While David Coleman insists that the Common Core standards were written by primarily by teachers, Anthony Cody wrote in 2009 that the standards were drafted by “the secret 60,” only one of whom was a classroom teacher.
The drafting process was done in secret sessions, said Cody, with no input by teachers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Cody’s one teacher comment can be backed up by the one teacher who was there, Vern Williams, a math teacher. By the way, he finds a lot of fault in the constructivist, “conceptual before procedural” approach they take. Hear his interview here http://heartland.org/podcasts/2012/12/14/vern-williams-teachers-thoughts-common-core
It is the “Moses Syndrome”. The “experts” go up on their mountain, think they talk to God, venture back to the sinning masses and deliver their commandments. Happens over and over in organizations and leads to failure and blame. Business wants schools to teach students for the jobs of today. Academia is out of touch with the reality of classrooms and the challenges of students. Teachers know how to reach students and teach for the jobs of today AND tomorrow.
I’ve been wondering for a while: who died and left David Coleman in charge????????
That was me, I made a mistke-God!
Thanks for the laugh!!!!
When I was a kid, my father once told me that canned pork and beans could technically be called that since the company did put one little piece of pork in the can.
Perhaps saying that Common Core had “teacher input” is a similar ploy, but a ploy nonetheless.
It seems that all the reformers really have to fall back on is such trickery.
Yep, it’s called “marketing”. Or as I told my daughter when she graduated with a marketing degree-Glad to see you finished up your lying degree. At least at SLU they have them take a business ethics course. What is taught in it may be a totally different story.
Coleman lies. Rhee lies. White lies. Duncan lies. They all lie.
Why would we trust them to advise us on anything, especially OUR area of expertise: teaching and learning?
Subvert, ignore, close the door and move on.
You must not have administrative (or district) walk-throughs in your building.
New bumper sticker: “Subvert, ignore, close the door!”
Love it!
As Ms. Schneider so aptly pointed out above, the only things we can consistently expect from reformers are lies, diversions and deceptions. This happens in most all cases well before anyone challenges them on their Trojan horse sales pitches. They know they must lie, that they cannot afford to tell the truth in the furtherance of their agenda. Their only defense against the truth is their money and influence.
I attended a conference of educators a few weeks ago. Many are holding out great hope for the CCSS, perhaps because they seem to include requirements for students to think more deeply than the ones we currently have in CA.
Is there a place where I can read a brief history of the CCSS in one place?
Carrie,
No one has written that history. I expect the promoters of CC will write it. I hope independent scholars write it too.
Robert Rothman’s “Something in Common” provides a history from a pro-CCSS perspective. Even if teachers didn’t help write them, teachers and scholars did provide feedback on it during the drafting process. It was not a completely open process, but it was somewhat open.
Here’s a critical sentence in the Cody piece:
“Of the 25 individuals on the two teams, (four people are on both) six are associated with the test-makers from the College Board, five are with fellow test-publishers ACT, and four are with Achieve.”
The College Board and ACT far more concerned with their brand images than with genuine learning. And they are out to protect their products, which despite public perceptions, are virtually worthless.
As I’ve noted previously, The College Board, which produces the PSAT, SAT, and Advanced Placement courses and tests, now recommends that schools “implement grade-weighting policies…starting as early as the sixth grade.” The SIXTH grade! If that sounds rather stupid, perhaps even fraudulent, that’s because it is.
College enrollment specialists say that their research finds the SAT predicts between 3 and 15 percent of freshman-year college grades, and after that nothing. As one commented, “I might as well measure their shoe size.” Matthew Quirk reported this in “The Best Class Money Can Buy:”
“The ACT and the College Board don’t just sell hundreds of thousands of student profiles to schools; they also offer software and consulting services that can be used to set crude wealth and test-score cutoffs, to target or eliminate students before they apply…That students are rejected on the basis of income is one of the most closely held secrets in admissions; enrollment managers say the practice is far more prevalent than most schools let on.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/11/the-best-class-money-can-buy/4307/2/
The authors of a study in Ohio found the ACT has minimal predictive power. For example, the ACT composite score predicts about 5 percent of the variance in freshman-year Grade Point Average at Akron University, 10 percent at Bowling Green, 13 percent at Cincinnati, 8 percent at Kent State, 12 percent at Miami of Ohio, 9 percent at Ohio University, 15 percent at Ohio State, 13 percent at Toledo, and 17 percent for all others. Hardly anything to get all excited about.
Here is what the authors say about the ACT in their concluding remarks:
“…why, in the competitive college admissions market, admission officers have not already discovered the shortcomings of the ACT composite score and reduced the weight they put on the Reading and Science components. The answer is not clear. Personal conversations suggest that most admission officers are simply unaware of the difference in predictive validity across the tests. They have trusted ACT Inc. to design a valid exam and never took the time (or had the resources) to analyze the predictive power of its various components. An alternative explanation is that schools have a strong incentive – perhaps due to highly publicized external rankings such as those compiled by U.S. News & World Report, which incorporate students’ entrance exam scores – to admit students with a high ACT composite score, even if this score turns out to be unhelpful.”
And Achieve? Just look at its board of directors:
http://www.achieve.org/our-board-directors
As for the one teacher (Vern Williams) involved, he was probably hand-picked. Williams is a real piece of work. He actually subscribes to all the “gifted” nonsense. In other words, he likes to teach upper middle class kids. In fact, “Williams’s special interest is teaching traditional and rigorous mathematics to gifted middle school students.” He’s done a lot of SAT prep, and he even set up a company to offer private tutoring and “math enrichment for gifted upper elementary and middle school students.”
Birds of a feather…..
Oh, and Dale Linn, mentioned in the COdy piece?
“Dane Linn is a Vice President for the Business Roundtable. In this role, he oversees the Education & Workforce Committee, advancing the BRT’s positions on education reform, U.S. innovation capacity and workforce preparedness.”
He was previously at the College Board.
And where did Jean-Claude Brizard go after being jettisoned ?(Oh–actually, he resigned so he wouldn’t be a “diversion” to the education of Chicago’s children, although he certainly diverted the rest of his {unearned} salary to himself! Same $$$$ thing he did in Rochester, I believe.)
He is now a “Senior Adviser” to…the College Board!
When the governor of NY sent a team of experts around to check in about the changes in education around the state, there was one teacher on that blue ribbon panel, as well. The rest were non teachers. I guess it makes sense since the teachers were busy, you know, teaching….
One reason I suspect that there are not classroom teachers involved is that they don’t have time. Any teachers out there, would you have time and flexibility to be involved in a project like this? It’s difficult because we’re teaching! College professors generally teach much fewer hours in a week and have time built into their schedule for publishing.
Corey, when teachers are invited to join high level task forces, they have time. That is lame.