Common Core Is Whack

[Papist]

and scary.  If you are not familiar with this, I recommend looking in to it.

 

 

 

Carol Burris, the principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, New York, was an early proponent of the Common Core standards. She wrote a book about how to implement them to benefit students.

 

But as the standards are turning into reality, what she imagined is going sour. She recently wrote two articles (below) about why she has decided she cannot support the Common Core.

 

To her dismay, the Common Core has turned out to be a way to standardize curriculum and testing across the nation and to generate uniform data.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/04/principal-i-was-naive-about-common-core/

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/11/storm-of-reform-principal-details-damage-done/

 

Expert Highlights Dangers in Common Core Standards

 

http://www.nccivitas.org/2013/expert-highlights-dangers-in-common-core-standards/

 

 

 

 

 

[To Jesus Through Mary]

THIS! It freaked me out when they started implementing it at the parochial school I was teaching religion at in NYC. I am shocked with how many states are adopting this. Do you think this will effect you as a homeschooler?  

[Era Might]

To her dismay, the Common Core has turned out to be a way to standardize curriculum and testing across the nation and to generate uniform data.

 

But isn't that the whole point of industrial education?

[Lilllabettt]

the modern American classroom is "data driven." data data data. we are not teachers, we are testers. no surprise since the "core standards" were written by testing companies. I just left the classroom, but they were going to start standardized testing in the first grade next year. I'm told that teaching is not what it used to be.

[4588686]

http://jacobinmag.com/2012/09/lean-production-whats-really-hurting-public-education/

 

 

The Team Concept

My first two years teaching in New York City, I worked at an exemplary “lean” high school. This school twice received “A” ratings on its progress reports from the Department of Education, and it was rated “well developed” (the highest possible rating) in a 2011 quality review. Curiously, my former school’s stellar ratings were awarded despite its poor academic record, itself a matter of public record (see below).

When the Department of Education wrote its “quality review” of my former school, the first set of commendations focused on the administration’s use of teams. “The principal,” the report reads, “promotes organizational decisions… through a distributive team leadership model that consistently improve instruction and student outcomes.” Basically, my principal was being lauded for putting teachers on lots of different teams and giving those teams lots of responsibilities.

At first, being on teams sounds like fun. Teachers at my old school worked on grade teams, department teams, inquiry teams, “case-conferencing teacher teams” and “‘Teachers as Critical Friends’ groups.” All teachers attended three staff meetings per week, often breaking into small teams—per the administration’s instructions. But based on this school’s academic failures, these teams clearly weren’t leading to “improved student outcomes.” So why was the Department of Education so happy about them?

The team concept is a critical component of lean production. In lean workplaces, labor journalist Jane Slaughter writes, worker teams are designed to enlist workers “in speeding up their own jobs… It is no longer enough for workers to come to work and do their jobs; they need to become ‘partners in production.’”

School managers promote teams as empowering for teachers; according to management, they give teachers a say in how their schools are run. In reality, these meetings highlight how little control teachers have over their time and workload at lean schools. Morning meetings can be particularly miserable, as teachers desperate for preparation time are forced to sit through an agenda focused on management concerns. In fact, the apparent purpose of teacher teams is to shift administrative workload onto teachers.

At my former school, for example, faculty teams were tasked with designing the rubric our principal would use to evaluate our teaching; case-conferencing teams were tasked with establishing flexible disciplinary systems so that our administration would not have to discipline difficult students; and grade teams were tasked with organizing school events, like field trips and parties. These tasks were piled on top of teaching workloads that were constantly increasing due to growing class sizes and cuts to support staff. Teachers at lean schools are stretched to their limits. This is not an accident.

The team concept both increases stress on the workforce and creates the illusion that workers themselves are responsible for this stress. After all, the teacher teams assign themselves the work. Of course, in a lean school, teachers are never given the option to reject the team model, which generates the work; they have to choose between being a “team player” and volunteering for new tasks and responsibilities or letting down their co-workers.

The cumulative result is, predictably, frustration and exhaustion: frustration because teachers constantly find themselves having to shortchange their pedagogical responsibilities (planning lessons, developing curricula) and focus on team (administrative) responsibilities; and exhaustion because teacher workloads were barely manageable before this additional work was assigned.

 

[Lilllabettt]

but failing schools are the fault of lazy, greedy teachers. Just look at Chicago. They gun down children there left and right everyday. But we all know what the REAL problem is --- kids really need teachers to be held to a more rigorous evaluation system.  That will fix it!!!!

[Era Might]

the modern American classroom is "data driven." data data data. we are not teachers, we are testers. no surprise since the "core standards" were written by testing companies. I just left the classroom, but they were going to start standardized testing in the first grade next year. I'm told that teaching is not what it used to be.

 

Same story, different actors.

 

"The Unknown Citizen" - W.H. Auden, 1939

 

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his
generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their
education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard

[homeschoolmom]

I have never been a big fan of federal intrusion in education. Imho, the more localized, the better.

[Era Might]

I have never been a big fan of federal intrusion in education. Imho, the more localized, the better.

 

Would you be in favor of giving up federal money to achieve that?

[HisChildForever]

I was an A student but did poorly on standardized tests. My scores didn't reflect my school performance or dedication to study at all.

[Slappo]

Would you be in favor of giving up federal money to achieve that?

In short: yes.

[Papist]

Would you be in favor of giving up federal money to achieve that?

 

Yes