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Common Core and Quality in Education

Common Core and Quality in Education. Prepared for Westchester PMI Quality SIG Richard Ferricane, PMP March 11, 2014. About Common Core

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Common Core and Quality in Education

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  1. Common Core and Quality in Education Prepared for Westchester PMI Quality SIG Richard Ferricane, PMP March 11, 2014

  2. About Common Core • Common Core – short for Common Core State Standards – is a set of 1,769 curriculum standards for Kindergarten – High School. It covers math and ELA (English Learning Arts), Science, and Social Studies. • The Common Core was created in 2010 by the National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve (private consulting firm). The Gates Foundation contributed $200 million to this effort. • Common Core was created out of the widely held belief that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal program, started in 2001, had lowered the bar on what students should learn. • Adoption of Common Core standards is essentially a prerequisite for receiving federal grant money (e.g., Race to the Top’s $5 billion). • The Common Core has been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia (see next slide).

  3. States that have adopted Common Core (green)

  4. About Common Core (continued) • The goal of Common Core is to make sure that every high school graduate is “career and college ready.” • 53 percent of students in college take at least one remedial English or math class (source: achieve.org; American Diploma Project). • Common Core is an attempt to improve the quality of education throughout the nation amid concerns that the U.S. is lagging other industrialized nations in improving the quality of education.

  5. About Common Core (continued) Math “instructional shifts” with Common Core: • Fewer topics; more generalizing and linking of concepts • Well-aligned with the way high-achieving countries teach math • Emphasis on both conceptual understanding and procedural fluency starting in the early grades • More time to teach and reinforce core concepts from K-12 • Some concepts will now be taught later • Focus on mastery of complex concepts in higher math (e.g., algebra and geometry) via hands-on learning • Emphasis on mathematical modeling in the upper grades (Source: NYC public website)

  6. About Common Core (continued) ELA “instructional shifts” with Common Core: • Standards increase in complexity from K-12, helping to articulate what students need to know and be able to do along this trajectory and assist with differentiation • Literacy-building as a shared responsibility for all content area teachers • Emphasis on teaching reading of informational text (i.e. nonfiction) • Emphasis on steadily increasing students' ability to understand more and more complex text over time • Integration of research skills across standards and grades • Emphasis on writing to argue, inform, and explain in the upper grades to prepare students for college-level writing (Source: NYC public website)

  7. Examples of Common Core Standards • 1st grade mathCompose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape." • 8th grade mathSolve systems of two linear equations in two variables algebraically, and estimate solutions by graphing the equations. Solve simple cases by inspection. For example, 3x + 2y = 5 and 3x + 2y = 6 have no solution because 3x + 2y cannot simultaneously be 5 and 6. "

  8. Examples of Common Core Standards • 1st grade ELA"Print all upper- and lowercase letters." • 8th grade ELA"Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences."

  9. Controversy Around Common Core Most of the controversy is not about the Common Core standards themselves – although there is some of that too – but on related actions, such as: • Using student test scores to evaluate teachers. • Tests are being revised to conform with the Common Core. • NY State standardized grade 3 – 8 ELA and math tests last spring were based on Common Core … only 30% of students passed. • NY Regents exams will include two Common Core versions (Algebra and English) for June 2014. • SAT just announced that their exams will be based on Common Core starting in Spring 2015. • The costs of increased testing, especially online testing, will be high. • Objections about rushing Common Core implementation before schools are ready. • Educators have not been adequately prepared to teach the skills called for in Common Core. Many are calling for a several year delay in implementation. • Curriculum materials based on Common Core were not (and often are still not) available to educators. • Some materials, though promoted as “Common Core aligned” really aren’t.

  10. Criticism of the Common Core Standards • Standards writing group included few educators, but many from the testing industry. • 12 of the 27 writers of Common Core standards were from College Board and ACT exam organizations. • It is “corporate influenced” school reform with many corporations benefitting financially (e.g., publishers, software and hardware providers, testing firms, charter school chains). • There has been insufficient research on whether or not the new standards improve college or career readiness. • Exacerbates the “teach to the test” mind set. • High stakes testing leads to cheating and gaming the system. (See Atlanta, El Paso, Washington D.C. scandals.) • Many school districts cannot afford the hardware and bandwidth needed for the online standardized testing that is expected. • e.g., Los Angeles will spend $1 billion on iPads for testing.

  11. Criticism of the Common Core Standards (continued) • It pushes difficult academic skills down to the lower grades … … which adds to stress of young students. • At the lower grades, there is insufficient time for play, exploring nature, and developing social skills… … some kindergartens have only 20 minutes play time per day. • It reduces class time available for the arts, physical education, and creative projects. • It limits educators who need to tailor instruction to their individual students; it deprives them of professional autonomy. • Non-native English speakers are at a disadvantage due to increased emphasis of word problems in math. • There is no mechanism to change Common Core standards if it is determined that a change is needed.

  12. Criticism of the Common Core Standards (continued) There is something about the Common Core standards and testing, about their demand for uniformity and standardization, that reeks of early twentieth century factory-line thinking. There is something about them that feels obsolete. Today, most sectors of our economy have standards that are open-sourced and flexible, that rely upon the wisdom of practitioners, that are constantly updated and improved. Diane Ravitch, Education Historian, quoted in Washington Post January 18,2014 article “Everything you need to know about Common Core – Ravitch.”

  13. Common Core and its Impact on Quality in Education • Implementation of Common Core still a work in progress, so its impact on education quality remains to be seen. • There are some early, anecdotal indications that reflect positively on the Common Core: • Many educators welcome the increased rigor of Common Core and have been effective in introducing it in the classroom. • States that have relied on executive and legislative branches to build parental and public support for Common Core – rather than state education departments – have had success. Examples: Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arizona. • More attention is now given to professional development of educators. • More attention is being given to the quality of college education degree programs.

  14. Questions? Thank you for your attention and participation! Richard Ferricane, PMP

  15. Sources: • New York City Schools public website: www.schools.nyc.gov • Engageny.org • Washington Post article “Everything you need to know about Common Core – Ravitch,” January 18, 2014. • Education Week, January 9, 2012. • Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), www.oecd.org/pisa/ • Cuomo’s Common Core panel aims to boost public opinion, February 19, 2014, CapitalNY.com. • American Diploma Project; Achieve.org

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