Meet the New Common Core

Ynotgo
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 20:12:23 +0000

I agree with the article about California’s rollout of Common Core. As an elementary school board member, I appreciate our state’s willingness to stand up to the US Dept of Education and say, “We aren’t doing what you want us to do for these waivers. And, we aren’t double-testing our students in the transition year.” Our process has been much smoother so far (knock on wood) than we hear about in other states. The SBAC results came out fairly late this year, but the emphasis everywhere has been that “this is a baseline year” and “kids and teachers are still learning how these tests work.”

We want to support teachers in collaborative efforts to find and develop the best ways of teaching. Punitive and competitive approaches to evaluating teachers are creating a shortage of teachers. Our local teachers are working really hard. They piloted new math curriculum last year and are now learning to use the one they chose. They will also be piloting new reading/writing curriculum this year and new science curriculum next year. All that while adding more technology to their teaching methods and revising their differentiation model for gifted students. It’s exhausting just to watch, and yet we get many, many volunteers for all the curriculum piloting committees.

There were pockets of opt-outs by juniors at high-performing schools in California that foolishly scheduled the SBAC tests in the week or two before AP tests. But, that could have been predicted.

The Seattle Times article is correct that the Common Core standards, even as modified by California do slow down the math progression, which used to be algebra in 8th grade as the normal path. This is becoming a problem for advanced math students, and needs to be addressed. I’m surprised I haven’t yet seen more complaining here on CC by HS freshmen who feel like the new integrated Math I, II, III progression in many districts is holding them back.

The slower math is also a problem in combination with the recent AP Physics 1, 2 split. You really shouldn’t take AP Physics 1 until you’ve done some trigonometry. Intro trig in the Geometry class used to be in 8th grade for some kids here. Now it will be 9th at the earliest and 10th for most kids before they see any trig.

(That’s not to say I don’t like Common Core; there are still plenty of things I like about it.)