pain in the a@@. As long as you have good teachers and you are involved, your kiddo will learn just fine.

I agree with you about the assessments. The early grades spend way too much time on this stuff. Maybe one a year for the first couple of years should be fine. (And, yes, I think that teachers can figure out what the kiddos know without the use of myriad standardized tests.)

And Talkstotrees, we've seen several math problems that were incomprehensible to me and my husband, who both had lots of post-grad math classes and regularly use high-end math at our jobs. It's not that the math is difficult, it's that they are incapable of communicating what they want clearly. The folks writing some of these questions need more help in writing.

My son is in third grade this year and has pretty much been with common core since K. The math is insane, but we could live with it, until this year.
We got so frustrated with these number lines, bars, blocks, and explanations they expect these kids to write out. The method was actually causing mistakes with his work. He would miscount a line or dot. He's extremely bright and it was taking so long for him to complete tests and assignments. He was getting so insecure in his abilities. It was heartbreaking to watch and the madness had to stop.
One night a couple of weeks ago, we sat him down and taught him math like we learned it. In 5 minutes, he was flying through the long addition and subtraction problems with NO mistakes. It was like a different kid. He flew through this homework, and wanted to do more. We just told him he still had to do the crazy graphs, bars, dots and stuff to comply with the teacher's request. That our way was the "supplemental" way to double-check his work. :) Sneaky, I know.
We are working on memorizing multiplication tables now, even though they haven't covered it yet. This kid of mine has an amazing memory, so no reason not to use it to his own benefit.

My state instituted Education Reform in the 1990's, including the MCAS exams that are given in grades 3-10 and are a graduation requirement. The standards are similar to Common Core and were used to assess some of what should be included in CC standards. As you can imagine, there was much angst about the tests...worries about the test being unfair, or that teachers would be "teaching to the test" instead of having the creative outlet to design their won curricula, etc. Everyone survived and my state (Massachusetts) is consistently at the top or near the top in any state-by-state analysis of student performance. A Forbes article recently pointed out that if the US submitted state-by-state results to world-wide evaluations (where the US is typically in the bottom 50% of developed countries), Massachusetts would be ranked 9th in the world.

It seems ridiculous and unfair to me that public education in Massachusetts is of better quality than in, for example, Mississippi. Common Core sets a baseline standard across the country that says, at the end of the day, everyone who has a HS diploma will have at least mastered X, Y, & Z. That it's not OK to push kids through school who can't read with basic comprehension, write a coherent argument, or perform basic math.

Overall, I'm a fan. If a state's standard are already up to the Common Core level, nothing changes. If the state's standards didn't meet that baseline level, then curriculum changes will need to be made that ensure that children are learning what they need to know when they need to know it. Change can be intimidating and scary, but also good. I'm grateful that my kids are receiving and excellent public school education, thanks to MCAS. Schools take these scores seriously and can use the data to figure out what is and isn't working. Without this data, it's impossible to tell if the bar set at a child's school is high enough. With this data, you know that it is (yay) or it isn't (time to change things up).

it's nuts. it's insane. it's counter-productive.
but man, the textbook manufacturers are cleaning up, so boo-yah, right?
it's just the tip of the iceberg, though. until and unless we redesign our entire education system from the ground up, which will never happen with the powerful NEA lobby, we can expect our public schools to continue to wallow, and to sink slowly.
khairete
S.

I am no expert at all and I credit our great public school teachers with making the transition to common core not a big deal for us. But seems ok to me. I don't see any real difference from what I would expect in the teaching of reading and writing. Math has been different but I'm kind of a fan. Not all of it but from what I can tell, they're trying to teach kids to look at problems from different angles and use more blocks of ten thinking (which I just saw an article other countries have used all along and their students do better in math, not sure which countries but I think some Asian ones). I think the blocks of ten thing is good. I work in a math related field every day and have a second degree and the way they're teaching math has made me rethink how I do a problem sometimes. So I'm optimistic.

ETA: so interesting reading other people's replies. I hate the "explain the answer" stuff in math too. I didn't know if it was common core though or just our school/teachers. So many times I want to say "bc 2*2 =4!!" So interesting other people find explaining the answers to math questions a stupid request too. And very interesting what happens at later grades. I should have qualified my kids are still elementary.

Common Core is being implemented this year in FL. My son is in 6th grade. He has been an A/B honor student until this year. He is really struggling in math. We have had 2 conferences with his math teacher. He was truthful in saying that the teachers themselves are still learning this new way of presenting the material. The students are having a Florida State Assessment test soon & he said it would not affect students grades, but was more to evaluate how the teachers are teaching & presenting the new material & if the students are "getting it". I have tried to help with his math homework (math was my Worst subject), Some of his equations & models send my head Spinning. My sons teacher has tried to explain certain problems to me, but the way he presents it is just Confusing. My sons friend helped with homework one night , he explained it once & I Got It !!! :) Here is an example :Create 5 fraction word problems that relate to making a garden (The length of a garden and area of a garden). The fractions should be less than 1 whole (2/3 mile, 1/4 mile ect...) Solve all 5 using the standard algorithm then use a model to solve them a second way. I had to google Algorithm !!! lol My son worked the problems, but I couldn't say if they were correct or not. Kinda makes me feel a lil Stupid !!! lol Lord help me through 6th grade, AGAIN !!!

Our schools have used common core officially for the past two years. I absolutely understand the math memes that you see - the math my kids have had take the simplest problems and make them very difficult because it conflates many problems together all at once without giving them the basic skills they need to complete the task. Somehow they are supposed to magically understand. Supposedly, they are supposed to mimic real world problems, but I can promise you, I have never been expected to calculate the gallons of water in the ocean or how many cheese sandwiches it would take for me to cover my driveway. It looks great in theory. But at least in our school, the practice is horrible. And this year, the students will take the PARCC exam, and the teachers don't even know what it will include. It makes me very sad for my children.

My child is in 3rd, and while I know our school is compliant with the standards set by the common core, we haven't had any issues.

The math is taught differently than how I was taught math, but my child is excelling in math, so I cannot argue with the results for my child.

That said, my child has had this curriculum for 3 years now. Each year builds on the last, so he 'gets' this method of learning. I can see how it might be very frustrating for a child who is taught math using one method for 4 or 5 years to suddenly have to completely switch to a new learning method.

ETA: As for wanting to help - maybe it's just my school, but my child's teachers have always told us NOT to do a lot of helping with math homework. They say that if our child doesn't understand, they want the worksheet to come back blank, that way they know that they need to teach the lesson again, at least to some kids. So, I don't worry too much about struggling to understand the 'new math'.

Assessment is a waste of time??? Wow!

Ok, student assessment is what my dad did for a living, so I am a bit biased. I also realize that in some cases it has gotten a bit out of control, and I am absolutely opposed to it being tied to funding and teacher salaries.

Student assessment is essential. How in the world do we determine whether or not our students are learning what they need to be learning if we never try and find out? How do we know med school grads have learned anything if they don't take exams? How do we know people are qualified for many, many jobs if they don't pass the exams required for those job?

Student assessment is not perfect. And the results are not always correctly interpreted or understood. But the basics are there. This is how we check to see if the students are learning what they need to be learning. And if they are not, we have an obligation to look at what we are teaching and how we are teaching to see what we can do differently and better so that they are learning!

This pretty much sums it up:

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIJV3TZ...

Molly, I don't know what's going on with CC in your neck of the woods, but my son is in second grade and his school has been doing CC curriculum right out of the gate. Computers were never used for assessment in K or First grade; I don't think they will be doing this for second grade either. Instead, his teachers have all used hands-on learning techniques for the kids. The math has been easy to figure out, at least thus far. He practices basic concepts in a multitude of ways which make tangible sense for young learners. Perhaps being introduced to these ideas at an earlier age will make it easier for him later on?

I will say, too, that I understand *why* they want the kids to explain how they came to a solution; they want to know that the kids understand the concepts and can express their thinking or ideas in a clear way. My son doesn't care for the extra writing, but I am of the belief that it does help him in the long run. Part of this is also perseverance, having to really think about demonstrating his thinking. I do think this will be helpful as he gets older.

I personally also love that there aren't letter grades being assigned on a report card but more focus on competency, efficiency and mastery. Letter grades can be misleading when the teachers are grading on a curve and M. not actually reflect ability and mastery at all.

Teachers are just beginning to implement Common Core and figure out how to do it. Like anything new, it's a work in progress. To resist and condemn something that has barely begun is ridiculous.

A good teacher is still a good teacher, no matter the educational framework/philosophy. Common Core isn't going to turn a good teacher bad, or vice-versa.

Teachers have a lot of leeway and freedom under CC. There M. be some flaws with CC, but you really don't need to worry.

Veruca Salt is correct.

Our schools have been using these standards for a few years. I don't understand these memes that keep showing up online with all of these weird math problems, I've never seen anything like that coming home from their schools. And from the conversations I've had with their teachers, they really like the standards and enjoy being able to combine different subjects to teach a more comprehensive curriculum.

I live in CO and as talk increased about common core, everyone in our district started freaking a bit. The district explained that we actually adopted most of the standards a while back, with very little fuss. Then we sent our DD to a private school, and they made a big show of saying how they are private and as such don't have to and would never adopt common core. I laughed because when looking at all her textbooks, they all said "common core approved" or something similar on them. So there really was little difference.

I think it's worth doing some reading on, and asking your administration to explain anything you are concerned about. But I believe that if you had a good school/district before, you will continue to have a good school/district. I think the lower performing schools and districts M. struggle a little bit more. I wouldn't stress too much about it.

I have to say that I am so relieved to read responses from college educated people who themselves had/have trouble with CC math! I can't tell you how many math homework assignments my GD returned with a big question mark on it because we simply could NOT figure out how to do the problems. I couldn't even make sense of the directions. The least they could do is send home a book that provides some real information/instruction, examples and answers so the parents MIGHT be able to figure it out and help.

My son is in third grade and has been using cc standards since first grade (we did kindergarten at a private Montessori). I LOVE common core math. It makes an incredible amount of sense and the kids learn to see numbers and use them, rather than just memorizing the 'hows' of a limited number of ways of manipulating them. I LOVE that the last part of every question this year (he is doing 4th grade math) is 'does your answer make sense?'.

I do think the amount of testing he has is way over the top. His school 'pre tests' each new unit to see how much they already get and breaks the fourth grade up into ready, beyond ready and I suppose, not quite there yet and then each teacher in the grade gets one group. They then test again at the end of the unit and in between they have these annoying timed tests (which as far as I can see are not CC at all but old fashioned memorization of math facts).

I also am a fan of common core reading. My son is learning to read a text, formulate an argument and support it with evidence from what he has read. This is the sort of critical reading that I rarely did in school until graduate school - and I went to an excellent high school and spent 8 years in Ivy League universities. I feel very strongly that teaching kids to read and think critically - a huge part of the language arts standards - will make for a generation of competent, thinking and educated citizens - essential for a functional democracy.

I find all these tests/assessments to be a problem because there is ZERO validation that they measure what they are supposed to measure. They also eat up a lot of time that might better be spent learning. LOTS of tests do not measure what they are supposed to. Medical board exams do NOT correlate with success as a medical doctor (plenty of evidence to back that up). Tests for most jobs are completely unvalidated. So while the idea of assessment is nice, in practice the tests either don't work or we can't tell whether they measure what we think they measure.

ETA: The common core does NOT prescribe what books can or should be read. There is no reason that a school would remove 'classics' from the curriculum to accommodate common core standards. My son is only in fourth grade reading but so far they are reading most of the same books I remember reading in elementary school. Last year they read Pippi Longstocking, Stuart Little, a bunch of Newberry winners and a biography of Louis Braille. They also read some folk tales and a small amount of poetry.

I live in MD where we do everything stupid first. Sorry, but that's my take on it (and moving isn't an option right now).

However, my kids have all amazing teachers, with the exception of 1. They are always willing to work with them, they show them 5 or 6 different ways to do a math problem, and they really help them in every way they can. The main difference I see in how they learn versus how I learned, is they are learning more ways to do the math. So they have to come up with one right answer 3 different ways. Some of them make sense to me, some of them don't. I am highly trained in math (all 3 of my degrees are concentrated in math, one of them being an MBA, and I work in finance for a living), so I kind of feel that my brain is so trained in one way, these new ways confuse me.

My husband is FABULOUS at helping my kids do their math homework. Once he explains it to me, I get it too...but just looking at the paper, I have to say it looks like Japanese writing to me.

My kids do test a lot, but like I said, moving is not an option for us right now.

Our Governor got rid of it. We're reverting to our own curriculum that we did before common core.

Happy so far but then again our standards in California have been higher in the past compared other states.

I

In what ways are you seeing Common Core making its way into Texas classrooms? Texas doesn't follow the CC, they have their own set of standards called the TEKS, and that is what is tested on the STAAR test starting in 3rd grade. Some of the TEKS match some of the CC standards, but not all, and the grade level standards don't always match either. Just because something in the CC is a 3rd grade standard doesn't mean it is a 3rd grade standard in the TEKS. If a teacher in Texas is trying to use CC in their classroom they are ultimately going to harm their students because they are not preparing them for what the state of Texas will be testing them on. I don't see a speck of CC in Texas at all, so I'm curious to understand what it is you are seeing.

I would definitely encourage everyone to actually read the standards. The standards are only for English language arts and math. There are some reading and writing standards that are to be implemented in other subjects (but most good teachers/districts were already doing similar standards.) There are no science and social studies standards, so if you think there are...you need to read the standards. If your schools are doing curriculum you don't agree with in those content areas...that is a district or building decision. Talk with your principal or school board about them. Organize parents to change them.