Does Common Core really mean teachers should teach differently?
Strategy and curriculum are intimately connected. You cannot make extreme changes to curriculum and then be shocked that the methodology also changes.
This is yet another example of “unintended consequences” … politicians strive for simple, one-sized-fits-all answers to complex problems (and sometimes problems that never even existed) that then start to cause even bigger problems.
In some parts of the country, we have improved education while worsening it in others. Now we have a whole generation of kids who despise learning and hate education. We have not only driven teachers away from the profession, but have assured that students don’t enter the profession at all. Tennessee and Connecticut are already starting to change course … I hope other states take their lead. Common Core really sucks. Read more here.
Teachers Resign En Masse Over Common Core and Standardized Testing Overkill
OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — More than 20 teachers have resigned or decided to retire from the Osceola County School District in just the past month — and the district already had a shortage with more than 50 vacant teaching jobs. The teachers’ union told Channel 9’s Deneige Broom that some of them quit because they’re fed up with standardized testing. At Kissimmee Elementary, they need to fill two spots. At the nearby middle school, three spots are open. The union president believes many of the now vacant spots are because of testing. he education association’s latest fight should concern parents, too. “Ultimately, the problem that we’re having now is the quality of education that our students is getting is not what it should be,” said Jackson with the Osceola County Education Association. Common Core really stinks. Read more here.
Common Core Makes Kids Want to Puke, Literally!
Anxiety attacks. Bursting into tears. Vomiting. Headaches. Self-mutilation.
Sounds like someone suffering from any of a few mental disorders, but this list of symptoms is coming from a clinical social worker and psychologist in New York state. These symptoms are being displayed by children and the cause is Common Core. Common Core really stinks. Read more here.
Common Core Nonsense
Peter Berger teaches English at Weathersfield High School in Vermont. He says that the amount of instructional time wasted for faux professional development days is absurd. Equally absurd is the time and money wasted on consultants touring the latest fad, who never were teachers.
Likewise, the new online Common Core tests are a boon to the tech corporations, but not to the students, who actually write more on paper-and-pencil tests.
“I’ve stood behind my eighth-grade students as they’ve taken several publishers’ Common Core era tests. The directions were convoluted, the questions frequently did “focus on small details” and isolated, obscure bits of literary terminology, rather than on “overall comprehension,” and the questions often were ambiguous.
Growing National Outcry Against Standardized Testing
Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian believes the growing national outcry against standardized testing will improve education and empower students.
If you’re not in some way involved with public schools, you may not be aware of the explosion of standardized testing in schools over the past 10 years. Preparing for and taking these tests has significantly affected teaching and learning on all levels in classrooms across the country.
Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher at Seattle’s Garfield High School, has emerged as one of the leaders in what he calls a civil rights movement of this time: The growing unrest against high-stakes standardized testing in public schools. As editor of the new book “More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing” (Haymarket Books, $16), Hagopian brings together the voices of teachers, administrators, students and parents who resist the use of standardized tests, which they believe create an atmosphere of winners and losers. That’s because federal school funding gets tied to test scores; schools that don’t improve test scores are closed or sanctioned; teachers are assessed on the “value” they’ve added to their students, based on a complicated statistical formula; and students are denied graduation if they don’t pass certain tests. Common Core really stinks, Read more here.
What’s wrong with standardized tests?
Common Core Discriminatory Standardized Tests Really Stinks!
Julie Woestehoff, who is Executive Director of PURE and a founding member of Parents Across America, developed this fact sheet regarding standardized testing.
What’s wrong with standardized tests?
They are designed to rank and sort children. Many use a scoring system in which half of all children in the nation always score below average.There is a well-known achievement gap between the test scores of white and Asian students and African-American and Latino students. Rather than help all children achieve, this overemphasis on standardized tests simply labels more minority children and their schools as failures.
Standardized tests can be biased. A study by Jay Rosner in 2002 showed that sample questions which were answered correctly by more African-American students were not chosen for use in the tests; this was done so that test results – showing African-Americans scoring lower than whites – would be “consistent” from year to year (more on this research and…
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Opt Out Everywhere: Common Core Standardized Testing Epic Fail
Gainesville kindergarten teacher Susan Bowles doesn’t quite fit the mold of a rabble-rouser. “I’m such a rule-following, non-activist type,” she tells me. “I hate speaking to anyone above the age of seven.”
But with the onset of a Florida law mandating that every kindergartener grind out a lengthy computer-based standardized test in the first month of school, Bowles began speaking out widely. New test-based teacher evaluations meant kids with little or no experience using computers or even taking exams were expected to post valid scores. “[The kids] didn’t care if they got it right or wrong,” says Bowles. “It wasn’t going to yield productive results.”
Moreover, Bowles estimated, the tests would gobble up six weeks of valuable instructional time. She wanted to forgo the tests, but school administrators warned that such an act of civil disobedience could get her sacked for insubordination. A 26-year teaching veteran, Bowles lost sleep over what to do. A verse from the Book of Esther echoed in her head, reminding her of her responsibility to act: “And who knows but that you have come to your…position for such a time as this?” Common Core really stinks. Read more here.
Senator Turns Against Common Core
Republican Sen. David Vitter, currently running for governor of Louisiana, has made waves by turning against the Common Core standards he defended just months ago.
“After listening to literally thousands of parents, teachers, and others since then, I don’t believe that we can achieve that Louisiana control, buy-in and success I’m committed to if we stay in Common Core,” Vitter said in an email to supporters of his gubernatorial run. Common Core really stinks! Read more here.
Educrats Scrap Instruction for Common Core Test Prep
Here’s a new twist on test prep: Get rid of midterms and finals (tests presumably made by teachers). Say that you are doing it to find more “instructional time.” Then use that “instructional time” to “instruct” students in how to take a new Common Core standardized test.
That is what is happening at a number of schools in New Jersey, including Glen Ridge High School, where, according to the Glen Ridge Voicet, Principal Dirk Phillips sent home a letter to parents explaining the shift and told the Board of Education that the school feared that it would not have enough time to properly prepare students for the PARCC Common Core test. Common Core really stinks. Read more here.
Common Core Stinks 