Kris Neilsen, a middle school teacher, was an early enthusiast for the Common Core Standards. He read them, explained them to parents at his schools, and was commended for his leadership.
But he had a change of heart as he reflected on them. He is now an outspoken critic. He thinks the corporate reform movement is imposing them to standardize children and to stamp out originality.
I have urged people to read the standards and come to their own judgment.
This is Kris’s judgment. By the way, this is the same Kris Neilsen whose statement “I Quit” went viral and was viewed by more than 150,000 people. This is a man who speaks his mind without fear or favor.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What I don’t understand is why there wasn’t much of a complaint about the state standards before now? The CCSS is a step up from the standards from Illinois, Colorado, and Montana–the states that I have experience with.
We were beat over the head with those standards just as much as is going on now. In Chicago, I had to have a word for word copy of each math standard on the wall of my classroom. The bureaucrats, and those who follow them without thinking critically, decided that if kids just read the legalese that passed as standards, then everything would be ok.
I decided that I’d type them up, laminate them, and stick them on each wall of the room. My walk-through evaluations were never scored higher. The number of students who cared what was on the silly paper that I posted? None. After a while, I let them in on the joke, and they would, for fun, tell the people doing walk-throughs how much they appreciated having the standards displayed everywhere. Without exception, everyone took it on face value and couldn’t sense the sarcasm.
We’d do better with guidelines and even a good expectation of what every student should graduate high school knowing. Standards, as currently thought out, are no more lame than they were 5 years ago. Were has all the hostility been hiding?
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Thanks for the tip! I am going to post `em on my walls, too, as protective coloring. You are absolutely right that the students do not give a rip about what’s on our walls. Yet, the administrators on their “walk throughs” ding us if we don’t have “target learnings posted”. Right now, I have a huge painted target at the head of my classroom, with essential learnings posted on it, but, might as well make ’em more common (core).
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You know, Jennifer & Wilbert, it would be a GREAT idea if EVERY teacher who reads this post would do the same! Y’all would get
GREAT walk-through evaluation scores, while having fun w/your students putting one over on the evaluators! Having been a middle school SpEd Teacher, I love to tell the story of when the state evaluators (our school hadn’t made AYP for years–basically, due to SpEd & ELL subgroups) came to a test prep class my colleague& I were teaching on “Fun Friday.” We had combined my L.D. Resource 7th Graders w/her 7th Grade Self-Contained class to
play “ISAT Jeopardy.” I had invited the evaluators to come in & observe when I had found them wandering aimlessly in the hall (they had simply “shown up,” & the principal had been out of the building; the A.P. was in her office w/students). One of the adults
decided he would play (although this was for the kids’ benefit), & just shouted out answers (the kids stared at him). When the bell rang, and the students left (after having their share of meltdowns,
getting time outs, swearing, fidgeting & poking or insulting one another), one of the evaluators sighed, stating, “This must be so hard for you all. I don’t know how these kids can possibly pass these tests!” “Bingo!” I answered her, next asking, “So why do you all make us give them to these kids?”
Of course, she didn’t give me an answer and left the room.
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I decided that I’d type them up … walk-through evaluations were never scored higher. … I let them [students] in on the joke, and they would, for fun, tell the people doing walk-throughs how much they appreciated having the standards displayed everywhere.
Wow–fighting bureaucratic incompetence through malicious compliance. I which direction does that move the public education doomsday clock?
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In which direction does that move the public education doomsday clock…
(BTW, I understand the frustration. But there needs to be a better way–like 360 degree review of administrators and central office)
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How is it malicious compliance? I did exactly what they harped on me to do. I resisted doing it at all longer than anyone else in the building.
So, I’m guessing that you think that it was bad to let 15 and 16 year olds know what was going on in their classroom and school district?
It doesn’t move the imaginary public education doomsday clock in any direction.
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The public education doomsday clock advances toward midnight whenever supervisors are ill-equipped to supervise.
Did the district have “unpacking the standards” professional development where teachers identified “power standards?” That might be more along the lines of the “guidelines” and “expectations” you seek.
“Malicious compliance” was an overstatement. How about “abetting administrators’ delusions of adequacy?”
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We had “power standards” in DCPS back in 2005/6 when we rolled out a new set of standards. We later abanded the notion that some standards were more important than others.
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I hear what he is saying about CCS being a plot to discredit good schools, but I am not understanding how CCS is killing critical thinking. It seems to me that these are standards we can better live with compared to what NCLB sent down to us. I welcome the idea of having national standards, finally. I think we as educators and citizens can push to do away with high stakes and punishments and still keep a national, rigorous curriculum.
Having set guidelines will make the process of training teachers much easier, as Diane argues in Death and Life of the Great American School. I think our argument should be focused more against how CCS clicks in with Race to the Top. We should be against closing and discrediting schools, not standards.
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CCSS are NOT curricula. I’m not sure anyone has figured out what we are supposed to do with them other than test them.
How do having standards make it easier to train teachers? Are you suggesting that education programs “standardize” their programs?
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Bravo, Kris! You know what they say? The truth shall set you free.
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I’m not seeing it. The Common Core Standards seem fine to me; it’s just the way those standards will be implemented that could be harmful.
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But that’s just it: the Standards are a vehicle for ever more testing, testing engineered to cast students, teachers and public schools as failing. Recent results from Kentucky, and Rick Hess’ recently letting the cat out of the bag about so-called reformers hopes for the Common Core, demonstrate that pretty clearly.
In addition, the Common Core, with its radical de-emphasis on literature, should also be seen in the context of the re-ordering and hardening of higher education, signified by the rapid defunding of the Liberal Arts and Humanities in colleges.
Rather than having a window into the character and motivations of humanity, which is fundamentally what literature is – and which happens to have a great deal of real world applications – students will be trained to read memos and reports.
This is part of a systemic re-ordering of the purposes of education, K-16, intended to remove once and for all the liberal humanism that underlay Post-WWII education, with its generous public funding and expanding opportunities for historically under-served populations, and ultimately replace it with market authoritarianism.
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Succinctly and eloquently stated!
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… liberal humanism that underlay Post-WWII education …
How, specifically, were public schools re-imagined after WWII? Did John Dewey replace Horace Mann? Was this a manifestation of local control?
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Corporate Core State Standards are proof positive that the ruling class wants to reserve critical thinking skills for itself and wants the rest of us docile, compliant, and devoid of curiosity. CCSS, along with NCLB/RTTT, are the enshrinement of the banking system of education, which goes against everything I stand for as a student of Freire.
Please listen to Professor Stephen Krashen and Susan Ohanian: no to Common Core!
http://www.susanohanian.org/core.php
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Right on!
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Dear Mr. Skeels,
Freire aside, does any candidate in the March 2013 primary for LAUSD school board district 2 have a clue about the districts responsibilities to schoolchildren under CERD? Don’t the voters care? Why not?
Abelardo Diaz
Scott Folsom
Eleanor Garcia
Monica Garcia
Annamarie Montanez
Robert D Skeels
Isabel Vazquez
Michelle “HOPE” Walker
On what basis were the above candidates evaluated for potential endorsement?
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Insightful analysis. Should be read by all of the 99%.
Based on some of the responses here, it’s amazing how quickly corporate sponsored education “reformers” have been able to dupe Americans, including some teachers.
I guess it should not be surprising that, even so soon after Sandy Hook, union teachers in Chicago protesting neighborhood school closings and charter school openings are still being trashed, such as in comments here: http://www.suntimes.com/news/17094686-761/teachers-union-marches-on-loop-office-of-mayors-pal-and-charter-schools-booster.html
Take a look at the Venn diagram provided again and follow the money -> Bill Gates, David Coleman, Common Core, College Board… Birth – 5 and Higher Education are the targets of the administration next term.
When so many corporations and ALEC are behind public policies, it’s not for the common good.
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Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
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Think of the Common Core Standards in terms of a 1200 meter race. In a classroom, we have our students lined up in 20 lanes and we expect that with support and coaching, they will make approximately 100 meters every year. So we test them to see what they know at those 100 meter marks. The standards make all kinds of sense – of course we need a plan to go from point A to point B. The problem I see is that in some areas that track is downhill, some areas it is level and in a lot of areas that track is uphill all the way. Those kids come to the starting line completely unprepared and have many more complicated issues, lack of parental support, lack of background knowledge, etc. Teachers pull out all the stops and all their tricks to get them up to speed, but year after year, they will fall farther behind from that benchmark – or from that “year’s worth of progress.” On top of that, the teachers will feel the stress of getting them to that mark every year because now their job depends on it. These uphill runners are going to absolutely burn out from the non-stop pressure, and become less and less engaged & feel completely disconnected from school. Teachers are going to burn out. I imagine we may see many stress related illnesses in teachers, or even worse.
In the end, the schools with the downhill or level playing field will do just fine. The districts who are running uphill all the way will fail, the schools will be taken over and private schools will have acquired a whole new market share as they capitalize on the assets – our children.
I think we should keep the standards, take out the online testing tied to teacher retention, use more frequent, smaller assessments in the classroom and tie it to instruction, give schools more money to have smaller classes in grades K-4, add instructional coaches, instructional tutors, and focus on the needs of our children. We need to return to our basic knowledge of children and child development, and do what is appropriate for the children in front of us. A one-size-fits-all plan is going to devastate the most challenging schools.
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Perhaps the CCSS would be a better idea if we did not track students by age and instead did it by academic standing.
The problem with “..doing what is appropriate for the children in front of us.” is that there is not one curriculum that is appropriate for all of the children in front of you.
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You know, TE, even though some may disagree with many of the comments you make on this blog, I think that you are learning from all the information Diane puts out and from the comments posted. Thank you for learning–that’s the crux of education, and what we, who support and who value public education and all the thinking skills inherent, are discussing in this wonderful forum as provided by Diane. Again, thank you, Diane, for surely we can change minds here. So looking forward to your new book!
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I think you will find that I am always an advocate for better matching of students to the curriculum. That is why I view school choice more favorably then most of the posters here.
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“…there is not one curriculum that is appropriate for all of the children in front of you.” And the movement to standardize is making it worse.
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But the common core might be better for some of your students than what you are teaching to your class now.
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There is nothing wrong with CCSS other than that it is being turned into a prescription for teaching. I have no argument with the content per se, but I do object to their elevation to a gold standard. They read more like an elaborate task analysis. I am not in the classroom now; economics(financially challenged district) and micromanagement (intended to justify dismissal) led to my termination. Rotation of non-tenured staff cuts costs. You keep teachers for 3-4 years and then terminate them before tenure makes it more difficult. Unfortunately, it also takes care of second career and returning teachers especially those with advanced degrees. CCSS can provide a perfect vehicle for micromanagement.
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