Midknight Review -- new and revised: Common Core - a Progressive scheme or a sincere but confusing effort at improving education.

<<< I don't know if the in-frame explanation helps, but the official contrast between old math and Common Core math seems unnecessarily confusing. Anyone in education ever heard of "occam razor" and the value it might have when writing a "new math" program? Good grief . . . . . . and to think that us old Boomer folks actually know how to add and subtract and fill out a job application, or do Millennials do those sorts of things anymore? ~ editor.

Ohio has become the latest state to abandon its multi-state, Common Core-aligned standardized test following widespread complaints about technical glitches and feared federal involvement.

The move came Tuesday, when Gov. John Kasich signed a new budget that prohibits any money from being spent on tests produced by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a consortium of several states creating shared test questions aligned with Common Core’s math and English standards.

Editor's notes: my teacher friends tell me it is the tests that are so burdensome. Here in California, our teachers are allowed a lot of latitude as to how they will teach the curriculum. Their collective complaint, however, is the Common Core testing . . . "bizarre" is the word I hear most often.

This report seems to be confirmed with Ohio's decision to exclude Common Core testing.

Want to know more? There is an excellent article on Common Core, written by those in education, a non-partisan review that can be found, here. Although a balanced review, the article's conclusion sets the tone of the article in terms of critical takeaways:

" Unfortunately there's been too little honest conversation and too little democracy in the development of the Common Core. We see consultants and corporate entrepreneurs where there should be parents and teachers, and more high-stakes testing where there should be none. Until that changes, it will be hard to distinguish the “next big thing” from the last one."

The Stated Nonsense from the Left now includes these Progressive goals:

July 2, 2008, Obama had this to say: "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

MICHELLE OBAMA: "Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation."

“ . . . . . . they have become a generation of activists possessed with that most American of ideas – that people who love their country can change it.” -- Obama the Radical

On September 30, Van Jones told MSNBC "I think everybody should hold onto your seats. October is going to be the turning point when it comes to the progressive fight back."

1 comment:

AnonymousJuly 2, 2015 at 3:40 PM
I am a 5th grade teacher. Your posted concerns include my concerns. Testing is the problem. And "bizarre" is the perfect word. I trust that much of this confusion will be worked out, in the next few years. Plus, we, as teachers, have not been given enough time to transition from current standards to the new system. Kids are being lost (for a time) to this new methodology. Make no mistake, Common Core is an experiment with very little "track record," as well as a developing methodology, problems within themselves.