Day 824 of 1000
Betty Blonde #8 – 07/28/2008
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This is an excerpt from a World Magazine article about how the Common Core government education standards treats math:
Two years ago in September, Heather Crossin’s 8-year-old daughter Lucy came home from her Catholic school in Indianapolis with a math problem that seemed unusual.
“Bridge A is 407 feet long. Bridge B is 448 feet long,” the problem read. “Which bridge is longer? How do you know?”
“Bridge B is longer,” Crossin’s daughter had written. “I found this out by just looking at the number and seeing that 448 is greater than 407.”
The youngster’s answer was mostly wrong: According to her new textbook, enVisionMATH Common Core, she was supposed to compare the hundreds column, the tens column, and the ones column individually. The teacher gave her one point out of three.
Read the whole article here. The sad part is the Common Core is not only bad in its philosophical biases, but in that it will effect even those how do not buy into the governments really bad educational methods and ideas–home and private schools. Here is an excellent analysis of Common Core and its impact from people who have done their homework and have an excellent record of supporting educational methods that actually work.
Trisha
That curriculum was a problem at the District Level not a Common Core problem. I see this over and over again. Each district implements the Common Core based on their own understanding of it and often choose terrible a terrible curriculum to implement it. I do agree there is a problem with a “one size fits all” standard. I think the lower students suffer the most in this instance because no matter what they are expected to have mastered all of the standards for that grade level by the end of the year. Sometimes students are not developmentally ready for the grade they are in or the curriculum being taught. Higher students have more options that I see. For instance I have a student from a lower grade coming to my class for math and to an upper grade for reading. If the district is asking you to put all students in a box w/o differentiating there is an issue w/ the district or the state. The curriculum is a HUGE issue though. Districts and even states don’t spend enough time doing research into finding a quality curriculum. At our school they have purchased so many different curriculum’s over the years our basement is full of them. They really didn’t do the research and wasted a lot of money. Also, if you decide upon a curriculum teachers really need to be given the time to study it so it can be taught effectively. As for Common Core, every state has always had its own standards, and they are always flawed. Read the Common Core standards before forming an opinion though… because how they are implemented is many times based on a teacher, administrator, or districts opinion of what the standards say, and sometimes that is wayyyyyy off of reality.
Trisha
Also, Blame Arizona …. they developed the CCSS 🙂 Let’s see how their test scores roll out …
Trisha
I thought I should come back and let you know I am NOT endorsing the Common Core Standards. I myself have not learned enough about them to give an opinion. I think my opinion will probably alter dramatically over the next couple of years as I observe how it goes in my own experience as a teacher trying to implement them. What is best for students doesn’t always match with standards. I also do not like the Federal Government coming in and saying here is what you will teach and how you will teach it. That sets a very dangerous precedent. The Common Core has NOT endorsed any curriculum. Any company can say that their curriculum is “Common Core”. I wish districts spent more time finding researched based quality curriculum’s and offered teachers professional development and the time to truly implement them.
Trisha, your comments deserve a post of their own. With your permission and being that you are, by far, my favorite government school teacher, I am going to drag your stuff up from the comment section to the main page. I have a point or two I might want to make, but at this point I feel well chastised!
Trisha
Ha ha, yes you can post them, I wasn’t chastising YOU though! I just want people to read the standards and then form an opinion. The next thing that is rolling out is the Next Generation Science Standards http://www.nextgenscience.org/
Many states have already adopted them. I have not read them, nor researched them, so I have no opinion on them!