Advice about Common Core
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Common Core - keeping children engaged
Sept 2014
''Mom, is private school any more challenging? This is just dumb.'' - my 5th-grader the other day, after drawing arrows in place value tables, and multiplying by 10s for homework. (Our 1st-grader subsequently explained how to solve correctly two of the problems, which I tested on him, knowing he had enough foundation to do. Guilty as charged.) This is their first year officially on Common Core curriculum. We love our school, and we love our teachers. And this is only week two of a whole new year. Old standards, we hear, were ''a mile wide and an inch deep'', while now focus is on profound understanding, reasoning, independent thinking... I wish to hold onto that thought, and to support our educators wholeheartedly... I just cannot shake off my 5th-grader's contempt for the math page in front of him. The question is not public vs. private. I am hoping parents of older children, and teachers, would chime in how to keep children engaged if the mile-deep, inch-wide material is long mastered. -- Know a little about a lot, vs. a lot about a little...
I will tell you that my 5th grader's experience with Common Core (not a curriculum, by the way, but a set of standards) is very different from your 5th grader's. She is in a highly regarded school in OUSD and was in tears last night over her math homework (tears due to being overtired after a two-hour gymnastics class and therefore not able to cope with math frustration). She was presented with a math problem where she had to illustrate how to solve it. Then Question #2 was ''show a different way.'' I gave her a little help with the first one and she got it. She was stumped with the second one and I told her to leave it blank (per her teacher's instructions) to let the teacher know that she had struggled with it. That's where the tears came from--she couldn't bear to turn in unfinished homework. So I wouldn't throw in the towel on Common Core, or public school just yet. Teachers are still figuring it out. Kids are learning a new way to learn and present what they've learned. If your child's homework remains overly simple then I would bring it to the teacher's attention. She may be able to explain exactly where she's going with it. Or not. It might be a teacher issue specifically, because as I said, our 5th grade experience is nothing like yours. OUSD mom
Anyone Else have concerns about Common Core?
May 2014
I'm a parent of 1 (soon to be 2) kids at Jefferson Elementary, and am wondering if there are any other parents out there who are concerned with the roll out of the Common Core in the schools? I love my son's first grade teacher, think she is truly a fantastic teacher, so my concern really has nothing to do with her or even the school. But I do have concerns with the school districts adoption of a new standardized curriculum that was not created by educators, has not been vetted, and is essentially being mandated (since only schools who adopt the common core are eligible for federal funds from Obama's ''race to the top'' initiative), and has such a heavy emphasis on testing, testing, and more testing. I find the instructional material lacking (math homework work sheets with no examples?), a lot of homework being piled on (presumably to get the kids ready for tests), and some of the questions odd and confusing. I would love to know if there are other parents in Berkeley with similar concerns and if anything is being done in an organized fashion to bring these concerns to the elected school board. thank you. concerned parent
There is A LOT of misinformation out there regarding Common Core, much of which is included in your posting. As a tenured teacher, a life-long educator, and someone who has been implementing Common Core for several years now, I will try to address some of your questions/statements:
1. Common Core is not a curriculum. It is a set of standards. Teachers are free to choose their own texts and so on.
2. Common Core is not adopted by schools; they are adopted by states. California has adopted Common Core, along with most other states in the country.
3. Common Core is not mandated by the Federal Government
4. The new standards are designed to make sure all students are college and career ready by graduation. This is reflected in the tests, which move AWAY from multiple choice to actually asking students to justify their answer, reflect, apply concepts to new situations--all of which they will have to do in real life. Never in real life are we asked to choose A, B, C, or D.
5. Testing, testing, testing? That is what we had under No Child Left Behind. 8 out of 9 months are spent with test prep or teaching to the test. We already test kids. Common Core does not call for any more testing than students already experience. There will be one test at the end of the year, as there is now. The test will not cover a thousand items (as they do now), but will rather go a bit more deeply into fewer areas. One myth that has been spread around is that there are multiple tests or 400 testing points or whatever. These are not true!
6. CCSS has fewer standards than we now have. The idea with fewer standards is that teachers will be able to go more deeply into content, rather than dashing madly through the standards in superficial ways. This is a great opportunity for both teachers and students.
7. We are all still learning how to implement Common Core. We might not get it right the first year. But we are all learning and trying new things.
8. Go to the CCSS website and educate yourself. Don't believe all of the myths and lies circulating about CCSS that only cause fear and perpetuate negativity. I believe CCSS is a move in the right direction. The standards are internationally normed, so we will not be lagging SO FAR BEHIND every other industrialized nation in the world. This is also a good thing.
9. We will hopefully create a generation of students who can actually think, engage, discuss, and collaborate, and not only be able to choose A, B, C, or D on a standardized test. -Knowledge is Power
If you want to change...please go at it from a nationwide level. You will accomplish much more.
I just want to make sure you understand your options.
Change at the Berkeley level, the county level, the district level or the state level means a huge loss of money. So you could form a committee to look into not adopting the standards and your school receiving substantially less money. Our state has adopted the standards. For a school to not embrace them may even be illegal. There are numerous laws that voters & congress have passed through the years that must be followed.
Change at the Federal level - you can make a difference here.
If your children are at a low performing school working towards the common core standards may help.
If your children are at a high performing school expectations will be lowered. For example, previously, in my highly performing district, we were expecting children to be prepared to take Algebra at 8th grade. With common core, children are expected to take Algebra in 9th grade. (Which was how it was a few years ago. I remember the uproar when we said all students had to take Algebra in 9th grade).
As a teacher of 25 years and a parent of 15 years, I've seen many changes. Major change at schools takes place every few years, and that is what is happening now. The first major change I participated in was determining mission statements. Our entire school paid teachers and took them out of teaching in order to come up with mission statements. I thought it was fairly obvious that our goal as a school was to get the kids to learn, and my goal was to get them to learn my subject (although my personal goal was for them to love it as well, and learn how to learn it, and develop a life long relationship with it). Nonetheless, Hours & days were spent coming up with these mission statements. Teachers were taken out of the classroom to come up with these mission statements. Can you imagine the costs of hiring substitutes to teach, and the lack of teaching that took place during this time?
About 10 years later, the curriculum changed again. This time, the emphasis was on problem solving, making sure everyone knew all the curriculum, writing, heterogeneous grouping, math...sound familiar? Its how they are describing common core. And yes, again, whole schools of teachers spent time out of the classroom getting up to date, while substitutes were hired to teach. New textbooks were bought. New tests were created. The textbook companies and the testing companies make a lot of money with these changes.
The good news is that, for the first few years, change, no matter the change, usually has a good effect. (That is the Hawthorne Effect) -a teacher who cared
Your post suggests a misunderstanding of what Common Core is on a few levels. I understand having an initial negative reaction to a change as big and costly as this, but it is really important to have all the information before drawing a conclusion. As a parent of a second grader in BUSD and a school psychologist in another district, I am seeing the initial roll out of curricula chosen to meet Common Core standards up close. It is going to take a lot of time, effort and support to make such a big change, but if you really look at the standards (not the same as the curriculum that has been selected to meet them) they make a lot of sense and are very much research based. The new assessments they will be using are also going to be buggy and imperfect at first, but there is not going to be more testing than before - just different and truly intended to provide more useful information.
By all means, we need people to question whether the implementation is effective, but do develop a solid understanding about what CC is and is not before you try to rally the troops. Here's a decent place to start:
http://www.usnews.com/news/special-reports/a-guide-to-common-core/articles/2014/03/04/common-core-myths-and-facts Let's be informed!
I am sure there are some parents who are concerned about common core and i do encourage you to make your concerns known to your student's teacher. Their insights may be of benefit to your understanding. Hearing about common core from a range of teachers increased my comfort level substantially. Many BUSD teachers feel they are already teaching in the common core style and that it is good to have it acknowledged more concretely. Teachers also told me a few years back that teachers nationwide had a great deal to do with the development and review of common core so you may want to check your facts before you raise concerns to the school board. Perhaps i got it wrong. Regardless, once you have yourspecific concerns identified, i encourage you to share your specific concerns with the school board, even though they may be counter to mine. Phone messages are an easy place to start as you can leave one message and have it go to all board members. Another BUSD Parent
Common Core is better. The previous set of CA standards were a mile wide and an inch deep. Time and time again, research shows that CA students have been lagging behind similar students in other states (by ''similar students'' I mean they compare middle class kids in CA to middle class kids in other states, poor kids in CA to poor kids in other states, etc.). Our kids are achieving less in EVERY demographic, and not by a little bit, either. Of course the rollout is chaotic. As usual, we are trying to build the plane while flying it (some things never change). The SBAC is ridiculous, but I am happy to say goodbye to the STAR test, which was one-dimensional and didn't measure very many important skills. At least now, the tests and the ''test prep'' that goes with it will be more focused on useful skills like critical thinking, persuasive writing, delivering oral presentations, justifying your answers, finding multiple ways to solve a problem, etc. Now that we've ''equalized'' the standards across the US, wouldn't it be great if we could equalize the funding? I sure would love it if we spend as much per student as Vermont! My 2 cents
My youngest (of 3) is in 7th grade at a BUSD middle school that has begun implementing common core standards this year. I have a very, very positive view of Common Core especially for math. He is getting real math this year and should be well prepared for high school and beyond. My two older children in contrast, who did not get common core, had a lot of touchy-feelie stuff instead of actual math in middle school and high school and were were completely shut out of any kind of scientific or technical course of study in college.
Common core standards are meant to bring American students up to the same standard that all the other countires are using. I applaud this. I'm all for art and music majors but if we can't give kids who want it the chance to learn science and math and technology at the college level, we are failing those kids and we're failing our country.