This parent says her daughter is a top student but found the Common Core tests confusing. She doesn’t have keyboarding skills. How will the district pay for the necessary technology? By increasing class size?
She writes:
“My children are enrolled in school in CA and my daughter’s 6th grade class was “chosen” to take the Common Core test. She is a GATE identified high achiever, with almost perfect CA state scores. She found the Common Core test to be confusing. She too echoed the complaints above. She has no typing experience (it is not on the test so why would they teach it) and so did not have enough time to finish the essays. She found the clicking and typing noises of others to be highly distracting. My kids go to one of the larger richer districts in Orange County and even they do not have the funds for computers for everyone. Where is this money going to come from? Oh yes, my first grader sat in a class of 29! This is a travesty.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Give your little son an ipad. That should do it.
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Because life is so easy parents that can’t even afford school lunch. Buffoon.
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Yes. How will those who aren’t familiar with keyboards do well? How can these scores be remotely indicative of what a child knows or a teacher teaches? It gets more and more ridiculous when the realities are revealed. I believe that even first graders are going to be required to take tests on computers.
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I’m born and raised American, but all my higher education snd classroom exoerience is in Ontario Canada. Do you mean to say that in the 21st Century, when even the corporate reformers compile reams of documents about “21st Century Skills” (see e.g. p21.org and c21canada.org), when the relevance of cursive writing is questioned, when even Bill Gates, or the true visionaries at code.org say “Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn to code” you’re not teaching keyboarding?
Does anyone else see a problem with that?
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Many school districts have been forced to eliminate keyboarding/business classes because of severe budget cuts and/or re-allocation of money towards math and ELA. Now isn’t that ironic.
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This is where Bill Gates could capitalize on “low-achievers” – by giving each student a computer and when they finish college, in the years ahead, they will buy his products.
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This is outrageous.
Schools are not modifying policy and practice according to what is most beneficial for students, schools are modifying policy and practice according to what’s most efficient for corporations.
This is outrageous and immoral! It sickens me!
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I have answer for the question: California districts will pay for the gigantic costs associated with Smarter Balanced CCSS testing using the Prop 30 money that the voting public intended should go to actual instruction. Teachers put in countless hours and much energy convincing the public to vote for Prop 30, and the joke is on us. In five years we’ll wonder where all that money went… and the answer will be ‘in Pearson’s coffers’.
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Yes.
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Jerry Brown and the nuts in the legislature pulled a fast one on everyone with the prop. 30. LAUSD is paying $1,000/I-Pad. They might last 3-4 years which means a yearly replacement cost of about $150-200 million/year or budget in reserves every year about $250-300/student to cover the ongoing replacement costs. Technically, in California, spending school construction bond money for any piece of equipment which does not last 10 years is illegal, of course, there is no law anymore. LCFF is just another more complicated method of catagorical funding. I am going to once again put up my email address and I challenge anyone out there to obtain the legislation SB 91 and 97 and the LAO report and see if you can figure out where they got those numbers from. georgebuzzetti@gmail.com. They said they would make it simple. Joke is on us. In fact, their process was illegal and busted them at this in Bakersfield at the last hearing on LCFF which was illegally noticed and broke the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) rules and regulations concerning large changes of state rules and regulations along with breaking the Greene and Bagley-Greene Acts. Suddenly the comment period which was to end that Tuesday at Noon was indefinately extended. If you want to comment send to lcff@wested.org. Wested is a joint powers of 4 states running the State of California’s LCFF funding changes and they have 4-700 contributors which means they are the ones who really run it. Any wonder there was not the proper 45 day post of the comment period. Did you know that CDE and Wested admitted that they do not know who is on their mailing list and that is why LDA and Maureen Graves, the special ed attorney, found out on July 16 from friends and the last hearing was August 12.
LCFF is “EDUCATIONAL REALIGNMENT.” It is an offshoot of “CRIMINAL JUSTICE REALIGNMENT” which is a total failure in which they are now sentencing up to 42 years in county jail which is basically a cage and meant for nor more than one year. Think of what this means for education? When K-12 fails criminal justice takes over. In the L.A. County Jails 40% of the 18,000 prisoner have some form of mental or physical problem with the associated high costs. What no one in education takes into account is the total cost when they fail as the criminal justice system with its associated high costs then gets involved along with multiple other agencies with high associated costs.
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So much of the Common Core doesn’t appear to have been thought through. The typing noises are a nuisance that most children will get over in due time, but the overcrowded classrooms and lack of access to necessary tools are unforgivable. I hope that as time goes on many of these issues are resolved swiftly.
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Dream on goco.
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And what about the many schools that don’t have air conditioning, which is a must for additional computer labs?
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Excellent point. I’m surprised Bill Gates doesn’t manufacture air conditioners.
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We had a webinar with Pearsons today for more training on the technology components of Reading Street. The trainer actually reminded us to be sure that our kids get plenty of practice with the technology so that they’ll be able to pass “the test” next year.
Pearsons is convinced that as long as their scripted program is followed to a T, even a caveman can teach a group of kids and they’re guaranteed to be “college and career ready”. I wish Pearsons would somehow go bankrupt, but I know that McGraw Hill isn’t any better.
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My son is GATE identified as well. Do you know if they will still have GATE, or will it be replaced? Do they have to retest?
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California districts will pay for the gigantic costs associated with Smarter Balanced CCSS testing using the Prop 30 money that the voting public intended should go to actual instruction.
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