The Observation Deck

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/3 ... lec-torres

1. Use number bonds to help you skip count by making ten or adding to the ones.

7 + 7 = 10 + 4 = ?

When it's found that Noah, age 17, still can't add the solution will be to:

spend more money!

They've used that method long before Common Core. It's grouping into 10's and most people that are good at mental math do that automatically. Of course, that method wasn't called Common Core so it didn't bother anyone.

You can't just take random problems without the corresponding teaching plan and pretend that that's Common Core.

Is this Common Core?

http://greatergreatereducation.org/post ... next-year/

Please correct me if I'm wrong - and I may very well be - but isn't Common Core just standards? Aren't curriculum and testing separate things, albeit designed to teach and test the CC standards? If the curriculum and tests are bad - and I've seen a lot of examples of both - doesn't that mean you've got poor curriculum and testing and not (necessarily) bad standards? Not a fan of lots of high stakes standardized testing here but not against (national) standards either, which isn't to say that CC are the right ones, but I thought there was a distinction to be made and separate issues to address.

Jeff Dreger wrote:Please correct me if I'm wrong - and I may very well be - but isn't Common Core just standards? Aren't curriculum and testing separate things, albeit designed to teach and test the CC standards? If the curriculum and tests are bad - and I've seen a lot of examples of both - doesn't that mean you've got poor curriculum and testing and not (necessarily) bad standards? Not a fan of lots of high stakes standardized testing here but not against (national) standards either, which isn't to say that CC are the right ones, but I thought there was a distinction to be made and separate issues to address.

Hi Jeff---

I think there are separate issues to address. If you want to see the standards-- you can google state of Ohio CORE standards for each grade level. They are very thorough-- some might say overly detailed, some might say overwhelming, but they are certainly rigorous.

The curriculum is the only experience of the Core our students, teachers and we parents have of the standards. And the seemingly constant reporting out-- so much so that it causes one to question, when is there time to actually learn and explore the subject? Is are other experience.

You could be a "good person inside" and act really badly out in the world and people could think you are a jerk-- or a bad person. That is the only experience of you they will have, and in many ways-- how you act is who you are.

Lakewood is a very responsible school district, our manifestation of the CORE is not behaving well. Who fixes it? It's probably going to have to be all of us. Or the ones of us who have the time.

The reason I like your post so much is that it's important to stress that it is good to have standards. Good standards. Now how do we behave as if we know how to teach them and measure them? Who is running this show? (I know that is another separate topic, but the answer we need to get back to is that our own school district has to be that, has to do that. And we parents have to help. So we need to know what we're talking about.)

Betsy Voinovich

relevant

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-gre ... 97876.html

"the standards/curriculum distinction only looks good on paper"

Jeff Dreger wrote:relevant

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-gre ... 97876.html

"the standards/curriculum distinction only looks good on paper"

Wow Jeff, great article.

I'm just copying a little bit of it here.


"Supporters who say that the Core is just completely divorced from a national curriculum and of course all curriculum control stays local are being disingenuous. CCSS does not mandate a national curriculum, but it ploughs the road, opens the path, greases the skids, and directs traffic toward it. The Core Standards make it hugely likely that we will not only have a national curriculum, but also that it will created by some corporation (best bet -- one whose name starts with "P" and ends with "earson").

That process may happen organically, or at some point the feds (or their designated agents) may step up and say, "The individual states have created a patchwork or policies that are inconsistent and vary too much from state to state. To bring consistent excellence to all states, we need to make the same high quality learning program available in all states." In other words, exactly the same argument used to push the Core can be rolled out again to push a national curriculum. It's entirely possible that we are only at the halfway mark on a very long road trip with a carjacker who is as patient as he is dangerous."

Okay, so we're already owned-- our school system, our teachers, our kids. The ridiculous variety of curricula to introduce the standards -- the "fuzziness" that this article refers to-- has been set up on purpose. It's supposed to be a catastrophe. We're supposed to "need" Pearson to fix it.

What do we do?

Betsy Voinovich

Here is the most depressing documentary about education in America.
the problems generally have nothing to do with standardized test scores.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/educatio ... efp_09-16/

Since you bring up Pearson...
Meet Kathleen Jasper, former Florida Assistant Principal

Roy, as a parent of two children who went the Montessori route, I obviously agree that gobs of standardized testing is not in the best interest of our children. However, as former Assistant Principal Kathleen Jasper writes….

“Kids, have stopped caring about the test and it’s (sic) consequences.”

“Because only 54% of 10th graders past (sic) the test in the last three years….”

“Parents can ask what kind of logistical plan a school is using for testing is.” (huh?)

I certainly am opposed to most of the standardized testing, easy-to-teach “subject matter” curricula and all that. But I am even more opposed to half-literate spokespeople (spokespersons?) even if I happen to agree with them philosophically. How would Kathleen be able to evaluate my child’s written work? And she moved up from the teacher ranks to become a former Assistant Principal? Peter Principle....