Wednesday, November 26, 2014

What is Common Core and How Does it Affect Me?

Let's talk about standards!  This is such a fun topic of conversation for all educators.  Standards are a good thing, if used for the right person AND developed or put into place by the right person.  Schools have always had a list of concepts that they were expected to teach and students learn.  This has been that way forever.  State education departments have been involved in the planning as well to ensure that all students in a state are learning the same concepts to provide equal opportunities.  This also works great for those students that move from one district to another in assuring that all students in one state are taught the same materials no matter which district you are in.

Back in 2001, under the Bush administration, a bill was passed called No Child Left Behind (NCLB).  Now I will admit, there were parts of the law that made a lot of sense and I can understand why politicians wanted to pass something like this.  The idea of NCLB was that all students by the year 2014 would be reading at grade level.  Great idea...in theory.  In reality... not possible.  The key word was EVERY child.  There were no exceptions made for students that were on an IEP for special education, that had a disability, or that didn't speak English.  If a student moved in from Russia and wasn't fluent in English, they were still expected to read at grade level.

To ensure that schools were being accountable with NCLB, they were given parameters.  Schools had to show adequate yearly progress (AYP) towards reaching 100% proficiency.  If they didn't show progress, schools might lose state funding.  No Child Left Behind created a whole bunch of systems and new problems with education.  Some schools started incentive pay for teachers whose students showed they were proficient.  If you were a good teacher, but the students didn't show enough progress, your job might be on the line because you, (the teacher) didn't get those scores up enough.  Is that fair?  Depends on the outcome, right?!

What about schools that have high poverty levels?  Some of those students didn't have life experiences, home support to help them be successful, early childhood education, or adults to assist with homework.  Studies show that this can have an effect on student performance.  Schools with little poverty or more upper class students usually score much higher and end up meeting AYP.  Soon families are transferring students because their home school has limited funding, aren't meeting AYP or they just aren't doing "good enough."

Other issues that started to arise, was when it came time for state testing, teachers were teaching to the test.  This wasn't supposed to be happening, but because there was so much pressure to perform for proficiency that teachers and schools were scared of not making the grade, losing funding, losing teachers, etc.  Some states were even issuing report cards on school districts.  Grading on A, B, C, D, or F based on test performance and graduation rate, among other things.  There are so many problems with all of these things.  It clouds people's judgement of what is a good school.  Soon we have a rating of a C and parents think it's a bad school, but what is the criteria that it's graded on?  If a school needs improvement and has made good growth and gone from 50% proficiency in reading to 70%, doesn't that seem like a good thing?  That is showing great growth!

Where does Common Core come into all of this?  Here is what their website says about how and why it was developed:
The state-led effort to develop the Common Core State Standards was launched in 2009 by state leaders, including governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, two territories and the District of Columbia, through their membership in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). State school chiefs and governors recognized the value of consistent, real-world learning goals and launched this effort to ensure all students, regardless of where they live, are graduating high school prepared for college, career, and life.
The standards are informed by:
    • The best state standards already in existence
    • The experience of teachers, content experts, states, and leading thinkers
    • Feedback from the public
  http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/development-process/

It's important to know that Nebraska has NOT adopted the Common Core standards.  At the bottom of the post, you can see a map of the U.S. that indicates which states have and have not adopted CC.  On another note, lots of text book companies are developing their texts based on the common core standards.  This does not change the way that we teach subjects like math and reading.  Math facts are still math facts.  How we add and subtract, multiply and divide are basically the same.  It is not affected by CC.  The text books are designed so that they cover the standards around how CC was developed.  Since most U.S. states have adopted CC, text book companies are designing their books around these standards.  It is very difficult to find a text book that is not CC.

If you study the Nebraska state standards and the Common Core standards, they are very similar.  The idea behind CC was to ensure that that all students around the nation were being taught the same things.  Each state is being held accountable in education.

We are pretty lucky in the Midwest and in Nebraska.  Overall, there isn't a lot of violence and poverty.  Most of our kids are very literate too.  Our education systems are really good.  Students are being taken care of and standards are being taught and met.  We have good teachers that work hard.  Not all states operate that way.  There are several states where teacher slots cannot be filled.  Some schools deal with major poverty issues, lots of language barriers or even attendance.  If students only show up for half of the year, how can we expect them to read at grade level or be fluent in math?

The point of this post is that there is more to the story than just hearing the words Common Core and equating it to "bad things" in school systems.  To fully understand what it means, you have to dig a little deeper.  So if you find yourself wondering more about what CC is or what it means to your school, do some asking.  Don't assume that it is all bad; 2+2 is still 4, and it will always be 4.  Common Core is just a high set of standards to ensure that ALL students across our country are being taught in a similar manner.




**NOTE-The information below was taken from the Common Core Website: Common Core
If you would like more information about Common Core in general, please click on the link above.

Standards in Your State

Forty-three states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) have adopted the Common Core State Standards. The map below provides information about the process each state and territory followed to adopt their new academic standards. In addition, links are provided to state and territory department of education websites that provide information about how the standards are being implemented, plans for aligned assessments, supports for teachers, and plans to help all students succeed.
  • Adopted
  •  
  • Not Adopted
AlaskaHawaiiDistrict ofColumbiaPuerto RicoGuamNorthern MarianaIslandsUS Virgin IslandsAmerican SamoanIslandsDepartment of DefenseEducation Activity
* Full implementation is defined as the school year the state expects teachers in grades K-12 in English language arts and mathematics to incorporate the standards into classroom instruction.
Taken from the Common Core website:  http://www.corestandards.org/