Ahhhh.... Common Core Standards!!!!!

 

AHHHH... COMMON CORE! NOOOO...

    PARENTS: This post is mostly for you....please, read carefully.

    If you are a teacher, there's a very high chance you've heard this from a parent before. If you are a parent of a school-aged child, you've likely thought or even said this to a teacher before.

    To start a discussion about the Common Core Standards (CCS), I need to start with how and why it started because when the push comes to shove, they really aren't that scary. 

    IT'S THE TESTING that's scary.

    Many of you remember George H. W. Bush. During his presidency, No Child Left Behind was signed. This federal act introduced the idea that every school must implement standardized tests annually in grades 3-8 to analyze the downfalls and adjust accordingly. Students had to achieve "proficient" scores or the school would suffer consequences. (Sounds dumb right?...well...it is). The Bush Administration pushed for teachers to "teach to the test".

    No Child Left Behind was not great for teachers and schools, but the reasoning behind them was acceptable... a little. The Bush administration looked at the US's rank in education achievement compared to other countries in the world. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 2000, the US 15-year-olds were ranked 18th out of 27 countries that were analyzed in Mathematics. In the combined Reading scores, the US ranked 15th. You can see why the administration wanted to make some changes.

    Imagine this ideal getting worse, when Obama's Administration raised millions of dollars for Race to the Top, providing schools that achieved proficient levels on standardized tests with hefty compensation. Just friendly competition, folks.

   "OK, so, what about the schools that didn't get proficient?"

    Plan and simple: they didn't get any money. This caused a massive ripple effect. 

    Performed under proficient ⇢ No money and put on probation ⇢ No new resources ⇢ Good teachers left ⇢ District lost more money ⇢ School closed

    Because of this, in 2010, the Common Core Standards were conceived, changing the way teachers teach and assess their students to help bridge the gap between the US and other better-performing countries. 

    I was lucky, because, at this time, I was a brand new teacher. I didn't really know teaching before the standards. I might be biased, but the Common Core standards are not bad. At all. In fact, CCS are logical, skill-based, and understanding-based, as opposed to strict memorization.

    The backlash comes from the increasing gaps between parents' and their children's comprehension and wealthy versus poor school districts. 

Let's start with Wealthy vs. Poor School Districts:

    Every wealthy school district that continually achieved proficient on the state tests continued to get more money. They would get better textbooks, technology, teachers, teacher training, etc. year after year.

    On the flip side, poorer school districts would continue to perform below proficient and continue to not get any money. In fact, they (the teachers) would get penalized for their student's scores. The school and the teachers would be put under a microscope and pressured to perform better over a few years. Can you imagine dealing with a classroom of twenty children/teenagers, all of their shortcomings, different learning styles, mental statuses, home lives, etc., and then having to give all of your efforts into a standardized test??? It was a lofty and really unattainable goal. A LOT of teachers burned out.

    The gap between wealthy and poor school districts grew more and more.

    Now...for the parents. Many teachers that I've had the pleasure of working with didn't have any problems with the Common Core Standards or teaching to them. They were designed with the child's development in mind, written and researched by educational heroes, and scaffolded from one grade to the next. In short, from a teacher's point of view--THEY MADE SENSE.

    What didn't make sense was that parents couldn't let go of their way of learning to accept this new way of learning.  

    The constant: "That's not how I learned it," or "I just memorized multiplication facts and I turned out alright," or "Why can't you just teach it the old way?"

    Look--did you go to school for 4+ years to be a teacher? Can you honestly say that the way you learned to read and do math was great? No.

    More specifically, the Common Core Standards break down reading, writing, and math concepts to the smallest building block. By understanding that tiny block, any concepts that used that block are easier to understand. (I feel like there's a cliché here...)

    Let me break it down even more with an example: multiplication. Learning multiplication is a skill taught in 3rd grade, but really the concept begins in 2nd grade with arrays. (Now, parents, you learned this but when 3rd grade came the focus shifted to memorization not understanding why multiplication is what it is. And if you were bad at memorizing--good luck.)

    OK- arrays. An array is a set of the same objects organized in a group (as seen below).

    In 2nd grade, they teach that this array of 12 can be broken down into smaller sets of 3 or 4. 3 sets of 4 or 4 sets of 3. 

    Because of the commutative property (which is actually taught in 1st grade), students know that in addition, the numbers you are putting together can be arranged either way. Again, the Common Core Standards are building off of skills already taught and practiced.

    Second graders practice this skill using different arrangements and numbers. Then when they get to 3rd grade the teacher shows them this...

       They realize, "OH! We learned this in 2nd grade. I understand how using addition arrays relates to multiplication." 

    It DEEPENS their understanding of multiplication as an array of numbers versus memorized facts.

    YES...this is VERY different from when we learned math. Honestly, if I had been taught this way, I wouldn't have struggled so much in math.

    These same examples are found throughout all of the Common Core Standards. My children, as another example, are reading way better than I did because of the comprehensive phonics and reading lessons they are being taught.

    So, parents, you are limited in your way of being taught because of your own personal experiences. Everyone is. But, I challenge you to dive deeper into the Common Core practices and really see how much your child is understanding and benefiting because of it. If you don't understand it, that's completely normal. Reach out to your teacher or school district and ask how they can help you. 

    Schools and teachers, I challenge your administration to provide workshops for parents to help their understanding of the "new math" or the "new phonics". 

    At the end of the day, we only want your student to succeed, even if through a different way of learning than you.

Sources: 

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002115.pdf

https://missgiraffesclass.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-to-teach-arrays.html