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I realize that it is summer, but it has been a month since we first started this thread and students will be returning to school shortly. Has there been any political movement on your part to help locals with the burdensome rules set in motion by the common core with respect to college and career readiness, graduation requirements, ESSA, the demise of PARCC, and so on. As I have maintained, these may have been unintended consequences of the core but nonetheless are the responsibility of those who set these into motion. Many of my colleagues and I have been active both locally and nationally but we have yet to see any leader of the movement speak.
I do appreciate the response, but honestly, I haven’t seen evidence of advocacy for students from any of the authors of the standards. As evidence, you champion your completion of a middle school curriculum, which is not available today but will be available this summer, a full 7 years after the standards and a full 6 years after the adoption by my state. With all due respect, it is like the teacher who reviews before a test solely to tell parents that they reviewed without any thought about the students who will take the test.
This middle school math curriculum is at least 6 years too late and honestly, if it took the authors of the core standards 7 years to write a curriculum for grades 6-8, what chance did the locals have? I should point out that we received nothing in terms of curriculum from our state and created everything ourselves locally with little funding. I must admit that I am shocked it took the people who wrote the standards 6 years to figure out a scope, sequence, and curriculum. We were only given 6 weeks.
As I mentioned, I’m not sure about the level of advocacy on your end. But what I saw during the last presidential administration was that they shoved the standards at states by requiring them to adopt and take money (RTTT) without understanding that No Child Left behind was still in effect. That is, we had 2 sets of rules to follow, often contradicting sets of rules. Only last year did the previous presidential administration reauthorize NCLB as ESSA. This has left long lasting issues and major problems for locals, including the lack of primary resources for classroom teachers.
The larger question is what leaders such as yourself, can do now, especially as states try to comply with ESSA. I would encourage you to work with local states, such as Maryland. I would encourage you to look at specifics to see exactly what has happened. For example, look at the PowerPoint regarding ESSA presented to the Maryland state board of education (in the May 2017 agenda) and you will see how your message (“standards are not curriculum and standards are not assessment frameworks”) has not been received by states. Maryland’s entire plan is about “compliance” and is not about learning nor about students. As I have mentioned, this is an unintended consequence of the rollout and structure of the standards.
Perhaps I will see you at NCTM in the fall and we can talk more specifics.
I appreciate the response and reposted over here. Those efforts to change what is occurring around the country could come from you and other leaders, especially since graduation, college and career readiness, and many other factors affecting kids are in play. The common core standards put this issue in motion, and, although some of the consequences may have unintended, they are still the responsibility of those who set this course in motion, especially that ESSA, PARCC, and high-stakes testing are in play.
As far as PARCC goes, I would disagree that they put limits on the tested standards. In fact, didn’t PARCC “invent” standards to be tested? These are some of the integrated, C, and D standards. One standard even asks high school students to “use reasonable estimates of known quantities in a chain of reasoning that yields an estimate of an unknown quantity.” PARCC has interpreted this to mean that students can use right triangle trig on non-right angles, for example. PARCC has revised and re-revised the PLDs several times. Algebra 1 students are also tested on “securely held knowledge.” The common core standards put this chain of issues in motion.
And, from my experience, asking elementary students to take a high stakes test that takes 4 hours is a bit much. The high school test is 4.5 hours long. Way too much testing. The common core standards put this chain of issues in motion.
Finally, I do appreciate an honest and candid dialogue. Many of my colleagues and I have been frustrated as we find the balance between content and mastery, especially in Algebra 2. We have seen high failure rates on PARCC, as defined by 3 or lower, and then told that high failure rates mean that PARCC and the standards are so rigorous. So rigorous as to be unattainable. We have even been told that unless a student is in the 60th percentile in math (on MAP tests, for example), they cannot get a 4 or higher on PARCC. We are frustrated because it is not possible for all students to be greater than the median. The common core standards put this in motion.
We are champions for our students and want them to succeed. We have high standards for ourselves and our students. We hope that those who set this in motion can see what has transpired and help us in the efforts to truly help every child succeed in math.
