Don't Rush the Common Core
Proper implementation is key to reforming education standards.
This week, we learned from a PDK/Gallup poll that support for the Common Core State Standards has dropped drastically in the last year. Unfortunately, the fall in support comes as no surprise. Botched implementation and a rush to high-stakes, consequential standardized testing have undermined the promise and purpose of the standards: helping all kids, regardless of ZIP code, become skilled in the critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork skills essential for the 21st century.
At the American Federation of Teachers’ recent convention in Los Angeles, stories of inadequate preparation – as well as of districts deriding those who raised real concerns about the Common Core – were as legion as they were heartbreaking. The anger over the emphasis on testing and what many see as the profit-seeking developers of exams and textbooks as well as other “edupreneurs” was evident and sadly justified.
In the end, two-thirds of AFT delegates voted in support of the standards’ potential but called for them to be guidelines, not straightjackets. Our members also called for school officials to be held accountable for proper implementation, for teachers and parents to have real input in the process, and for a different and more meaningful accountability system for educators and students not based on testing every child every year. Finally, teachers supported a moratorium on the high-stakes consequences of Common Core-aligned assessments until, at the very least, the standards are properly implemented.
The call for a moratorium was to shift this reform to its intended purpose and move away from the madness of testing and closer to the hands of the real experts: educators. In some classrooms across the country, the potential of the Common Core is being realized. For instance, when teaching a lesson on tides, Jodi, a science teacher in Florida, asked students to graph the average high and low tides for a coastal U.S. city. The students then had to interpret the graph and answer questions like “On what range of days were there neap tides in this month?” Jodi described how her pupils felt “accomplished and rightfully proud” after the lesson.
Pat, a language arts educator in Rhode Island, used “close reading” to teach her students an excerpt from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden.” Together, they looked at syntax, evidence, word meaning, historical context and more. The students were fully engaged and left with a “deep understanding of this excerpt,” Pat said. “In reflecting on the lesson, I wished that I had read this piece so carefully when I was in high school.” Indeed, when educators are given time, tools and trust, and when adjustments are The Common Core Should Be Implemented Properly - US News: