As shared at the Lindenhurst BOE Community Forum tonight. The 10 top errors with Common Core: as written by Anthony Cody Error #1: The process by which the Common Core standards were developed and adopted was undemocratic. At the state level in the past, the process to develop standards has been a public one, led by committees of educators and content experts, who shared their drafts, invited reviews by teachers, and encouraged teachers to try out the new standards with real children in real classrooms, considered the feedback, made alterations where necessary, and held public hearings before final adoption. Error #2: The Common Core State Standards violate what we know about how children develop and grow. In response to the Common Core, more than 500 experts signed the Joint Statement of Early Childhood Health and Education Professionals on the Common Core Standards Initiative. This statement now seems prophetic in light of what is happening in classrooms. The key concerns they raised were: 1. Such standards will lead to long hours of instruction in literacy and math. 2. They will lead to inappropriate standardized testing 3. Didactic instruction and testing will crowd out other important areas of learning. 4. There is little evidence that such standards for young children lead to later success. Error #3: The Common Core is inspired by a vision of market-driven innovation enabled by standardization of curriculum, tests, and ultimately, our children themselves. Bill Gates has not spoken too much recently about the Common Core, but in 2009, he was very clear about the projects goals. He said that:...identifying common standards is just the starting point. Well only know if this effort has succeeded when the curriculum and tests are aligned to these standards. Secretary Arne Duncan recently announced that $350 million of the stimulus package will be used to create just these kinds of tests - Next Generation assessments, aligned to the Common Core. When the tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well. And it will unleash a powerful market of people providing services for better teaching. For the first time, there will be a large, uniform base of customers looking at using products that can help every kid learn, and every teacher get better. MY KIDS ARE NOT AN EXPERIMENT! Error #4: The Common Core creates a rigid set of performance expectations for every grade level, and results in tightly controlled instructional timelines and curriculum. If you read Commissioner John Kings Powerpoint slide 18, usny.nysed.gov/docs/reform-agenda-hearing-testimony-nyc.pdf , you see that the Common Core standards were backmapped from a description of 12th grade college-ready skills. There is no evidence that early childhood experts were consulted to ensure that the standards were appropriate for young learners. Every parent knows that their kids do not develop according to a back map--young children develop through a complex interaction of biology and experience that is unique to the child and which cannot be rushed. Error #5: The Common Core was designed to be implemented through an expanding regime of high-stakes tests, which will consume an unhealthy amount of time and money. Do I have to explain this one further? You are already incurring costs for printing out the daily received materials. But I will offer this: The Pioneer Institute pegs the cost of full implementation of the Common Core at $16 billion nationally Error #6: Proficiency rates on the new Common Core tests have been dramatically lower—by design. Disturbing to say the least. Given that we have attached all sorts of consequences to these tests, this could have disastrous consequences for students and teachers. Only 31 percent of students who took Common Core aligned tests in New York last spring were rated proficient. Error #7: Common Core relies on a narrow conception of the purpose of K-12 education as career and college readiness. When one reads the official rationales for the Common Core there is little question about the utilitarian philosophy at work. Our children must be prepared to compete in the global economy. This runs against the grain of the historic purpose of public education, which was to prepare citizens for our democracy, with the knowledge and skills to live fruitful lives and improve our society. Error #8: The Common Core is associated with an attempt to collect more student and teacher data than ever before. Parents are rightfully alarmed about the massive collection of their childrens private data, made possible by the US department of educations decision in 2011 to loosen the regulations of FERPA , so that student data could be collected by third parties without parental consent. The Secretary proposes to amend the regulations implementing section 444 of the General Education Provisions Act, which is also known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (FERPA). These proposed amendments are necessary to ensure that the Departments implementation of FERPA continues to protect the privacy of education records, as intended by Congress, while allowing for the effective use of data in statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) as envisioned in the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act (COMPETES Act) and furthermore supported under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Improved access to data contained within an SLDS will facilitate States ability to evaluate education programs, to build upon what works and discard what does not, to increase accountability and transparency, and to contribute to a culture of innovation and continuous improvement in education. These proposed amendments would enable authorized representatives of State and local educational authorities, and organizations conducting studies, to use SLDS data to achieve these important outcomes while protecting privacy under FERPA through an expansion of the requirements for written agreements and the Departments enforcement mechanisms. How and when did they do this? While we were all focused on the crashing economy and the possibility of losing our jobs, as some of us did. This is one aspect of the project that is already in big trouble. The Gates Foundation invested about $100 million to create inBloom, a nonprofit organization that would build a system to store the massive amount of student data their reform project requires. However, as parent concerns over privacy have grown, seven of the nine states that had signed up to use the system have withdrawn. Only Illinois and New York remain involved, and in New York this week a lawsuit was filed to block the project. As I hope that Mr. Nathan will follow through on Opting our District out. Error #9: The Common Core is not based on any external evidence, has no research to support it, has never been tested, and worst of all, has no mechanism for correction. The Memorandum of Understanding signed by state leaders to opt in to the Common Core allows the states to change a scant 15 percent of the standards they use. There is no process available to revise the standards. They must be adopted as written. As William Mathis (2012) points out, As the absence or presence of rigorous or national standards says nothing about equity, educational quality, or the provision of adequate educational services, there is no reason to expect CCSS or any other standards initiative to be an effective educational reform by itself. Error #10: The biggest problem of American education and American society is the growing number of children living in poverty. As was recently documented by the Southern Education Fund (and reported in the Washington Post) across the American South and West, a majority of our children are now living in poverty. The Common Core does nothing to address this problem. In fact, it is diverting scarce resources and time into more tests, more technology for the purpose of testing, and into ever more test preparation. In conclusion what can be done? 1) I urge Mr. Nathan to send the letter as described earlier. 2) Urge the Board to adopt a resolution against High Stakes testing and the collection of student data. 3) Urge the community to write all of out elected officials State Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, Sen. Charles J. Fuschillo Jr., Speaker Sheldon Silver, SENATOR DEAN SKELOS AND SENATOR JEFF KLEIN, Gov Andrew Cuomo, Federal Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and congressional Rep Peter King.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 03:09:02 +0000
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