This comment was posted and signed by a mother of a ten-year-old child who doesn’t want to go to school. Ever.
This is the message I recently sent to the Board of Regents and my state representatives:
I have been very vocal about my concerns regarding the implementation of the Common Core Standards, testing, and curriculum in NYS. I have written letters and emails to my NYS representatives and made phone calls. I organized a rally which drew over 2000 people to Comsewogue High School to remind everyone that our students are not defined by their state test scores. I’ve been involved and aware. I joined with other concerned community members to create the group Students, Not Scores.
Tonight this fight became very, very personal.
My ten year old daughter asked me what it would take for me to let her stay home from school forever.
Forever. Not tomorrow… not this week. Forever.
Isabella is very well spoken; very bright. She describes herself as a feminist, and loves to debate adults about the inequity of womens’ pay for equal work. She is committed to calling out bullies in school and helping those people she sees that need a little boost. She can carry on conversations about interesting points and people in American history most kids have never heard of. She can tell you all about the Women’s Suffrage Movement. However, Bella doesn’t learn some things as quickly as other kids do. She struggles with reading at grade level, and has difficulty memorizing math facts. Math word problems are confusing to her, and take her longer than her peers. She has to work really hard to be successful academically. And she does work very hard.
But tonight Isabella decided she has had enough. “School is too hard now.” She said. “I’m too stupid to do this math.” I can assure you we do not use the word ‘stupid’ in our home to describe anything, especially not people. But in the one hour conversation we had in which she was begging me to let her quit school, Isabella used that word- stupid- to describe how she felt about herself more than 10 times.
So, now I have had enough.
No matter the intent, good or bad, in creating and implementing these Common Core standards… if they are hurting children, causing them to give up on themselves at ten years old, there is a problem no one can deny. This problem is bigger than the left wing – right wing debate over states rights and Federal overreach. This problem is bigger than corporations spending billions to influence education policy. This problem is bigger than data mining and privacy. This problem is bigger than Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and Commissioner John King.
Because when a child is broken in spirit, when they have lost their self worth and confidence, that damage is not erased easily. When children hate school to the point that they attempt to avoid it at all costs, there will be no desire to be college or career ready.
Now, before you say I just want my child to succeed no matter what, and I must be one of those ‘everyone gets a trophy for participating’ parents, let me say this: I want my children to be challenged. I want them to have to work to be successful. I want them to sweat it out occasionally, and have to ask questions to clarify. I want their curiosity to lead them down paths I’ve never imagined. I want them to want to know more… about everything.
But when they have no confidence, they will not try. They will not raise their hand to ask a question. They will fear homework, quizzes and exams… and the voice they hear in their heads telling them they can’t, will create a self fulfilling prophecy… so they won’t succeed.
If these insane policies pushing developmentally inappropriate curriculum on our children are allowed to stay in place, what will the future hold for those students who do not fit in this one size fits all approach? What will happen when the precious data doesn’t show the growth these education reformers want to see because so many kids just give up? How many kids have to be hurt before we stop? How many kids have to use that word to describe themselves before we realize the damage that is being done?
Tomorrow morning I will bring Isabella to school. I will tell her that I know this is hard, but she has to just try her best. I will tell her I know how smart she is, and so does her teacher. I will kiss her head and whisper “I love you” with a smile.
And after she walks down the long school hallway, I will use very ounce of passion and compassion I have to call on my elected representatives to stop the abuse. I will contact every media outlet and offer my story- Isabella’s story. I will call, write, tweet, and email the Board of Regents and NYSED Commissioner. I will request meetings with policy makers. I will rally friends and family to do the same. I cannot, no I will not sit back and wait for someone else to get this done.
No one has the right to implement policies that are downright abusive, no matter how lofty their goals. These policies have hurt my child- and that is unacceptable. You’ve heard the phrase ‘Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned’…. that is nothing compared to that of a mother protecting her child.
~Ali Gordon
I’m a high school teacher in Manhattan, with, unfortunately, a front row seat to this travesty. Thank you, Ali Gordon, for your courage in standing up for your child, and John King who is, like so many school administrators, not an educator but a bureaucratic careerist.
Eloquently written piece! Now I would like to see this mom (who is obviously educated) join hands with the parents of children who attend title one schools and whose parents are not educated. Well before common core, title one students HAVE FELT EXACTLY AS HER DAUGHTER NOW FEELS! These students start school behind the 8 ball because they lack vocabulary and background knowledge. Even before common core, the high stakes tests are excessively difficult for them. They come to school bright and curious about all kinds of things, excited when a bug crawls on a window, or when a seed begins to sprout. But ever since RTTT they have spent most of their education time “realizing” that they are “failures” because they cannot pass the high stakes tests that middle class and upper class public school children have breezed through prior to common core. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER… from well-to-do to low income! It is terrible that this woman’s daughter is now fearful of inquiry and now feels “stupid”… I would ask this woman and any other parent facing this self-esteem attacking cookie cutter black and white fill in the blank test oriented “regime” (cannot call it education) to understand that a whole nation of title one children have been enduring what this woman’s daughter has been enduring for a lot longer – since the implementation of RTTT high stakes testing. Common core is just more salt in the wound. It has been so bad for title one students that some refer to title one public school as the “pipeline to prison”. Children are feeling disrespected and angry and they grow up. As a title one teacher, I LOVE my students and bleed at the thought that they will enter adulthood hating libraries or books and not wanting to have anything to do with education! This is the legacy of “corporate ed reform”. Hideous! WE NEED ALL PARENTS TO JOIN IN to save our nation’s children. When the public at large endlessly complains about how poorly students often behave in title one schools, I always ask myself… “How would they behave when they are only in 5th grade and not allowed recess, when they want to explore something in class but must move on as the teacher is forced to cover, cover, cover in a scripted way never allowing the students mastery of anything or “breathing time? How would the public at large feel if they were constantly failing or just getting by with a proficient on a battery of endless high stakes tests? Not exactly esteem-building. The time is ripe for everyone rich and poor to join hands and fight this nonsense.
Totally agree. It is a sad day that it is taking middle class and suburban families feeling the pain to understand if it isn’t good for us, it isn’t good for ANYONE.
Stop doing business with Exxon and Wallmart and tell other parents to do the same. Spread the word. A Nation-wide boycott will get their stockholders attention! Start today. It is the only answer! I stopped two months ago and I am telling everyone to do the same. We need to hurt them in the place they understand.
Good Luck.
This letter identifies the greatest weapon the teachers and parents have: THEY ARE IN LIVING CONTACT WITH THE CHILDREN, THEIR NEEDS AND ASPIRATIONS.
It is the teachers and parents who are now seeing this soul “malnourishment.” If more teachers would speak of this pandemic, as would a doctor under the hippocratic oath, a revolution could take place.
It is imperative to recognize that the policy-makers’ and their bankrollers’ strategy is to SOW DIVISION between the parents and teachers. We must cross this barbed wire the “reformers” are laying before the revolutionary work begins. See it and name it at every meeting you attend!
If we took an oat that required we, “do no harm” we would be in big trouble for violating it. Imagine if an outside group with no medical experience ordered doctors to perform procedures that they knew would harm their patients. I doubt they would nod. “yes boss”. We teachers cower in fear as the children suffer.
The subtext and major lesson of EVERY lesson that we teach is the love or hatred of what is being taught. We are doing a superb job, right now, of teaching kids to hate their schooling. The next stage will be acceptance–resignation to the task–grit, tenacity, and perseverance.
If the purpose of all this is to inure kids to doing whatever incoherent, random task is put before them, then perhaps the standards-and-testing approach will work. Perhaps it will create that next generation of docile, obedient, robotic workers accustomed to alienation from their fellow students, from the work of their own hands, and from themselves. Perhaps that’s what this is all about, in the end. If that’s what we want, well, we are creating the system to produce such people. God help us.
We face a future of scripted teachers, kids bubbling in those bubbles, of constant monitoring to ensure that students and teachers are sticking to the program from the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth.
And teachers’ unions are working diligently to help create this future. They have been well paid to do so.
Stop doing business with Exxon and Wallmart and tell other parents to do the same. Spread the word. A Nation-wide boycott will get their stockholders attention! Start today. It is the only answer! I stopped two months ago and I am telling everyone to do the same. We need to hurt them in the place they understand.
Good Luck.
The unions’ new masters must be very pleased with them.
Yes, well, Randi Weingarten doesn’t call herself a “collaborator” with the so-called reformers for nothing.
Bill Gates paid the NEA $3.9 million to go along with the Common Core. Shame on the NEA leadership, not the rank-and-file.
As upper echelon educational leadership accepts big money, two things happen. One, they acquire a taste for the attention that comes from rubbing shoulders for the rich and become prone to make misguided, self-serving, unilateral decisions. They see themselves as brokers and feel secure and warmed by the money, just as the wolves of wall street did. They say the word “children” but are thinking “free-market capitalism.”
And, in the course of the leeching of funding from the public schools as the number of charter “contractors” increase in their districts, the entry-level leadership becomes more vulnerable, even desperate to receive funding, regardless of the source or the conditions.
I would congratulate her perception:
“If these insane policies pushing developmentally inappropriate curriculum on our children are allowed to stay in place, what will the future hold for those students who do not fit in this one size fits all approach?”
“No one has the right to implement policies that are downright abusive, no matter how lofty their goals. These policies have hurt my child- and that is unacceptable. You’ve heard the phrase ‘Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned’…. that is nothing compared to that of a mother protecting her child.”
and wish for her the strength to fight on her daughter’s behalf. That she should have to do it at all is a tragedy!
Yesterday, one of my special education students just put his head down during the “close” reading about MOOCS and gave up saying, “this is too hard and boring.” He literally gave up. How is this helping?
It is unclear to me what happened to this child that created her unfortunate reaction. Can some one explain the link between Common Core and the reactions of this child?
The short version, for those still unable to fathom it:
Young children + developmentally-inappropriate curriculum that their brains are not neurologically ready to handle = letters like this.
crunchydeb:
I did not see where and the extent to which the core curriculum had been implemented at this child’s school nor how it differed from what was happening before.
Well, Bernie, that’s the thing with anecdotal stuff like this: it’s not journalism, it doesn’t come with citations. If the “momma bear defending her children” stories aren’t your cup of tea, there are plenty of posts on Diane’s blog that *do* connect the dots in schools around the country.
crunchydeb:
I am not looking for citations. I am not expecting journalism. I am expecting that when someone cites a specific in support of a general line of argument that the specific does in fact support the line of argument. Ali Gordon’s recounting of her daughter’s difficulties does not. It is as simple as that and I do not understand why folks here seem so “blind” to the gap.
The data as presented by Ali also supports the hypothesis that her daughter is being called “stupid” by one or more of her classmates or worse still by a teacher. If this is the case, then a completely different course of action is needed.
Bernie1815… an example obviously would be helpful, but I can tell you from my experience. Doing a “deep reading” on a deadly boring topic could make one feel stupid. A child who is pushed to “infer authors message” could feel stupid if they get a message that is different from what they are supposed to get. A good math student who has to draw on their poor writing skills to “explain their thinking” could make one feel inadequate. Some kids do not have the patience to come up with a reason why 5×6=30 (real example from my own child.) Annotating every single page of a fiction book (in 7th grade) with post it notes is a bit distracting to the enjoyment of a book. It is drudgery – all to support kids passing a test. IMO
endless high stakes test prep+inappropriate curriculum+constant “assessments”+ frequent ranking/score reporting based on these slipshod, biased, inappropriate assessments=hate school+ stressed out+ depressed
See it EVERY DAY.
Ang:
You may be correct, but the parent did not indicate that this is what triggered the child’s reaction.
Bernie, the Common Core created tests with very specific formats. Curricula and pedagogy have been created to drill kids in answering questions based on those formats. Those curricula and those pedagogical approaches are deadly. That is what is happening to this child and to many millions of kids throughout the country.
Robert:
You may be correct, but this is not evidenced in the parent’s letter. I have read the letter three times. The most specific the parent becomes is in reporting the child’s reaction to word problems in math. Are folks saying that 10 year olds should not be doing word problems in math? I urge you to take a step back and read the letter again.
Bernie,
She said her child processes things more slowly than her peers. Maybe there are other specific learning challenges that she didn’t want to share with the world in blog format…
I gather that word problems are popular now because they are seen as increasing time for reading and math at the same time. The point from the letter, as I read it anyway, is that these problems that her child was being asked to do at age 10 (still a very new learner) were at the very least not developmentally appropriate for her and maybe inappropriate for most of the children in her class (although in fairness one can’t know without having them evaluated.)
Children may not have all the words for what is going on but they can certainly feel it and more often than not they turn inwards on themselves. They feel stupid so they think they are stupid. No amount of “rah-rah” from mom will be able to heal this. This needn’t happen with such a young learner, especially when the demands themselves may be totally inappropriate. Children should not be paying the price for adults who cannot create a rigorous but developmentally appropriate curriculum.
Emmy:
All you say may well be true – I have said that many times before in this string. The alternative explanations you offer, however, have nothing to do with Common Core per se. In fact, I would say they point to what is going on in the classroom and what the teacher is doing or not doing and that should be an initial point of inquiry for Ali. Writing a letter to King would be far down my list of To Do’s on this issue.
Every word problem I have ever encountered has been from a textbook or workbook. The workbooks are aligned to state standards. The teachers don’t make the content and more and more they are not in charge of the pacing of the content either. Certainly this student could be having a learning issue that should be discussed with the teacher. But even if you assume that is true (that it is the student who is the problem and it’s not the problem sets), this child has been given something for which she is not ready. But because of standardization she needs to fall in line or fall behind. The main issue, as I understand it, is that there is so little freedom afforded to teachers to tailor things and meet the students where they are. Maria Montessori said that students are asking their teachers, “help me to do it by myself.”
To me, this is a story about a girl who is being tasked with work for which she doesn’t have adequate preparation to try it out herself. The question is, “why is this happening?” Maybe it is too much of a leap to say “Common Core”. What do you think is the problem, Bernie?
Emmy:
The parsimonious explanation that fits Ali’s description is “name” calling by her daughter’s classmates. An additional explanation, since presumably this is still near the start of the school year, is that the teacher has an issue with one or more of her students and is showing impatience with them.
That said, it may still be new Math material introduced along with Common Core. I am not discounting that explanation.
P.S. I was once sent home as a 6 year old from Primary School with a note from my teacher saying I couldn’t read. I was devastated. My mother who knew I had no problem reading but did have a slight speech problem was furious. I recall my mum had me read the story of the 3 Billy goats and the Troll out loud while she was ironing. I read it with no problems. The actual problem was that I could not pronounce the word “all” though I could pronounce “ball”, “fall”, etc. I remember the teacher pushing hard to get me to pronounce it. The harder she pushed the more difficult I found it. Stuff happens.
Bernie – you seem to be the one making an awful lot of assumptions. The mother knows her daughter best. If she believes it’s related to Common Core, I’m inclined to believe her, especially over your left-field theory that the daughter must have been called names by peers or by her teacher. I think the mother would be clued in to something like that.
DIenne:
You and I must live on different logical planes. I have made no assumptions whatsoever. I made an assertion: Ali provides no information that links her child’s unfortunate reaction to the Common Core curriculum. To illustrate that point, I proposed alternative explanations that accounted for the data that was available. I made no assumptions. You, however, certainly have made assumptions.
Bernie,
She said she was too stupid to do the math. If her classmates are saying that to her, rather than it being an internal feeling, then there is another problem because good teaching emphasizes cooperation between students at this age rather than abject competition. With all of the testing, I can’t see how students don’t eventually “learn” that better grades makes you “smart” and lower grades makes you “stupid.” And sure, maybe the teacher is nasty. There are many issues that could have contributed to the daughter saying she is stupid and never wants to go back to school. But since the story seems to be about being “too stupid to do the math” and the new word problems are excessively tricky (as district 2 mom points out), I’m gonna put my money there.
The bottom line is that this young lady is telling all of us that her educational needs are not being met. It is probably something a grown-up has done…either in the classroom (as you suggest) or far away at the department of education or in a textbook company.
Emmy:
I replied to this elsewhere so pardon the repetition. I do not believe Mom from District 2’s example is anything like the math word problems posed to 4th graders or to 5th or 6th graders for that matter.
It is a standard principle in logic/rhetoric that the simple explanations have to be dealt with before accepting more complex explanations. (Occam’s Razor after William of Ockham)
Bernie, like the letter author, I am a parent of an actual 5th grader.
I came to this site origianlly to try to make sense of what was happening to my child’s school and education, which up til this year we had been very happy with.
My kid does fine on these tests and has not said she now thinks she is stupid. We do have examples of CC-aligned material making her cry, but this is in ELA and is because she feels some of the essays require her to lie (i.e. find evidence in some text to support an opinion she is told to defend when it is not in fact her opinion.) Some of her classmates’ Moms have told me their kids are now saying things like Isabella in the letter — and my case I know its not coming from the teacher or the other students.
About the specific examples I gave
The simple version of the boats problem is verbatim from my child’s 4th grade homework last year. She did many math problems like this at the start of the year.
The common core aligned ones started to appear in February when our school slid into test prep mode. My daughter and I noticed and discussed the difference. I didn’t get to save any of these because they were on test prep worksheets which were considered different from regular homework and not returned at the end of the year.
I wrote a CC-aligned style example so it would have the same numbers and situation but, it was totally inspired by this:
Stuffed with Pizza
Tito and Luis are stuffed with pizza! Tito ate one-fourth of a
cheese pizza. Tito ate three-eighths of a pepperoni pizza. Tito ate
one-half of a mushroom pizza. Luis ate five-eighths of a cheese
pizza. Luis ate the other half of the mushroom pizza. All the
pizzas were the same size. Tito says he ate more pizza than Luis
because Luis did not eat any pepperoni pizza. Luis says they each ate the same amount of pizza. Who is correct? Show all your
mathematical thinking.
This a fifth grade example but believe me the writing style is the same in 4th grade. What is different is that this covers math with fractions rather than division with a remainder
The examplar can be found here:
Click to access 5%20Math%20Stuffed%20with%20Pizza.pdf
If you read the accompanying explanations. You see that this kind of distraction and convolution is meant to address numbered standards relating to perseverance and precision – and maybe it does – but that has not really been shared with the kids (unless their parents are working on helping them be them more cynical – as we sort of are.)
The rules and practices of school are themselves a kind of domain that people can excel in (or not) and kids are very sophisticated about reading the signs of who is up and is down – as many posts above have said in varying ways. Now they have to wear those ranking numbers 1,2,3,4 kind of publicly and they are all comparing how much extra tutoring their parents are purchasing and how much remedial support the school is providing. I could totally see a child just miserably internalizing this confusion and defeatism without any external irritants.
Mom from District 2:
I appreciate your constructive approach to the discussion. The example, which I think is more age relevant, is very helpful. It certainly raises the issue of what is really being targeted – it is certainly more than simply adding fractions. In addition, I would agree that any student who has not tackled lengthy math word problems before is going to be flustered and put off. It is going to need a very patient teacher to help students work through this type of problem. 3 pizzas each cut into 8 slices should do the trick though so long as the process was adequately debriefed..
Interestingly I think this type of word problem was standard fare for my parents and your grandparents, judging from the old math books that I have looked at – the age range is similar since most of the ones that are extant are middle school books.
I will leave it to Robert to comment on the ELA – I have very little perspective. I would comment, however, that some here would find the exercise you mentioned a challenge. (That is a joke by the way.)
Just day before yesterday, I had a long talk with one of the best elementary school teachers I know, an incredibly creative woman who has a long history of creating, in her classes, dedicated, excited readers. She was sobbing as she explained to me how she has had to throw out her lesson plans–the ones she has worked on for decades–and replace them with scripted-format CCSS LDC lessons that are DEADLY–that the kids hate, that are designed to mimic the tests in the products that the kids end up creating.
The CCSS in ELA is a list of random skills. That list is becoming the curriculum. And it’s deadly. All test prep. All the time. The teachers hate it. The kids hate it. But that’s what we’ve created by making the tests the be all and the end all of our educational processes. And that’s what we have created by adopting the woefully misconceived, amatuerishly written list of skills that is the CCSS in ELA.
Robert, As a high school English teacher I loved your reply! I am receiving students who have not read classic middle school novels because they have been prepping for tests!
The disconnect between the actual experience of teachers and kids because of the Common Core and the new exams and what is said about these in the national Achieve echo chamber is almost total.
Hello, I am English teacher model CCSS.ELA.3789J.rev2, authorized and programmed by the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth. Please pull my string to begin the lesson.
Why the hell, Bernie, is Achieve and the Chamber of Commerce, for crying out loud, implementing a top-down, Soviet style system of mandated standards and measures? This is insane. It is extraordinarily damaging and dangerous.
Robert:
Good questions, but they hardly address the questions that I raised. Here we have a first hand account of a potential reaction to presumably some specific aspect of the common core curriculum, does it not make sense to ask what was actually going on and establish the link to the common core. As I said earlier the trigger appears to have been word problems in math. Are you saying this is age inappropriate?
Bernie, I would have to be this girl’s teacher. I would have to come to know her and design her work accordingly. That’s the whole point. That’s why this one-size-fits-all, top-down approach does not work.
Robert:
We do not know the extent to which the child’s teacher is implementing common core. We do not know whether the element of the common core that the child may have been exposed to is any different from what was being done previously. We do not know…
The child’s mother, Ali Gordon, is following this string. We should take the opportunity to ask. That is all. I am not endorsing Common Core or the way it is being implemented at the State, District, School or Classroom level.
I could speculate, Bernie, but that’s exactly the problem. We have armchair folks who are part of a distant, centralized authority making decisions for everyone else. Such decisions–about curricula, standards, pedagogical techniques–need to be made teachers in response to the specific needs of students.
Kids differ. Totalitarian mandates do not.
Bernie have you ever laughed at a Dilbert cartoon because it so effortlessly captured what it’s like to be low person in a disfunctional hierarchy?
Now imagine being in Dilbert-like situation where
1) it wasn’t like that before and you have no other frame of reference.
2) the people directly above who are suffering along with you are not allowed to explain why all of a sudden it’s become so chaotic and arbitrary, on pain of being fired.
3) you are 9 years old, and according to neuroscientists have not yet fully developed the brain capacity for nuance and abstract thought.
You might find yourself crying rather than laughing.
Mom (from District 2)
Again, you may be correct. But Ali Gordon establishes absolutely no link between the Common Core and her child’s reaction. There may be one but it is not identified in the letter. To assume that it is the Common Core without further evidence, is to assert that no 10 year old had a crisis of confidence over school work before.
Bernie, I am replying here to your reply to me about how the letter writer failed to give specifics.
I think its a safe assumption that the Mom who wrote the letter is confident that the recipients of the letter know the difference between common core aligned school materials and what came before.
If you haven’t seen Common Core-alligned materials yourself I can try to illustrate for you the difference:
4th grade math story problem–
Mrs Johnson’s class is going boating! Each boat holds five people. There are twenty-seven students in the class. How may boats are needed and how many students will be in each boat?
4th grade math Common Core-alligned story problem–
Mrs Johnson’s class is going boating! There are thirty kids in the class but only twenty-five showed up. But then two came late. There are two kinds of boats available: rowboats — each of which hold five people and catamarans — each of which hold five people. Write a mathematical equation that tells us how many students will be in each boat (correct answer optional.)
Yes the second one is more “challenging” – but not in a good way.
Kids in 4th and 5th grade are very aware of when things are “not fair” They sense that they are being played on some level
Mom from District 2:
If the word problems is as you have written, then you are right. However, I very seriously doubt that a question requiring an algebraic expression with at least 4 unknowns and no solution is being posed to a 4th grader. Can you provide some kind of link that includes this type of math question?
Mom from District 2:
I found a site that has helpfully provided a set of examples of word problems for 4th Graders ostensibly based on the Common Core. I am not sure how representative of the common core curriculum they are – but, with one or two notable exceptions, I found nothing particular novel in the questions or that should be beyond the grasp of an average 10 year old.
http://www.lakeshore.wnyric.org/Page/3492
I clicked on the problems for 4th graders.
I do wonder why a very sophisticated notion and unusual word “algorithm” was used for 10 year olds when simpler and more descriptive language, i.e., set of rules, has worked for at least a thousand years.
Hi Bernie, I posted a more detailed response to this above in another to another thread where you said you didn’t believe my example was real. Since you may never read that one. I will just repost the verbatim example I was basing mine on:
Stuffed with Pizza
Tito and Luis are stuffed with pizza! Tito ate one-fourth of a
cheese pizza. Tito ate three-eighths of a pepperoni pizza. Tito ate
one-half of a mushroom pizza. Luis ate five-eighths of a cheese
pizza. Luis ate the other half of the mushroom pizza. All the
pizzas were the same size. Tito says he ate more pizza than Luis
because Luis did not eat any pepperoni pizza. Luis says they each ate
the same amount of pizza. Who is correct? Show all your
mathematical thinking.
And say that the equation that teachers would expect for version one of the boats is 27/5 = 5 remainder 2 (therefore 6 boats)
and the equation that teachers would expect for the CC aligned one is
(25+2) / 5 = 5 remainder 2. The fact there are 30 kids in the class doesn’t affect the math; the fact that there are two kinds of boats doesn’t affect the math. Those are reading comprehension style distractors.
I guess your take on the problem kind of makes my point that these are unnecessarily tricky..
Mom from District 2:
The additional information helps. Somehow I read “mathematical equation” as “algebraic equation” – which also supports your point. I agree that math word problems are more difficult to write if they are not to be ambiguous. For example, the problem has no specific answer unless the question is posed as the mathematical equation to show the minimum number of boats. After all you could have one person in each boat.
All this said, the problem for Isabella seems to derive from math word problems not the core curriculum per se unless you are saying the notion of distractors was not part of the math curriculum before.
Yes, we should hear from the mother.
Bernie, I used to sit on the board of my local Chamber of Commerce. But now, I would not be a part of any organization pushing an unaccountable, Soviet-style centralized authority on the nation. I am shocked and appalled that the Chamber would be party to this. Business people, of all people, should know better.
Robert:
What questions would you ask Ali?
It is unfathomable how the Chamber of Commerce and all the other supporters/corporations/individuals have magically appeared to tout and promote the CCSS. How is it that something that changes our children’s day to day existence for 13 years of their life, and parents are the LAST to know? 50 million plus children….and parents are the last to know? This should scare every single American.
In April, Duncan appealed to the Chamber of Commerce for their support of the Common Core, and in June, he told the press how to report on the Common Core: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/25/arne-duncan-tells-newspaper-editors-how-to-report-on-common-core/
Apparently, Duncan prefers to engage parents through his spin doctors.
Bernie Teachers are now forced to teach certain books, programs, etc. Second grade teachers are expected to read books way higher than that of their students’ reading level. Teachers in the lower grades should be teaching basic reading and writing. A friend of mine in a lower grade was critiqued that her students’ essay were not long enough. I do not know if this helps. Bottom line Common Core is damaging students morale especially special education students. Politicans are forgetting there is a thing such as an IQ.
“However, Bella doesn’t learn some things as quickly as other kids do. She struggles with reading at grade level, and has difficulty memorizing math facts. Math word problems are confusing to her, and take her longer than her peers. She has to work really hard to be successful academically. And she does work very hard.”
CCSS encourages one size fits all instruction geared to one size fits all tests in reading and math that will tell this child over and over again that she does not make the cut.
Second grade question: If Jack and Jill go up the hill, and a bucket of olives is $5.00 then how much tapenade can John concoct with boughten oil. (Actually not far off from actual 2nd grade math homework – infer that Jack=John, understand the archaic past tense form of buy, be inspired to look up the word ‘tapenade’, find a tapenade recipe, estimate the amount of olives in a bucket, then solve – assuming that Jack/John had five dollars.) It integrates skills (sure it does) – as if you were a 24 year graduate student intern at the food network.
Frustrating in the extreme doesn’t begin to describe this nonsense. Parents have been posting their kids homework all over Facebook. The questions/problems are absurd. The only aim is to make all the teachers take expensive training, sell expensive computer systems, and make everyone feel inadequate.
This emperor has no clothes, none of this is proven to produce results. It is an expensive and damaging program.
In The Voice of NYS PTA, NYS PTA president adds insult to injury by siding with King’s outrageous behavior during his infamous town hall meeting. She chides the parents and teachers for their behavior. This is the antithesis of someone who is supposed to represent PTAs all across NYS. Looking at other posts in the NYS PTA newsletter proved to be even more discouraging. Perhaps Ali Gordon should cc her a copy of this heart wrenching letter to make the PTA president more of an advocate and less of an adversary to teachers and parents in NYS.
More and more substantiations of Foucault’s “subjectivizatio” and how power shapes a child’s own perception of self.
Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
^thumbs up!
Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers.
and a high-five for this bit!
Thank you, Diane for sharing my letter. I have not yet heard back from any of my representatives or Regents, but I will continue to follow up. Bella is very lucky to have a supportive family and WONDERFUL teacher who is incredibly understanding and willing to help… but there are so many other children whose families are unaware. It is my hope that my letter will not only reach those ‘in power’ and sway them, but maybe it will help other parents recognize what their children are going through as well. Together, standing up for ALL of our children, we will make a difference.
Ali:
What was it that happened in the classroom that triggered your daughter’s reaction? How was it related to the implementation of the common core curriculum? Did she bring home any math papers that indicated where she was experiencing difficulties?
But why would she have to prove it to you?
Bernie- I have tried twice now to reply to your comments and questions, but for some reason they have not appeared. Perhaps someone is trying to tell me not to get into this with you. In any case, I understand your questions, trying to clarify if indeed my daughter’s reactions are actually because of the Common Core implementation.
While I do not feel that I owe you an explanation, I will indulge your line of questions. First of all, no one is calling my daughter names; not her teacher, not her classmates. Before I wrote this letter, I sent an email to her teacher, who replied immediately. He is a wonderful, caring teacher, and NOT the problem here. He is simply teaching his class the CCSS. I am confident that he will work hard to assist her, as will the support staff in her school.
Did my daughter have difficulty in school prior to the implementation of CCSS? Yes, sometimes. Should that discount what I am seeing right now? I do not believe so, and here is why. The CCSS was created to build upon skills taught every year beginning in kindergarten. So, for my 5th grade daughter, the CCSS assumption is that she has been exposed to these models, vocabulary and methodology for 5 years prior, which is not the case. I liken that to taking a new swimmer and tossing them into the deep end.
In addition, they are required to learn multiple ways to solve math problems. While I know this may not be an issue for all students, for my daughter, this creates confusion and frustration. Just when she gets a handle on one way to solve a problem, she is introduced to another, which is really what I believe is sending her over the edge. The CCSS ignores the fact that not all students learn at the same pace, or in the same way. She has strengths and weaknesses, just like everyone else. But she is expected to produce like everyone else. Several other commenters have touched on things that I am seeing in her as well.
I wrote this letter to put a human face and story in front of my representatives. It is too easy for them to look at CCSS from afar and believe they should be applauded for raising standards. They need to understand the effect it is having on our kids. Based on the reaction from other parents to my letter here, and elsewhere, I know I have struck a nerve.
Ali:
My questions were only meant to clarify the situation. Many thanks for your thoughtful response and for eliminating other alternative explanations. Your point about the curriculum building on prior years that have not actually been experienced is very well taken and deserves to be highlighted.
One further question and I will leave this thread and go deal with the swarm of Asian lady beetles: Which Common Core Math book is Isabella using?
Just stoppin’ by to give you a high five, mama-to-mama! Thanks for sharing your letter publicly and all that comes with that.
http://www.politico.com//story/2013/10/on-the-road-to-school-success-98352.html
Market-based reform mayors are launching a tour. I think it’s interesting because they obviously have to start pushing back against the idea that they haven’t shown any results after a decade and billions of dollars, and they have to (even occasionally) mention public schools.
The press release is a collection of slogans, but reformers will eventually have to answer the question : “how has reform benefitted existing public schools?” because MOST children attend existing public schools.
The entire media and reform narrative revolves around charters and vouchers. Public schools are barely mentioned. I think there’s a reason for that. They are having real trouble showing how PUBLIC schools have benefitted from reform, and that is what voters were sold: not that they would replace the public school system, but that they would IMPROVE it.
Can anyone in reform answer that question? It’s not a difficult question.
“How has reform improved existing public schools?”
Why should parents with children in public schools back market-based reform?
I’ve been watching it for a decade and my local public school isn’t “better.” It’s worse. We have constant new mandates and less funding. We test constantly and have fewer options for students. Our teachers are dispirited, and we have trouble maintaining community support because of the constant anti-public school drumbeat among reform leaders and media. They’re jamming “online learning” down our throats, and it all looks like cheap product that some huckster sold to naive lawmakers. The online math test product my son is using is garbage, even as a computer program. I wouldn’t buy the program myself. Why would I want it in his school?
What is the upside of this for existing public schools?
Good question. Keep asking it! I will too.
“. . . some huckster sold to naive lawmakers.”
NO, not naive but paid off!!!
Bernie, quit acting like parents are too stupid to know what’s going on. Dozens, if not hundreds of kids in every school around the country who have had no troubles, or at least manageable troubles, with school are suddenly collapsing into trembling heaps of “failure” and “stupidity” and hating school and hating themselves and wanting to drop out. This is happening the same year that the Common Core is being rolled out in force. Yet, you’re saying there’s no connection? Common Core has nothing to do with it? How dumb do you think we are?
DIenne:
I do not think you are dumb nor do I think parents are stupid, but you evidently think that either I am dumb or I have some nefarious motive. Ali is here. I asked what I believe is a reasonable question.
You made an empirical assertion. Do you have any evidence to support that the rate of children “suddenly collapsing into trembling heaps of “failure” and “stupidity” and hating school and hating themselves and wanting to drop out” is any greater than in previous years? Are the rate of student absences in schools where the common core has been implemented different from schools where it has not been implemented yet? Has there been a jump in the trend of absences? Such evidence would be far more compelling than anecdotes that are not definitive and have multiple alternative interpretations, some of which are far more parsimonious.
There’s possibly a connection, but are you honestly going to claim that children have never collapsed into trembling heaps of “failure” and “stupidity” before Common Core implementation? Seriously?
It happened to me (in 2nd grade, in 1978, at a public school that was as progressive and free-wheeling as Matt Damon’s grandest fantasies) and it happened to my kids (and probably will again at different stages of their development). It never happened to my wife, because she’s perfect, but that’s another story.
Hell, one of my kids absolutely loathed school last year. It wasn’t until the teachers started teaching the “assembled mid-air” patchwork Common Core curriculum that this child started to like school. This year, with the Common Core curriculum fully in place? The child is up at the crack of dawn, hates to be brought home from school, and asks for extra homework or creates projects independently.
This has nothing to do with the normal crests and troughs of child development, right? It’s the Common Core!
It’s after 9 o’clock and I don’t have to go to school today. Yay! Happy dance!
Over half a century after a series of traumatic events in school as a young child, where I was led to believe that I was “stupid” and not good enough, including on standardized tests, and I still find the child in me thinking this and celebrating virtually every day around this time. That’s how deep-seated and long-lasting such traumas can be. This is why it’s so important that this parent is addressing the matter for her child now.
I’ll spare the details, but I became an educator so that I could ensure that at least one class of children each year would never had to go through what I went through. I learned to love school again later on, and I absolutely adored waking up to go to my own classroom as a teacher, but the gnawing tension about going there as a student and the relief at not having to attend have never ever gone away.
It is a shame that the higher ups do not see that this is hurting so many children. I teach HS but my friends who teach the lower grades are so upset at the “rigor” required is affecting many children the same way as Isabella.
Emmy @ October 17, 2013 at 11:46 am
I just looked at a sample of 4th grade word problems that are ostensibly based on the 4th Grade Common Core Curriculum (and yes Dienne that is an assumption – Ali’s daughter might 3rd, 4th or 5th grade). There are no math word problems any where near the complexity and as indeterminate as that posed by Mom in District 2 . Moreover I see little difference in them as compared to word problems posed in any math curriculum that includes word problems.
My questions can only be answered with more actual information from Ali Gordon. All else is needless speculation.
This brought me to tears and made me even more bold in my efforts to improve education for every child like Ali’s daughter who deserves the right to a quality education, not this tortuous road we are going down that makes children hate school.
Bernie
Kudos for your persistnce. If evidence is your thing why not question the lack thereof regarding the effectiveness of CCSS and Pearson assessments. Why don’t you harass the powers that be about their unsubstantiated claims (e.g. “college and career readiness”). Why don’t you go play devil’s advocate somewhere else and stop annoying this concerned parent.
Bravo! Stalk and harangue:
Gates
King
Coleman
Duncan
Bloomberg
Rhee
Kopp
Take your questions to the deformers. Get back to us with your results.
Linda:
Why so rude? Who exactly am I stalking or haranguing? Diane’s descriptor for this blog is “A site to discuss better education for all”. You and I must have a different definition of “discuss”.
Ali has graciously provided additional information and has raised an important pedagogical issue that is worth “discussing” further. What is so bad about that?
As to other sites, if you have any suggestions let me know. I arrived at this one via having read Diane’s previous book. I have not found blogs from pro-reform proponents who are as energetic and involved in their blogs.
NYS Teacher and Linda,
AGREE!
Bernie,
We get it, you would have written a much better letter full of exacting details.
Got it.
Thanks.
Now please go to the following people and demand exacting details in support of their ideas/policies (which are being implemented all over the country).
Gates
King
Coleman
Duncan
Bloomberg
Rhee
Kopp
Demand evidence of effectiveness from Pearson!
Please let us know what you discover.
Ang:
Why so rude? Why so angry? Does discussion only occur when everybody says the same basic thing?
Ali was polite and courteous and highlighted a pretty important issue. Mom form District 2 provided an interesting basis for comparing CC math and existing math. Emmy acknowledged that the issue might be in the classroom.
If you have a site you think I should look at, I will so long as contributors seem to be well- informed and reasonably polite.
NYS Teacher:
Thanks, I think. I do not believe I have harassed anyone. Can you point to some thing that I have written that would fit this descriptor? Nor do I think am I playing devil’s advocate.
Is there a popular blog where the kind of unsubstantiated claims you mentioned are made?
Is this TE with another identity?
Linda:
I believe TE lives in the Mid-west: Iowa, if I recall correctly. I live in Massachusetts.
Why do you believe that I would fly under false colors?
You still have not answered why you do not question the lack of data supporting CCSS , PARCC,…
The NCLB and now the CCSS reform movement have both emphasized “data driven” decision making, including teacher, administrator, and school district evaluations/ratings. The last 10+ years of a “data driven” educational reform includes raw test scores, scaled scores, norm referencing, student proficiency ratings, Marzano or Danielson rubric scores, NYS growth bands, HEDI growth or achievement scores, school report cards, AYP % increases, and more. All this under conditions that are the furthest you can imagine from being clinical, controlled environments with eager and willing participants.
The powers that be truly believe that they can accurately measure effective, high quality teaching and learning – and now hold us all (students, teachers, administrators, individual schools, and districts at large) directly accountable using “data driven” evaluations and ratings. The least we as teachers should expect are standards and assessments that pass the same “data driven” muster. When we demand to see the data that supports their reform decisions, their standards, and their assessments, we are met with stony silence – because they have none. The anger and outrage and frustration that are regularly expressed on this blog are a manifestation of what we know is a fundamentally unfair and inaccurate way to rate and punish everyone involved in our public schools. Yet the reformers themselves insist on remaining un-accountable. NYSED commissioner John King epitomized this failure of leadership by running away to hide the minute the parents of NY tried to hold him accountable.
Linda,
I am me, bernie1815 is bernie1815. We are not the same person.
TE:
I feel exactly the same way about you!!
Thank you for saying this so well. My son has done the same thing to me, asked about quitting school, acts sick to the point I took him to the doctor and he admitted he was lying because he hates school. The word stupid is now a part of his vocabulary as well, not from me but from how he feels about not being able to accomplish what is being asked of him. He is very intelligent, very creative, has a wonderful imagination and is struggling, suffering through this failed attempt at changing our system. shut it down I say, I cant home school my son as he has so many times requested but I cant stand to cry any longer and watch him suffer daily.
I hope the voices are heard and I will do my best to articluate my words to write letters and make contact with the people in charge.
Ummm – I hate to throw cold water on your argument, Diane, but I think you are again spreading paranoia and fear and not giving your readers the full story. Before I buy your point of view, I want to know a few more details:
1. Why did the parents let it get to this point? Where was the intervention?
2. So the child keeps saying “it’s too hard.” Why aren’t teachers helping this child? Why blame it on the standards?
3. Why is this parent not discussing any previous interactions with the teachers or the administrators?
This is a terrible story, but I do express sympathy here. But the parent is picking the wrong battle. Why blame the Common Core? I’m sorry, Diane, but I am somewhat appalled with your perspective here. How did this situation get to the point where a child says something is too hard and then says they don’t want to go to school, and we give in to this mindset? Are you kidding me?
Instead, I would rather you inform your readers what led to this conclusion. A child doesn’t become disenchanted overnight. Instead, you advocate making school easy and letting kids think they are learning when they are not. I would rather my child have teachers who care and will find creative, motivating ways to teach children what they need to know. In Georgia, they have dumbed down the standards so much that even the graduates are truly not ready for college and career.
But for this parent, I think you’ve left out pertinent facts and instead will take these letters verbatim simply to reinforce your point. It’s time to stop complaining about the Common Core when you lack a credible alternative. Instead, why don’t you harness your influence and intellect to make the Common Core better? You’re fighting the same fight that the Tea Party did when they risked shutting down our government and defaulting on our debts just to de-fund Obamacare. It’s time to rethink your tactics if you want to fix what you perceive to be broken.
Is this advice from a teacher, a classroom educator who teaches children everyday or an edupreneur?
Read its website.
I know…. Potential loss of $$$$ with an increase in non believers.
Seriously, Linda? So you won’t take advice or respect anyone’s opinion who’s not an educator? That’s sad and not what I would teach my own kids.
We’re all leery of shysters and edupeddlers.
They are woefully inefficient, but they don’t know it.
Isn’t that sad, Al? 😦
Reinvent_Ed:
Ali Gordon, the parent who wrote the letter has provided more context above and raised a very pertinent point about how a new curriculum gets introduced. That said I do think that while Ali and others are perfectly entitled to criticize the notion of a Common Core and increased testing, arguments about specific reactions or specific issues need to be argued at the same level of granularity. If the reaction was to math questions, what were the questions and how do they differ from what was previously in place and/or taught in the previous grade. A novel question format for asking about an already established skill, can produce a very misleading “test” effect. I do not know how this issue is approached in the CC textbooks. The ELA question raised by Mom from District 2 requiring a child to support a position she does not agree with, clearly enters into the area of age appropriate reasoning.
Dear Mr Eduprenure,
Read Reign of Error before you claim Diane offers no credible alternative.
Please stop with the false equivalency (Diane = Tea Party).
Please provide specific examples of how the GA curriculum (The Georgia Performance Standards) are “dumbed down”.
Please show specific examples of Diane insisting on making school easy.
Please inform us of which school your child attends and what curriculum they follow.
Thank you
Such a typical response, Ang. I shouldn’t even respond given your unprofessional, undignified tone. Nevertheless, here you go. Read it and weep, I’m afraid. http://educationnext.org/despite-common-core-states-still-lack-common-standards/
Of course, you’ll simply discount the source because it is a right of center think tank. But look at the data before you start criticizing me or the source.
Remember all of you – you should only write what you would feel comfortable showing your mother. That’s what I tell my kids so they learn proper tone, and professional etiquette!
Short term or long term memory issues for you Al Meyers…remember your rant and insults many months back. I think I will search for them. You need a quick refresher, sir.
Practice what you preach.
Reposting:
A quick refresher of your (Reinvent_ED, aka, Al Meyers) comments which you consider to NOT be insults:
1. “Folks LIKE YOU refuse to accept ideas…”
2. “You just want homogenous thinking….”
3. “You are part of the problem…you will be on the outside looking in.”
4. To LG…”it’s amazing you are a teacher…”
5. “Your comments are pathetic”
6. “You need to accept the fact that many teachers are not trained to integrate……..to project based learning.”
7.”99% of the readers if this blog will never accept real reforms”
8. “You are just protecting the status quo”
Comments one and two could apply to you as well.
Comment #3 is inaccurate; we are on the inside every day.
Comment 4 and 5 are rude and don’t forget you didn’t want to be insulted.
Comment 6 is wrong, wrong, wrong. You need to visit more public schools. I think you got an invite from LG.
Comment 7..YOU know what 99% of the readers will and will not accept….a big egotistical, no?
Comment 8….what is the status quo, Al? Twelve years of testing?
So if you want to fix this together (the Exxon Mobil slogan) stop making assumptions yourself and stop insulting the workforce.
Pay Attention: Top down mandates mean that don’t want teacher input. Teachers from every state, representing diverse populations were not invited to the table throughout the CC process. CC are not researched based nor were they piolted anywhere first. This is certainly not Best Education Practice. Now you want teachers to make them better?Education Psychologist are posting all over the internet about how these standards are developmentally inappropriate, especially in the early years. Secondary students are also feeling the mental anguish of 10 years of high-stakes testing. Students are no longer confident learners because the high-stakes test tell them otherwise. “Rethink our Tactics”: How about this- A massive letter writing campaign from every state and every household asking for an immediate holt to high-stakes testing that are harming our students, teachers, and schools. Let’s stand up America and Do what is best for Kids! They are counting on us to be their advocates! Do it for our children. Help save public education.
Ali, Thank you for sharing your daughter’s story. There are thousands of these stories to be told, and to me, the human story will always be more important than any test score. Keep fighting for your daughter. I stand with you and support all your efforts.
Ali,
Thank you for your wonderful letter.
I appreciate you sharing your personal experience. You (and your daughter’s) experience of the current public school environment jibes with what I am seeing as a veteran classroom teacher.
As I posted above I clearly see the test prep, drilling, high stakes, pressure, and rediculus requirements resulting in stress , upset, illness, hopelessness and depression in my students
I see this every day.
It really is very sad.
We are ruining kids lives.
Thank you again for speaking up.
By Reinvent ED:
“DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER”…….
For those of you who remember the 1960s television sci-fi series: Lost in Space, this was the famous catch phrase that the robot, acting as a surrogate guardian, would voice to Will Robinson whenever there was an impending threat.
Fast forward to July 2013. A supposedly reputable magazine: Scientific American, posted an article by self proclaimed education historian Diane Ravitch titled, “3 Dubious Uses of Technology in Schools.” Interestingly enough, the article was originally published under the title, “Promise & Peril.” Ms. Ravitch is a very controversial figure in the field of public education, and she has been consistent in her disdain for education reform, especially the influence of private foundations and other stakeholders who Ravitch feels will destroy her “utopian” aspirations for public education. Per the magazine’s website, it serves as “The leading source and authority for science, technology information and policy for a general audience.” I believe that the article in question does not uphold the tenets of the brand, and in fact, damages the brand. Lets discuss my concerns in more detail.
The author does not give sufficient weight to discussing the benefits of technology. The subtitle of the story is “Technology can inspire creativity or dehumanize learning.” Ms. Ravitch is generous enough to give a total of TWO SENTENCES discussing the benefits of technology in public education.
Are her so called “dubious uses” of technology really “dubious?”
Ravitch attempts to stoke fear into readers by claiming that “for-profit” charter schools are evil, while not providing sufficient empirical evidence to support such generalizations. In any new school design, there will be outliers, but for Ravitch to single out the few in a pool of many successful charter schools is foolhardy. How many public schools are squandering taxpayer dollars and not governing their schools with integrity? Quite a few if you did the research.
Ravitch does not provide sufficient detail in her discussion about online assessments and the online grading of essays. I am not up to speed on this development and while I need to look at this area more closely, I share the author’s concern about online grading of essays. It depends how it will be done, because there is a subjective factor to it. However, I would not state that online assessments are not in the best interests of the system just because of this one concern which will certainly be worked out. Certain types of assessments must be conducted online, as this will greatly enhance the efficiency of our public education system, improve productivity, and support adaptive learning systems. We need to use big data more effectively in public schools so that teachers can spend far less time on remedial work at the beginning of each school year. It will also help us evolve our system into a competency-based one versus one that depends on seat-time.
Finally, Ms. Ravitch continues her assault on the Gates Foundation-funded nonprofit, inBloom. Ravitch is terrified of the use of “big data” in public education, and the risks of storing personal, confidential data on students in the cloud. Ravitch, to the best of my knowledge, has not represented that she has even seen a demo of the technology in action, yet she amplifies the propaganda being distributed by self interest groups. Many other industries such as health care are seeing the material benefits of leveraging the cloud for data storage and data intelligence. InBloom has been very consistent in their communications that they will not be providing personal data to third parties without consent, yet Ravitch and the teachers unions have used their influence to misrepresent the intent of the inBloom solution and spread fears about applications that are not part of the core use case. The FAQ page on inBloom’s website states: “inBloom is not creating a national database. It is providing a secure data service to help school districts manage the information needed for learning, and to support local educational goals. Only school districts decide who has access to that information and for what purpose.”
It is perfectly acceptable to be concerned about the online storage of data. However, public education would be best served by working collaboratively with an organization whose intent is noble: to create a technological standard that connects the entire public education ecosystem. The main objective of InBloom is to make the disparate systems compatible, and as such, make the job of educators and administrators much easier. It is unfortunate that Ravitch has taken such a pessimistic view of what this initiative can offer to our education reform efforts, and instead anoint herself the “Ralph Nader” of public education.
Finally, I take personal issue with Ravitch’s comment that “teachers see technology as a tool to inspire student learning; entrepreneurs see it as a way to standardize teaching, to replace teachers, to make money and to market new products.” That is categorically false and insulting to the many entrepreneurs who are trying to bring innovation to K-12 education, but are stonewalled by an anachronistic system dominated by textbook publishers extracting billions of dollars in monopoly profits from K-12 – something that Ravitch fails to acknowledge in her assault on entrepreneurship.
If Diane Ravitch or any writer for that matter wishes to communicate their skepticism with new technologies, that is perfectly fine. However, if you are going to write a policy piece for a supposedly reputable publication, then the story needs to provide sufficient empirical data to support the assertions. It is clear that this story could have easily been posted on Ravitch’s blog, where she is free to publish her “rants” that are opinions devoid of supportable fact. Instead, we are forced to accept the grim reality that major publications will abdicate their journalistic integrity to forward a political agenda, which in this case is the supposition that technological innovation will seek to destroy public education, rather than improve it.
http://www.reinventedsolutions.com/als-blog/2013/7/26/ravitch-on-the-perils-of-ed-tech-is-this-journalism-or-propa.html
Linda: I hope you realize that by presenting facts and logic on this thread—then following with some words right out of the horse’s, er, mouth—you may cause a spontaneous combustion of her/his brain?
Not to worry, though—there will be very little grey matter to clean up.
Perhaps it is a limitation of having been only a TA, but where oh where did the edubullies ever come up with the notion that teachers are cowards who will back down to every sneering empty suit and disapproving eduapparatchik defending the pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$?
Just remember, though, that Homer reminds us that “Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid” — and when said, perhaps sometimes best ignored.
I would never advise you to stop posting on this blog but you have a mission so much more important: “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” [Plutarch]
Thank you.
🙂
What if I can accomplish both missions: take care of my kids and fight off edufrauds?
A teacher! And a multitasker!
Honestly, I’m still reeling. To a 98th percent of a ‘satisfactory’ certainty [thank you, Bill Gates!], after reading the MET Study by the Gates Foundation I would never ever have expected this.
Life is just so full of surprises…
Next thing you’ll tell me is that you and other teachers make a difference in the lives of young people beyond the dollars and cents in their future paychecks [that is, if they have any].
Maybe there’s something wrong with the reception of facts and logic on RheeWorld, or perhaps it is just a local Rheeality Distortion Field that is blocking out this sort of important information.
Not to worry. I have it on good authority that a careful perusal of REIGN OF ERROR helps block out ran-dumb rheephorm noise so that one gets a clear reality signal.
🙂
P.S. The edubullies will someday rue their mistake of underestimating teachers and parents. Multitasker? From the song “Sixteen Tons” by Tom Jones:
If you see me comin’, better step aside
A lotta men didn’t, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don’t a get ya, the left one will.
P.P.S. And for all the haters who will misinterpret the song those lines come from: it is about defending oneself from packs of bullies that like to prey on others, not picking fights with the weak and defenseless.
Thanks for promoting my blog, Linda. I’m honored. And I fully expect to be assaulted with negative comments which don’t bother me in the least. I will be surprised if you and others can write a rebuttal without getting personal and downright offensive.
Thanks again – I’m touched 🙂
One other thing, Linda. Proper etiquette would be to simply link to my blog unless you’re going to ask the author for permission to republish a post on another blog (which you of course didn’t do). Oh, but I forgot, you’re not a business person or journalist – you’re an educator!
You’re not proud of your opinion piece? Anyone can get there via your name on this blog.
Be proud Al…my kids are proud of their work.
Isabella is a lucky girl with a bright future to look forward to. Let’s all hope that current education (and I use that term loosely) policies don’t completely squelch her desire to learn. She deserves the chance and the time to be educated, not according to some random path set by politicians and business leaders, but by Isabella herself. Only then will she rediscover the passion and the pleasure, the struggle that leads to the satisfaction, of learning.
There really should be some way of warning people, especially parents, when non-educators are on their case and giving advice to them here.
So, to add to Linda’s posts, I want to point out to Ali and others that there should be a *Retired Businessman Alert” on all of the posts by Bernie1815, who clearly has too much time on his hands and thinks he is an expert on everything from curriculum standards and “age appropriate reasoning” to evaluating teachers. (Not to mention selectively hacking away at research he disagrees with and denying global warming.)
So BEWARE! Bernie1815 is not an educator and people should take whatever he says about education with a grain of salt!
Citizen Concerned About Kids:
I am not on anyone’s case. I also have not claimed to be an educator or an expert on curriculum or age appropriate reasoning.. But I am a parent and have raised and helped educate 3 children. I am married to a teacher. I have worked in a large variety of organizations, designed and analyzed surveys and assessment instruments, and designed and evaluated performance management systems for many organizations.
I believe that nobody should take anything anyone says without looking carefully at the available evidence and making their own assessments.
It is unclear to me to which of my comments today you object. I pointed out that Ali’s letter provides no evidence that her daughter’s unfortunate reactions were due to the Core Curriculum per se, while acknowledging that it might have. Ali graciously and politely responded and provided additional information that ruled out alternative explanations of bullying or impatience. Ali brought up an important issue of the continuity between her daughter’s 5th Grade CC math classes and her 4th Grade non-CC math classes. What remains unclear is the extent to which Ali’s daughter’s difficulties are due to math word problems in general or that there is something in the way CC 5th Grade math word problems are presented. Mom from District 2 presented some useful examples which in turn illustrate some fundamental challenges in writing math word problems.
In sum, I see no reason why I need to apologize for any of my comments today. I did not question anybody’s motives and asked questions when I did not understand something or disagreed with something.
I find attempts at ad hominem attacks in place of reasoned arguments or polite questions pretty sad and pathetic.
Bernie1815: What’s “sad and pathetic” is your ongoing failure to provide any qualifiers that identify yourself to this parent and others as the non-educator businessman that you are. What is also deplorable is your presumption to be able to diagnose a child’s educational challenges. That appeared to several genuine educators as a zealous take-no-prisoners defense of the Common Core.
Parents, just so you know, professional educators do not attempt to diagnose students over the Internet.
Citizen Concerned About Kids:
I have answered questions about my background on numerous occasions on this blog and have contacted Diane directly. And what is with this “businessman” stuff? I am the parent of 3 now adult children and the husband of a teacher. OK, so what are your credentials? Not that I believe credentials per se should limit anybody’s involvement in a discussion on a topic.
I have to the best of my recollection said nothing about the details of Common Core. I have asked lots of questions and looked at the CC math assessments. I have in no way whatsoever provided a “zealous take-no-prisoners defense of the Common Core. ” What is your evidence?
Have you actually read the initial post? Have you actually read my comments on this thread? Where did I try to diagnose anything? Given an absence of information I proposed two quite reasonable possible explanations, one of which Ali indicated had occurred to her and she had checked it out.
Gee, I’ve been eating food all my life and so has my family. My sister and I both worked as servers at restaurants and I even took my city and state Food Service and Sanitation training. I’ve cooked a lot of meals at home for decades. Who knew all this means that I can now advise actual culinary experts and tell eaters what’s wrong with their food –and without first informing them that I have no formal culinary training or experience as a chef?
NPST:
Cute, but who exactly am I supposedly giving advice to?
It doesn’t matter what you’ve said before or told Diane, you did not disclose to this parent and others today that you are a businessman, not an educator. You also failed to mention that your wife teaches college, not K12. Sins of omission matter, especially when you are acting as if you are in the know, in a field in which you have no formal training and experience. And yes, I do happen to be an actual expert in education, having studied in four different degree programs and worked in schools for several decades.
Citizen Concerned About Kids:
You are an incredibly rude and uncivil person.
You still have not identified any statement I have made where (a) I diagnosed anything or (b) I zealously defended common core.
My wife was a High School teacher for ten years. Returned to teach a few years ago and is now teaching in college. What is your point?
No, it’s not cute. It’s what you have been doing. When did you give advice? Well let’s see. It’s an interesting timeline:
This Spring, In April, 2013, Duncan asked the US Chamber of Commerce to support the Common Core. In June, he advised the press about how to report on the Common Core. This Summer, you showed up on this blog, defending the Common Core and related tests and the quantification of teaching. You began advising right away, as in this comment from August 14th, “I have just gone through a set of questions that supposedly reflect the 8th Grade curriculum… The topics covered did not seem inappropriate to this age group.”
Today, you asked Ali, “Which Common Core Math book is Isabella using?” It’s not a stretch to assume that you were planning to review that, too, and make a pronouncement about age appropriateness. It could be inferred since, even though you stated today, “I will leave it to Robert to comment on the ELA – I have very little perspective.” you then went on to write in another post, “The ELA question raised by Mom from District 2 requiring a child to support a position she does not agree with, clearly enters into the area of age appropriate reasoning.”
That is advising and business people who have not studied child and adolescent development, cognitive science, pedagogy and pedagogical content knowledge in Math and ELA, and who have never taught in K12 classrooms themselves, should not be telling parents what is and is not age appropriate –and especially without first stating that they are not trained, experienced educators.
You are welcome to your personal opinions, but they should be stated as such with qualifiers.
For anyone interested, here is Bernie’s 3 star review of Diane’s book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” from March, 2012 –which everyone can see follows the 3 star April, 2012 review of Pasi Sahlberg’s, “Finish Lessons” http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A62AVEJPLDKEZ?ie=UTF8&display=public&page=2&sort_by=MostRecentReview
Hmmm…interesting. I read Finnish Lessons and Death and Life and I disagree. You have three kids and your wife is an educator, but not k-12, so you’re an eduexpert? I still don’t get why anyone’s personal account needs to be defended to Bernie. A bit full of himself indeed.
Thank you for the “data” NPST and CCAK.
Linda:
You have previously asked about my background and I answered you, so none of this should be a surprise.
This entire line of attack is silly.
You say: “I read Finnish Lessons and Death and Life and I disagree.” What exactly do you disagree with?
No. You have never identified your profession. Do you have a job? How do you support your family? It appears disagreeing or challenging Bernie = rude behavior. We don’t need to bow to you here.
Linda:
I have previously answered your questions about my background. Such pointed questions by strangers are by my standards uncivil without a quid pro quo.
I have no problem with different opinions. I do have problems with ad hominems, argumentum ad auctoritatem and a lack of civility.
Look at this thread. I try to acknowledge others points of view. I recognize when others bring relevant information. I defer to others when they have demonstrated knowledge in other areas where I have limited information. I admit when I have misunderstood something.
Cute, but who exactly am I supposedly giving advice to?
Nobody anymore.
Not a Public School Teacher:
Your inferences are wild and absurd. I have no connection to anyone in the Reform movement.
Looking at an 8th Grade Math test and commenting on its content is not advising. It is simply a comment. I asked Ali about the text book because I wanted to see whether the math word problems were well or poorly written. Again nobody needs any qualifications or courses to be able to make such an assessment. As to my comment on a 5th Grader being asked to write an argument to support a position they do not agree with, I was agreeing with Mom from District 2 and even if I wasn’t are you saying that this view is incorrect?
You speak with no authority whatsoever, because education is not your field, and you don’t warn unsuspecting people of that. There are plenty of professionals here who are experts in education and to whom you should be deferring, but you seem to be too full of yourself to recognize and appreciate the competencies of anyone beyond your own mirror.
Not a Public School Teacher:
Who are these unsuspecting people? I only defer to people who can substantiate the positions they take with persuasive evidence and I expect others to do likewise. What do you do?
Not a public,
Do you suggest that each poster give a short biography of themselves in the first post in any thread that they post in? If so, what do you think it should include? It seems a bit unwieldy but with cut and paste it would not be especially onerous.
TE:
That is a helpful suggestion.
I recently read a post by a psychologist that I think I remember the post as saying she is in New York. Anyway, the psychologist talked about kids cutting themselves and teachers being extremely stressed out. She linked it to Common Core because that was what seemed to come up all of the time. I will see if I can relocate this post. It may have been a video. It has been recent that I’ve seen it; if I can find it, I will try to post it here.
I found the post! It is right here on this blog. Go to Mark NAISON: Test-Related Stress for students and teachers. It was posted on October 11, 2013. Click on the link on this post.
Thank you, Ali, for taking the time to write such a thoughtful piece that articulates what so many of us feel. When I am asked (and I’m asked regularly) why I’m so involved in the Opt Out movement, I will direct them here. Most of all, thank you for your advocacy for Isabella-many children will benefit from your efforts. Bravo, mom!