Im as into NPR as the next college-town liberal. But last weekend I heard a series of education reports on the Common Core that were embarrassing. Our own Becky Vevea is smart and usually pretty careful, but in her report on Common Core implementation in the high school English classroom, she got the newfound emphasis on argument right (which is actually extremely important), but concluded her piece with students saying that argument is worth focusing on because they might want to be lawyers or politicians. Uh, no. Argument is important because the kind of text-based critical thinking it entails is at the center of the intellectual requirements of college, and(though a little less directly) most professional careers in an information-based economy. But worse (even though not nearly as close to my own work), Louisville public radio did a story on Minecraft and Common Core math that gave us no idea (a)how Minecraft is used to teach math, and (b) how that teaching is representative of the Common Core. 5th graders are playing Minecraft in math class these days -- the sum and substance of the story, in 10 words. Then the topper. A Michigan public radio dispatch that referred to the Common Cores requirement that students explain their work in math, not just get the right answer. Fair enough. But in the context of a confusing and utterly uninformed piece on the use of partial sums in 2nd grade math. Not connected directly to the Common Core. Not new. Not explained. But presented vaguely, as though it were some kind of impenetrable new high-falutin gobbledygook. (Partial sums is just adding each place -- e.g., the hundredths place, the tens place, the ones place -- separately, then adding those sums for a final answer.) And the link provided in the story to a U. of C. Everyday Mathematics short video makes partial sums so obvious -- a link the reporter could not have looked at herself. Such bad reporting, even on NPR, its no wonder people are confused or worse about the Common Core.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 03:22:48 +0000
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