If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the past year, you’ve likely heard about the “Common Core”. There seems to be a good bit of misinformation out there about it, so, I thought I’d spend some time in this week’s blog post focused on some explanation and my take on the Common Core.
The Common Core State Standards are a set of curriculum standards in Math and English Language Arts. Many states adopted these standards into their state standards either as a part of an agreement to receiving Race to the Top funds or of their own choosing. There is also an effort underway to create common assessments to be used across a consortium of states (known as PARCC) that are tied to the Common Core Standards. Georgia is implementing the Common Core Standards and also was initially one of the states committed to taking part in the assessment consortium but has since decided to create its own set of Georgia assessments connected to the Common Core.
There’s been growing controversy associated with the Common Core and implementation of it, the reasons for which are well-documented in this article. There are also reports of teachers in states using the Common Core I’ve seen quoted as saying things along the lines of “These new standards are great—my students are so much more engaged!”
My take on the Common Core standards and reaction to some of these issues:
- The standards do a much better job than Georgia’s previous standards at aiming student performance towards higher-order, critical thinking skills in math, reading, and ELA—something we strive to do every day at ANCS. I’m not sure why you need new standards in order to teach these skills and to develop engaging curricula, but if that’s what gets certain teachers in certain schools to do so, so be it.
- There is certainly room for improvement in implementation, especially as it relates to accountability systems. Much of what has been raised as a concern has to do with the results of current standardized tests connected to the Common Core and their impact on teachers, students, and schools within accountability policies. If this could be improved, we could focus instead on what there is to be applauded about the Common Core and the PARCC assessments (and I sure hope Georgia develops strong assessments since we’re going our own way). In my mind, they and the Georgia writing assessment should be the only state-mandated standardized tests because they actually relate to key skills—let’s scrap the science and social studies CRCT since we’re not required by federal law to give them and many other high-achieving states don’t use tests in these areas because they distract from more meaningful learning in those subjects and the tests themselves tell you very little. Or, if you don’t want to scrap them, develop assessments that are focused on skills and performance rather than memorization of an assortment of facts. But I digress.
So, in short, I’m very much for the Common Core. But there are sensible adjustments that could and should be made to improve on them and their implementation. I could tell you what they are, but Joshua Starr, a superintendent in Maryland, makes the case for such recommendations much more eloquently than me. So read what he has to say!