tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post3707246435809931069..comments2024-03-28T02:21:17.452-07:00Comments on Seattle Schools Community Forum: Common Core Revealed: the Bad and the Ugly (Jury's out on the Good)Melissa Westbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-31506855319652028142016-01-06T04:57:33.751-08:002016-01-06T04:57:33.751-08:00As a teacher, I am totally in Favor of national st...As a teacher, I am totally in Favor of national standards. It makes so much sense to have a common system across states. My issue with Commom Core SS are the process for developing them and the actual content. The standards are too rigorous in the lower grades. The K standards for literacy should be the standards For First grade. I have less of an issue with the math standards, but I think that the ones for K should be a little easier. Setting unrealistically high standards sets up kids to Fail.Ms206https://www.blogger.com/profile/11815010211309994388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-83097101592753123892016-01-06T04:56:55.686-08:002016-01-06T04:56:55.686-08:00As a teacher, I am totally in Favor of national st...As a teacher, I am totally in Favor of national standards. It makes so much sense to have a common system across states. My issue with Commom Core SS are the process for developing them and the actual content. The standards are too rigorous in the lower grades. The K standards for literacy should be the standards For First grade. I have less of an issue with the math standards, but I think that the ones for K should be a little easier. Setting unrealistically high standards sets up kids to Fail.Ms206https://www.blogger.com/profile/11815010211309994388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-36527548993904085972015-12-30T09:27:19.254-08:002015-12-30T09:27:19.254-08:00The Fortune article certainly was written from a p...The Fortune article certainly was written from a perspective supportive of Common Core and unquestioning of the presumptions that support it. The writer characterizes US education results as "dismal" without offering any meaningful data to back up that contention. The article is dismissive of those who oppose the Common Core State Standards and focuses, almost exclusively, on the goofiest statements made against it. It characterizes those who support Common Core as rational, informed, and altruistic and those who oppose it as emotional, misinformed, and self-interested.<br /><br />It's a pretty good hackjob. A little heavy-handed at times, but pretty good.Charlie Mashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17173903762962067277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-5753166761073028232015-12-30T08:50:21.299-08:002015-12-30T08:50:21.299-08:00Thanks Chris and I agree that it's a very fine...Thanks Chris and I agree that it's a very fine line. But you'd think elected officials and CEOs might be a little more aware and graceful in their language (Trump not withstanding.)<br /><br />Here's a link to another good look at common phrases and where they came from:<br />https://youtu.be/QhENGl3XviM<br /><br />I think it IS a difficult thing to erase all phrasing that had bad origins. Language evolves and moves on. But it also doesn't mean you can say anything you want and then plead ignorance.Melissa Westbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-53468957788956343242015-12-30T08:15:38.552-08:002015-12-30T08:15:38.552-08:00Just because I had to look it up and it's supe...Just because I had to look it up and it's super-interesting:<br />https://newrepublic.com/article/93088/tar-baby-racist-slur<br /><br />It's a great idiom - we need to make up another that doesn't sound so racist.<br /><br />Chris S.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-1404330357759299582015-12-30T06:46:40.920-08:002015-12-30T06:46:40.920-08:00All of Corporate Education Reform has exactly two ...All of Corporate Education Reform has exactly two goals:<br />1) To reduce the cost of public education and thereby reduce the taxes needed to pay for it.<br />2) To re-direct as much of the public education budget as possible into corporate hands.<br /><br />Towards that end, they work to de-professionalize teaching (TFA, union busting, "teacher quality" programs, Value-added), force education into a business model (talk about product and productivity), and, whenever possible prove public education a failure (NCLB, assessments, Standards). If the Corporate Education Reformers can prove that public education is a failure they can erode public support for it and they can pitch their privatized solutions. Standards Based Education, in theory, doesn't cause failure, but it is failure-focused in practice. Just as No Child Left Behind set an impossible requirement of 100% of students working at grade level in 2014, the Common Core, under the banner of "establishing high standards to make students college and career ready", also sets impossibly high standards, and then fosters an ineffective curriculum.<br /><br />The whole object is to prove public education a failure. Common Core isn't intended to improve education but to erode public support for it.Charlie Mashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17173903762962067277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-51516948710632686762015-12-29T19:31:47.706-08:002015-12-29T19:31:47.706-08:00From the article =>
"Yet it’s increasingl...From the article =><br /><br />"<i>Yet it’s increasingly impractical to undo. Countless schools have established curriculums designed around the standards, retrained teachers, and bought new books and materials. Reversing course would require redoing all of that again.</i>"<br /><br />Hummm... NAEP scores went in the tank in 2015 .... perhaps redoing "all of that" will be justified.<br /><br />To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data.... but as Outsider points out above ... the priority is NOT improvement.<br /><br />-- Dan Dempsey Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-65084596326914702502015-12-29T10:38:03.745-08:002015-12-29T10:38:03.745-08:00You have to keep in mind the background to common ...You have to keep in mind the background to common core, and the reason why the 1% get involved. Their real priority is to offshore jobs and increase the number of H1 visas. Common core, and education reforms more generally, are charades designed to rationalize off-shoring and importing foreigners. The goal is not really to change education, but just to create a yardstick that can be used to say "see, American kids had their chance and they blew it. They failed, they are defective, they didn't measure up. So we hired Chinese engineers. What else could we do?"<br /><br />Standards are a red herring. They neither help nor hurt, just distract attention from the policies that actually hold American kids back and demoralize the schools.Outsidernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-80875677347575462852015-12-29T09:56:42.343-08:002015-12-29T09:56:42.343-08:00Really the product is not the workforce, rather it...Really the product is not the workforce, rather it is the consumer.<br />WestAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-61584631208297824332015-12-29T09:54:17.184-08:002015-12-29T09:54:17.184-08:00Desinfectant, there's training and there's...Desinfectant, there's training and there's education. Personally, as you suggest, I would rather have educated citizens and not just trained workers.Melissa Westbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-57303070639764884082015-12-29T09:08:40.394-08:002015-12-29T09:08:40.394-08:00I always naively thought the "product" o...I always naively thought the "product" of public education is an educated citizenry. One that has the democratic power to change laws and reign in these dangerous bozos, and send them back to the luxury rocks under which they live. <br /><br />DisinfectantAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com