Common core and this whole culture of high stakes testing judges the students, teachers, the administration, and the community of an entire school based on only two subjects: reading and math. In this new normal for education all the other things a school may or may not do are secondary to math and reading...in fact we are as teachers often told no matter what we are teaching we are now math and reading teachers. Kids dont get electives, recess and only limited amounts of art and music and decreasing amounts of history and business classes to make room for test prep. Schools need to be about strong curriculum for our kids not just two subjects. And who reliable is the data? Who is marking the tests? Are teachers and schools given enough time to pilot, and properly grade the tests? Are the tests reliable? In all reality the data itself is probably unreliable making all the results unreliable. But the common core people were sneaky, they introduced it to the states at a time they were broke....you want some of the 4 billion dollars of race for the top money...then you have to agree to these standards no one really knows or understands. And the educrats who wrote these standards no one quite understand, well after they get paid from the various grants to write this confusing curriculum they get hired by all the textbook companies to write materials or present at staff developments to help people understand the confusing standards they wrote...a classic double dip. Who benefits: educrats, professional developers, computer companies, textbook companies, testing companies, and consultants. Who does NOT benefit? Kids, teachers, schools and communities. And we will never find out if common core worked because either way it will not be given enough time because the educrats will be pushing the next reform because lets say common core did work...well then we would not have to buy millions of dollars in new books and professional development because what we had works and the educational industrial complex cant make more money if you dont have to buy new books or materials because what you have works....so they will create a new phony crisis in education where we will have to drop everything and spend millions on the new stuff they wrote.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 04:59:12 +0000
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