Archives for category: Common Core
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Growing Backlash Among Teachers Against Common Core

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2014 //
144

As we have seen in mainstream media coverage of the Common Core, there is a common–but fake–narrative about the Common Core. Secretary Duncan has repeatedly said that opposition to the Common Core comes from the far right, especially the Tea Party. We are also told that teachers like the Common Core. The underlying goal is to stigmatize critics and to belittle those who do speak up.

A good place to start with the Common Core is to look honestly at the source of the criticism and see whether there are legitimate concerns. Unfortunately, this is not happening, and states have been told that they can add content, but they can change nothing. This is bizarre, as no standards are ever perfect; all must have a process to redress grievances if they be just.

It is true that the two national teachers’ unions support the Common Core, and it is also true that both unions have accepted millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation to advocate on behalf of CCSS.

But teachers are increasingly resistant to the standardization that the CCSS requires, as well as to the tight linkage among the standards, the online federal tests, and the inevitable value-added-metrics that will be used to evaluate teachers. A very neat trap has been set that will use CCSS as the linchpin for test-based accountability. Unfortunately, the national media reports this reaction as teachers who are fearful of accountability,

Thus, don’t believe the oft-repeated tale that only the far right opposes CCSS. Anthony Cody reminded me that the Chicago Teachers Union was not alone in voting against CCSS. That vote, to my knowledge, has not been reported in the New York Times or other mainstream media. The Chicago Teachers Union, after long deliberation, voted unanimously in opposition to the CCSS.

On May 3, the delegate assembly of the Connecticut Education Association opposed high-stakes testing, VAM, and data mining of children and voted for reconsideration and review of CCSS.

On May 9-10, members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association elected Barbara Madeloni–an outspoken opponent of high-stakes testing–as their new president and passed resolutions opposing Corporate control of schools, including school takeovers and turnarounds. It passed a resolution seeking a moratorium on implementation of CCSS and PARCC.

So, yes, there is growing opposition and controversy swirling around Common Core. No, it is not a cause limited to the far right. In fact, some of the strongest supporters of CCSS are on the right, like Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee, former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

CCSS is one of the most divisive issues in American politics today. Many myths swirl around it, coming from all directions. A nation as big and diverse as ours does not lightly adopt national standards and federally funded online tests without careful deliberation. It is time for the fear-mongering to end and for the careful deliberation to begin.

Categories Common Core

Robert Berkman: Is This the Worst Article Ever Written about Common Core Math?

By dianeravitch
June 1, 2014 //
54

Robert Berkman, a veteran math teacher, writes a blog called “Better Living Through Mathematics, where he regularly skewers nonsense.

In this article, he looks closely at a chart that purportedly demonstrates how pathetic is the performance of U.S. adults, compared to many other nations.

Berkman says this may be the “stupidest article about Common Core math program” that he has ever read.

To begin with, the graph does not identify the highest possible score, making it impossible to draw conclusions or comparisons. So one conclusion from the graph, Berkman says, is: “whatever sample of US adults took this test did 88% as well as the adults in the top scoring nation, Japan. I think that’s pretty damned good, considering the United States is second to the world in poverty, leaving Japan in the dust by over 10 percentage points (and I’m sure Japan uses a much higher economic benchmark for poverty than we do here in the US.) Of course, we all know that poverty is the single greatest predictor of poor school performance.”

[Note to Robert Berkman: that “second in the world in poverty” is nonsense, despite the authoritative source. It is a comparison not of all nations, but of the most economically developed nations, and the U.S. is supposedly second to Romania. This is an absurd comparison because Romania doesn’t belong in this group of nations. Romania is an Eastern European nation whose economy was mismanaged and impiverished by central planning for decades. Oh, well, I may never get this error corrected, but I keep trying. The fact is that we have the highest level of child poverty of any advanced nation in the world.]

After pointing out other errors, Berkman writes:

“Finally, this article is yet another example of the “waking up on third base” phenomena, which posits that everything that you see in a Common Core math curriculum is the direct result of the implementation of the Standards. Nothing could be further from the truth: all of the items described on in the article have been documented, published and taught since the NCTM published its curriculum standards a quarter of a century ago. If you’ve been teaching math using a textbook that was published in the last 20 years, you’ve probably seen all this stuff before including, with all deference to Mr. Colbert, the infamous description of a “number sentence.” Telegram for Mr. Colbert: 1989 is writing to tell you to “LOL!”

He notes with dismay that “NCTM actually tweeted the link to this worthless piece of codswallum, and smelling something rotten, I just had to follow the scent.”

Categories Common Core, Curriculum, International, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, Testing

Motoko Rich Shows: Far Right Opposes Common Core

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2014 //
40

It is getting to be a dizzying experience to read about the Common Core on the Néw York Times. When Motoko Rich reported from Tennessee, she found an unlikely left-right alliance questioning the standards. A few days later, and the familiar script is back in place: only the far right opposes this fine experiment.

Once again, Mike Petrilli is trotted out to defend them. This seems to be his job now.

No mention of the early childhood experts who oppose them or the critics of high stakes testing or computer graded tests or standardization or the Chicago Teachers Union or Carol Burris or Anthony Cody or any number of credible, non-Tea Party critics.

It would be refreshing to learn in the Times which groups have received millions from the Gates Foundation to support the CCSS.

Categories Common Core

Motoko Rich Shows: Unlikely Alliances For and Against Common Core

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2014 //
16

Until now, the New York Times has followed Arne Duncan’s formula to explain opposition to Common Core, which is to demonize critics as Tea Party yahoos. However, Motoko Rich wrote a story about the unlikely alliances that are forming on both sides of the issue.

Supporters of the Common Core cross a wide spectrum and include big corporations and anti-public education zealots like Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee. Critics of Common Core include conservatives who worry about federal overreach and educators who object to standardization. The teachers unions, by the way, have vigorously supported Common Core, except for the Chicago Teachers Union, which voted unanimously to oppose it. Some critics see Common Core as a massive diversion of billions of dollars to vendors of tests, technology, and other new materials and services.

Categories Common Core

Business Group in NY Pledges $500,000 Campaign for Common Core

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2014 //
72

Who supports the Common Core standards? who opposes them? Are the critics right or left?

A new group in Néw York has been created to spend $500,000 to promote Common Core. This article says the group consists of business organizations but its prominent supporters are the Gates Foundation, the Helmsley Foundation, Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst, and the Gates-funded Educators for Excellence.

Allegedly, business wants “higher standards” because the CCSS will close the skills gap and produce more qualified workers. Is there any evidence for this belief? No. On the first round of Common Core testing, 70% of students in New York failed. The failure rate for minorities, English learners, and students with disabilities was even higher. Among students with disabilities, for example, 95% failed the Common Core tests.

Where is the evidence that Common Core will make all students college-ready? There is none.

Would business groups be equally willing to invest in a campaign for equitable school funding, reduced class sizes, universal pre-school, pre-natal care, after-school programs, school nurses, and a raise in the minimum wage? All of these have a solid research base. They are proven strategies for reform.

Do the business leaders think that CCSS makes those investments unnecessary?

It is certainly appealing to fiscal conservatives to believe that higher standards can somehow magically solve the problems of huge economic and social inequality. CCSS, they imagine, can compensate for the fact that nearly one-quarter of our children live in poverty. Someday, maybe 12 years from now, they think, all children will be college-ready, even if they live in squalor or have no home, even if they attend overcrowded classes with inexperienced teachers. Are they gullible? Or do they believe the public can be easily deceived? Remember when the same groups believed that tougher standards, tests, and accountability would raise up all children and “no child” would be “left behind”? We spent billions on tests and consultants, on closing schools and opening schools, and that didn’t work out.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Categories Common Core, New York

Mercedes Schneider on the Warm Relationship Between Gates and Pearson

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2014 //
15

Somehow I missed this piece when it appeared several months ago. It is a Mercedes classic, where she shows her skill at reading tax returns and connecting the dots.

You may or may not recall that Attorney General of New York Eric Schneiderman fined the Pearson Foundation $7.7 million for engaging in activities related to its for-profit parent Pearson. In some regions, this fine would be referred to as “chump change” or “chicken feed” for a billion-dollar corporation.

Mercedes digs into this story and finds a golden goose. And the golden goose is the Common Core standards.

Categories Common Core, Education Industry, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Pearson

Peter Greene: Don’t Blame Obama for Failure of CCSS

By dianeravitch
May 28, 2014 //
80

Conservatives who support the Common Core like to blame Obama for making it radioactive. They say that if he and Arne had stayed out, CC would have been non-controversial. Their involvement awakened the Tea Party and others who reflexively dismiss whatever Obama is for.

Peter Greene says balderdash.

“It’s Obama’s fault.

“The state-led initiative was chugging right along, moving forward without any interference from the feds, when somehow, they decided to leap in. Or as Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday recently put it, things were fine “until the President and secretary of education took credit for the Common Core.”This is part of the current conservative CCSS support narrative (you can find put forth by, among others, the boys over at the Fordham). The story goes something like this:

Once upon a time, some noble governors and dedicated corporate guys got together and created the Common Core, and people pretty much thought it was swell. Then the Obama administration tried to get involved with cheerleading and with Racing to the Top and NCLB waivers. This was a Bad Thing because it woke up the Tea Party folks, who began shrieking about federal over-reach. People who wouldn’t have cared one way or another suddenly were against it because Obama was for it and whatever he’s doing, it must be evil. If the feds had just stayed home and tended to their knitting, we would not be having all this CCSS fracasization……….

Even if we pretend that the feds weren’t involved from day one, even if we pretend that the feds haven’t been angling for this for several administrations, even if we pretend that the Obama administration wasn’t sponsoring slumber parties and buying the refreshments for CCSS-writing parties, the feds must still take responsibility for the prime motivator for the whole mess.

States were not open to CCSS because of some burning desire to revamp their education systems. They were all sitting on the ticking time bomb that was (actually, is) No Child Left Behind, otherwise known as ESEA, otherwise known as federal law. The feds were always involved. Always….

“For Pearson et al, CCSS represent a marketing opportunity sent from heaven. CCSS opened up the US education market faster and more completely than a velociraptor fileting a sleepy cow. To open a national market, they needed national standards, not the state-by-state patchwork of the past. They were always going to use every tool at their disposal to make this happen across the entire country, and that toolbox includes the federal government….

“Who can seriously argue that all the states were going to say, “Yeah, we should totally implement this untested set of standards, sight unseen. Especially since they come with a huge price tag. Yes, let’s do it.” Particularly states that had perfectly good standards already. “Now that we’ve paid off this beautiful Lexus, let’s junk it and get a Yugo for twice the cost,” said no car owner ever,

“No, a wave of bribery (Race to the Top) was needed to get the ball rolling. Or do you seriously want to suggest that states would have raced toward the Core for free. And when states wouldn’t fall in line for the bribe, we moved on to the extortion– “I’d hate to see anything happen to your state just because of some crazy No Child Left Behind law; you should really consider getting our special protection waiver plan.”

“Selling CCSS required a federal-sized stick and a DC calibre stick. States do not generally volunteer for massive unfunded mandates. Only a federal-sized sales job would do, even if it had to be carefully calibrated to avoid looking illegal….

“So say what you like. It’s impossible for the administration to have avoided involvement in CCSS. And if by some miracle it had kept its hands off, CCSS would now be an interesting experimental set of standards being tried out in four or five states, maybe. It’s true that Obama didn’t do CCSS any favors, but it would have died on the vine without him.”

Categories Common Core, Obama

The Reason Jeb Bush Supports Common Core

By dianeravitch
May 26, 2014 //
126

The usual narrative about the politics of Common Core describe it as a split within the Republican Party. On one side are the extremist members of the Tea Party, fearful of a federal takeover. On the other side are “moderate” Republicans like Jeb Bush, eager to make American students globally competitive.

The Southern Poverty Law Center thinks that the grassroots radicals want to use Common Core to destroy public education. Glenn Beck ‘s new book displays equal contempt for Common Core and public education.

But what is Jeb Bush’s role? He is no moderate. He is an avid proponent of vouchers, charters, tax credits for private schools, and virtual charters. He is as eager to destroy public education as any member of the Tea Party.

In this 2012 speech to business leaders, Bush said that the rigorous standards, if linked to rigorous assessments, would show the public just how bad our schools really are. He said,

“Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush captured the scale of the challenge when he told the gathering on the first morning that states are heading for a “train wreck.” He noted that when the new standards and assessments come fully online in 2015 that many communities, schools, and families are in for a rude awakening.”

Furthermore, “Bush warned that such bluntness about the poor health of American education and student achievement will trigger serious political backtracking. He said, “My guess is there’s going to be a lot of people running for cover and they are going to be running fast.”

Jeb Bush, in short, looks forward to the inevitable collapse of test scores on Common Core tests. The public, he expects, will be so shocked by the scores that they will be open to the choices he advocates. Suddenly, there will be a public clamor for vouchers, charters, online learning.

So the great divide within the Republican Party over Common Core is not between the “moderate” Jeb Bush and the “radical” Tea Party, but between factions that are both hostile to public education.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Common Core, On-Line Education, Vouchers

Schneider: Oklahoma Rejects Common Core, But…

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2014 //
15

The Oklahoma legislature voted decisively to drop the Common Core standards.

“On May 23, 2014, both the Oklahoma House (71-18) and Senate (31-10) voted to dump the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

“All that is left is for Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to sign the legislation, HB 3399, into law. (Fallin was not governor when Oklahoma signed on for CCSS as part of Race to the Top {RTTT} in 2010.)”

If the governor does not sign, the bill is vetoed.

Categories Common Core

Arthur H. Camins: Have We Abandoned Our Neediest Children??

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2014 //
28

Arthur H. Camins, the Director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, sharply critiques current education and social policy. He writes in this post that we have given up efforts to reduce poverty and segregation, policies that would produce the greatest number of young people.

Instead, our nation’s leaders are prepared to divert billions into more testing and Common Core, which is unlikely to reduce inequality.

Camins writes:

“If answers on Common Core assessment questions require supporting evidence, it is only fair that evidence-based reasoning should be an expected feature of public education policy. Apparently such consistency is not required when it comes to political decisions. Sadly, too many policy makers seem more committed to enabling profiteering from the results of poverty than ending it. The testing industry is an excellent example. Education policies sanction and encourage multi-billion dollar testing and test preparation corporations that enable destructive punishment and rewards for educators, gaming the system and sorting of students for competitive access to an increasingly unaffordable post secondary system that perpetuates inequity. State and federal education policies support costly, overly stressful and time consuming high-stakes testing in order to verify and detect small differences within the very large socio-economic disparities we already know exist.”

“Well-designed large-scale assessments can contribute evidence for institutional and program level judgments about quality. However, we do not need to test every student every year for this purpose. Less costly sampling can accomplish this goal. I am not opposed to qualifying exams- if they validly and reliably measure qualities that are directly applicable to their purpose without bias. However, imagine if we shifted the balance of our assessment attention from the summative to the formative. Then we could focus more on becoming better at interpreting daily data from regular class work and use that evidence to help students move their own learning forward. Imagine what else we could accomplish if we spent a significant percentage of our current K-12 and college admission testing expenditures on actually mediating poverty instead of measuring its inevitable effect. Imagine the educational and economic benefit if we invested in putting people to work rebuilding our cities, roads, bridges, schools and parks. Imagine if we put people to work building affordable housing instead of luxury high rises. Imagine the boost to personal spending and the related savings in social service spending if a living wage and full employment prevailed. Imagine the learning benefit to children if their families did not have to worry about health, food and shelter. Imagine if our tax policies favored the common good over wealth accumulation for the 1%ers.

“Such investments are far more logical than the current over-investment in testing and compliance regimes. Education, race and poverty are inextricably intertwined. Let’s do everything we can to improve teaching and learning. More students learning to use evidence to support arguments would be terrific. But, if we want to do something about poverty we need to ensure good jobs at fair wages for the parents of our students. That is where evidence and logical thinking lead.”

Categories Charter Schools, Common Core, Poverty, Race to the Top, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration
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