A reader does some Internet searching for pre-K standards and comments:
A simple Google search for “Pre-kindergarten and Common Core State Standards” brings up 4,100,000 matches. Here are just a few interesting links: New York State’s “P-12 Common Core Standards” document: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/pdfdocs/nysp12cclsmath.pdf From “eye on early education” regarding Massachusetts Pre-K Common Core initiative: http://eyeonearlyeducation.org/2010/12/22/frameworks-include-pre-k-and-common-core-standards/ Maryland’s “Common Core State Curriculum Framework” beginning with PreK Math Standards: http://mdk12.org/share/frameworks/CCSC_Math_grpk.pdf Connecticut’s PreK Common Core State Standards: http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/ccss/math/crosswalk/pk_to_kindergarten_mathematics_continuum.pdf I could go on and on with Louisiana, Ohio, and the rest but I won’t. Those who claim that the CCSS are not for PreK are sadly misinformed and out of touch with the reality on the ground in the public schools of America. Florida has its own newly adopted (2011) PreK standards for 4-year olds that are for sale to interested states and co-developed with the Workforce . The document is amazingly long (247 pages!) and complicated and said to be aligned to the Kindergarten Common Core State Standards, developed by the FDOE and the Agency for Workforce Innovation, now called the Office of Early Learning. Interesting connection there between workforce innovation and 4-year olds, isn’t it? http://www.fldoe.org/earlylearning/pdf/ListofStandardsandBenchmarks.pdf The genie is indeed out of the bottle. Next in line: infant CCSS? In-utero CCSS?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Whatever happened to play? As HS and college kids, they’re burned out, perfectionistic, and stressed over making the smallest mistake.
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Also, think about the self-harm, the eating disorders, the drug and alcohol abuse and the other dysfunctional coping or “numbing” mechanisms kids (and adults, for that matter) turn to when feeling burned out, stressed and “less than” as a result of our all-or-nothing perfectionist society.
This stuff all starts in childhood – just go to any 12 step meeting for any of the above issues and you can see that.
And this is just anecdotal, but I have definitely seen an increase in those behaviors in students at my school over the past few years. Surely the awful economy and other external issues are playing some role in that – but perhaps that’s all connected anyway: kids feeling stress because there literally is no net to catch you in this society if you do not “succeed”.
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There is no depth to as how low these folks will go.
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Hey, profiteers, leave them kids alone..all in all you’re just a-nother brick in the wall.
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I have been a high school teacher for 16 years. My own children begin pre-K and K this year. I have already informed their schools that my children will be “ill” on standardized test days. I had to take this route because as far as I can find, WA does not have an “opt out” opportunity for testing. The pre-K and K teachers voiced the concern that if the kids were absent the they would be counted as a zero for test scores and that would reflect badly on their teaching ability. My response was that I have very few methods to protest standardized testing and one easy method is to simply not allow my student to be tested. I also said that I would encourage as many other parents as possible to keep their students home on testing days as possible.
I choose this school for my child because in my innovative district this is one of two Montessori programs offered pre-K-8. I want the school to continue to succeed but not on the backs of students who spend too much time testing. Until it can be shown that academic standards improve educational outcomes and that testing is a fair assessment of learning, my children will be absent. I hope all parents are willing to stand up for the rights of their children.
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Shannon,
“Until it can be shown that academic standards improve educational outcomes and that testing is a fair assessment of learning. . .”
They can’t as shown by Wilson in his 1997 dissertation “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” which I am exploring chapter by chapter in my blog “Promoting Just Education for All” found at: revivingwilson.org . So far I have put up an introduction, a course of study-two chapters a month, and the abstract and a discussion of the abstract. I’ll have a summary and discussion of Chapter 1 up in a week or so.
I invite you and everyone else to join in on the discussion of one of the most important educational “research” piece of all times.
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Shannon this is why parents feel trapped the way you do. They are made to feel guilty. Of course you can opt out your child out, but be aware that he/she won’t be graduating with a full certificate. The schools are afraid of letting parents know their rights, because if they had a choice to opt out there would be no more federal money to that state. So it is not about making the teachers look bad, it is about money. What would Duncan do if students didn’t show up on testing day?
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Actually, because of the alternative assessment options in WA my kids can simply not take the tests and in their junior years of high school complete either a portfolio or demonstrate competence through high grades in certain subjects in comparison to other students who have passed the test and who have earned the same or lower grades. There are options. I know about them because I teach high school. Most parents and students are not aware of these options.
As for my own children, I’d rather they stay home on testing days and color me a cool picture or visit a museum or even watch PBS. They don’t need the stress of this sort of assessment.
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what I don’t understand is the need for every state, followed by every district, to “one-up” everything that comes along. The standards are the standards. Stop messing around and let it be. Don’t try to re-invent every fad that comes by. what if everyone (local, state and feds) worked together to make a single set of really “common” standards and let teachers have time to master them and then give teachers the autonomy to teach standards to their students……what if?
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It has become a politcal and corporate game to control and capitalize on education. Right now Washingtonians should be more worried about the push for charters schools that are going to be on the ballot.
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Whoa! Since when is a quick look at a google search counted as ‘research’?? Especially in a column by and for educators??? I think it is very important not to jump to conclusions as this blog post is doing. Yes, many states have established learning goals and teaching standards for preschool programs. In many cases, these standards have been developed by experts in preschool development and education with an absolute focus on developmentally appropriate practice. Not all states have casually thrown preschool into the K-12 category. Standards do not always force preschool classrooms to look like kindergarten or first grade. Sometimes they provide excellent, developmentally appropriate guidance for early childhood educators with goals in mind that are important for 3 and 4 year olds. This can be a very important support system for programs that employ teachers that have anywhere from a graduate degree to no degree at all. I would urge readers to take a close look at what actually is in place in their own state rather than being influenced a writer who just googled some states and wrote a blog based on the google results. Check New Jersey for developmentally appropriate examples: http://www.state.nj.us/education/ece/guide/
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Diane,
I’d like to consider myself an expert on most things ECE, but I admit I am just completely confused about Common Core and what’s going on. As someone who has been following the field as a practitioner, advocate, and other roles, I still can’t put my finger on the pulse of what is really going on, and I am hoping you can help.
My understanding is the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) developed the standards for K-12 and that, according to the official site “research from the early childhood and higher education communities have also informed the development of the standards” (which means early childhood experts were left out of the development process and they interpreted the “research” however they wanted) and that they are not intended for levels below Kindergarten. So, here are my questions:
1) Are CCSSO and NGA working on Common Core for preschool ages? And if so, are early childhood experts involved in the process? Or, so far are the advocates from Alliance for Childhood just fighting the development? OR,
2) Are some of the states are adopting the Common Core and “pushing down” the standards for preschool?
3) What’s NAEYC’s position?
4) In your opinion, who is the country’s leading early childhood expert on the progress/process and landscape of Common Core’s impact on ECE?
5) Finally, (and this is controversial) are standards that are consistent from state to state and funding stream to funding stream (Head Start, PreK, Child Care) really a bad thing, or is it just the Common Core Standards because they are so developmentally inappropriate and overly focused on child outcomes?
Thanks for shedding any light you can for me.
Frann Simon, M.Ed.
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Frann,
I can’t answer all your questions because I don’t know the answers. I have read the CC ELA standards and was very concerned about the developmental appropriateness of the early grades. I’d like to hear from ECE experts about this and find out who wrote them.
I know experts in the field and will ask their opinion and ask them to write for this blog.
Diane
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Here is a link to the slides from the June webinar presented by the PreK-3rd Grade National Work Group in collaboration with the CSSO and the NGO on common core standards for early education: http://prek-3rdgradenationalworkgroup.org/node/12 (thanks to Lisa Guernsey).
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I regard the common core standards the same way I regarded my district’s (long ago) assessment requirement that my first graders demonstrate their knowledge of the “Basic Sight Words” by reading a list of 100 words. Who could argue that first graders shouldn’t know those words? Some of my colleagues sent home flashcards for the kids to memorize, asked parents to come in and quiz the kids on the words, assigned the words as spelling words to be tested on Fridays, etc. I did none of that. I required that my kids read a lot and write a lot. If we weren’t reading, we were writing…about what we were reading…about the world around us… On the mid and end of year assessment, my students outperformed all other first grade groups. Even my lowest readers knew all the sight words for first grade and most of those for second grade. I think of the common core (k-5) the same way. There is nothing there that I wouldn’t want my students to be doing or knowing. But I wouldn’t teach my second graders to “ask and answer such questions as who, what (etc.)” or to “Use collective nouns” by asking kids to come up with who, what, why, etc. questions after reading a selection or by creating worksheets or games requiring kids to use collective nouns! The common core do not dictate HOW we teach only what we teach. Roger Farr said it long ago…teach kids to read, write and think and they will do well on any assessment. Mike Schmoker talks about the same idea in his book Focus: Elevating the Essentials.
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