VIDEO: PARENT VOICES ON COMMON CORE

http://vimeo.com/108856538

Teachers Union Sues To Overturn Common Core Gag Order

http://www.business2community.com/social-buzz/teachers-union-sues-overturn-common-core-gag-order-01040352

Teachers Union Sues To Overturn Common Core Gag Order

Common Core has been a source of contention since its implementation began, for a variety of reasons. Many of these have been politically charged, and many quickly dismissed as provably untrue. Like any educational system, or any system, though, Common Core has its flaws and faults — and now a group of teachers in New York is suing, after being forbidden to discuss these flaws as they see them.

According to Education News, the gag order centers around teachers who administrate or grade tests. While the order is ostensibly intended to protect test materials to allow them to be recycled for future years, the teachers argue that they are prevented from discussing concerns or voicing criticisms.

In the New York State United Teachers’ public statement, the union (the major teacher’s union in N.Y.) calls attention to the stance of the Supreme Court on teachers’ ability to speak about educational issues.

The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly noted, as recently as June, that teachers are the members of the community most likely to have informed opinions about educational issues. Thus, their uninhibited speech holds special value in public debate.

The union says that in 2014, for the first time ever, teachers were prevented from reading exams, and those who were directly involved in scoring were made to sign confidentiality agreements, preventing them from discussing the material with other teachers.

Related Resources from B2C
» Free Webcast: Digital Skills & Talent Gap Study Summary of Top Findings and How to Apply for 2015 Learning Programs

They’d like the court to declare the ban on discussing the contents of the test unconstitutional, and to issue an injunction that would prevent teachers from being punished for discussion of the questions.

This lawsuit coincides closely with the Washington Post‘s publication of a blogger’s story about her own run-in with Common Core. In this parent’s story, her child brought home a test with a correct answer marked wrong.

When the teacher was contacted, it was discovered that there was an error in the answer key, and the grade was quickly and easily corrected.

However, she points out, these are the days of high-stakes testing, on which students and teachers are heavily judged — and a mistake that can occur on a minor test can be replicated on a major exam:

Tests we parents will never get to see.

Tests we parents will never get to review.

Tests we parents will never get to question.

These are also tests that, as these New York teachers point out, they will be grading, yet unable to discuss, even if they find blatant errors in them.

It will be left to the court to determine whether Common Core tests can really be protected by a gag order, or whether this is a violation of these teachers’ freedom of speech — and their duty to teach.

[photo credit: Old Shoe Woman]

10,000 Comments: More NC Public Overall ELA Feedback, Grade 6 and Up

http://ladyliberty1885.com/2014/10/15/10000-comments-more-nc-public-overall-ela-feedback-grade-6-and-up/

10,000 Comments: More NC Public Overall ELA Feedback, Grade 6 and Up

In the last few weeks, I’ve been publishing the public feedback for North Carolina from 2010 that CCSSO and NGA refused to release. These “10,000 comments” have been used by proponents in an arguably dishonest manner to point to a vetting process for the standards.

Here are the articles I’ve put up with comments published in them to date:

• The Infamous “10,000” Comments On Common Core
• 10,000 Comments: NC Overall Feedback
• 10,000 Comments: NC Overall Feedback on K-5 ELA Standards

Here is another point of reference on these “10,000 comments”:

Take a look at the summary of “public feedback” posted on the Core Standards website. It is grossly misleading. First of all, calling the feedback “public” is wrong: the organizers of the standards would not make public the nearly 10,000 comments they say they received from citizens. The summary quotes 24 respondents–less than 1/4 of 1 percent of the total–selectively chosen to back up their interpretation of the results.
-Source: Washington Post, 1/29-13

Today I have put together grade 6+ writing and language comments, as well as a section where people could leave more overall feedback on the ELA portion that might not have been covered in previous questions.

The first two, writing and language, only had 3 or 4 comments each. The third section that allowed for more overall commentary on the ELA had a flurry of comments.

1. NC Feedback – 6+ writing
2. NC Feedback – 6+ language
3. NC Feedback – More Overall ELA comments

In the 3rd set of comments above, there are a few excerpts I would like to share:

K-12 Teacher
“This is a repeat of an earlier statement.   These standards have totally forgotten the nature of young children.  Research has repeatedly and recently shown that children in the early grades need lots of time for instructional and developmentally appropriate play and these standards do not allow for that.  I am a kindergarten teacher and I take each child where he/she is and move them as far along as I possibly can.  Many of our young children enter kindergarten, however, with very limited play and language experiences.  These children do not need rigorous standards.  They need teachers and administrators who understand the nature of the young child.  Please consider reading research on the importance of activity and play for young children and completely revamp these standards.  Thank you.”

K-12 Teacher
“Not every student plans to go to college. We are not meeting the needs of these students. Not every student comes from a home that provides a background for the kind of learning described here. What do we do with those students who are doomed to failure in such a rigid curriculum. Fourth grade students are 9 or 10 years old. They are very much children. We already expect much more than they should be expected to do. Instead of teaching things well, we end up stabbing at a curriculum that is above the learning curve of a young child. We would do better to provide a good sound elementary education to elementary students so that they are ready to build on that knowledge in upper grades. As it its, so many children are “beaten up” by education. They are expected to produce work beyond their ability at such a young age. Why don’t we do a good job on basic things and work towards building a base for learning in the upper grades?”

K-12 Teacher
“The entire focus on specific academic skills like writing and learning to read are not appropriate for the youngest grades.  We need to look at what children are ready for developmentally and then meet those needs through play-based learning.  There are successful models for this type of instruction, such as antiochschool.org and centralparkschoolforchildren.org.”

K-12 Teacher
“I believe any attempts by Congress to create nationalized standards, curriculum or testing would be unconstitutional.  ‘Homeschool families have demonstrated that parents, not bureaucrats in Washington, best know their children and what they need to learn.’  Homeschooling families pay for their own children to be educated and also pay taxes to help other children.  Schools now are too small for the number of children they have, specials like music and art are being cut, some classes children share textbooks because there aren’t enough to go around….just think if the 41,000+ homeschooled children were required to go to public school.  What would the schools do then?   Congressman Buck McKeon (CA), the ranking member on the House Education and Labor Committee said, “Some people in Washington seem to think that the federal government created the states to administer its far-reaching programs and policies.  But that’s not the case.  History tells us that the states created the federal government.” I’m telling you, I oppose any calls for nationalized standards, testing, or curricula.”

Standardized Testing and the Flight to Homeschooling

http://m.psychologytoday.com/blog/love-in-time-homeschooling/201005/standardized-testing-and-the-flight-homeschooling

Standardized Testing and the Flight to Homeschooling

We need to have a nationwide debate about standardized testing. Not the pseudo-debate that currently surrounds President Obama's minimal reforms to NCLB. Not a discussion about better data management , Arne Duncan-style. America's Moms and Dads need to rethink the whole standards and accountability movement, because our public schools are facing a test-prep overdose that cries out for a parent-driven intervention.

For years bloggers like Susan Ohanion, and organizations like FairTest, have been speaking up about the problems with our nation's test-prep culture, but few parents have really been listening. We've been too busy encouraging our kids to finish their homework and study for the next test. Here in Virginia, parents and teachers constantly complain about the poor quality of our state's Standard of Learning tests (SOLs), which include exams in social studies, English and math from grade three forward, science exams in the fifth grade and high school, and now a new high school test in personal finance and economics. In theory, the content behind the tests seems reasonable. In practice, kids spend enormous time memorizing facts for multiple choice tests, and less time writing, reading, forming ideas and enjoying hands-on learning. As one teacher wrote to me in a recent email: "Every teacher I know thinks that the SOLs are the worst thing that has happened to education in a zillion years!!!"

So it's time for more of America's parents, who have the greatest personal stake in this issue, to step up and ask loudly and publicly-what's good about our nation's current approach toward standardized testing, and what isn't working at all? Most parents and teachers agree that some standardized testing is an inevitable and potentially useful part of public education. But are today's high school graduates who have grown up in a test-prep culture better prepared for their futures than those who graduated thirty years ago? Do higher test scores mean more learning? Is the standards and accountability movement beneficial for some schools, and harmful to others?

Dianne Ravitch has tried to put the brakes on the testing movement's runaway train with her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, and in upcoming posts I will discuss her work. But in the meantime I want to talk about how standardized testing is driving more parents towards homeschooling.

Last week I received an email from a mom in Cincinnati who is considering homeschooling her son for one or two years. Her reasons are varied, but at the top of her list is the desire to escape a curriculum geared toward multiple choice tests, that she fears is killing her son's enthusiasm for learning. I sympathized with her message, because one of the chief reasons I homeschooled my daughter, Julia, for the fifth grade was to escape Virginia's testing regimen. In our school district, fifth graders spend much of their year preparing for tests in history, science, reading, writing and math. The result is nine months of boredom and homework overload. In my new book, Love in a Time of Homeschooling, I write about how Julia and I tried to craft an ideal year of learning for her fifth grade year, which included a lot of writing-across-the-curriculum, music, art and field trips, as well as plenty of math and hands-on science. Though we had our share of bad moments, as well as good, we both agree that homeschooling was a great alternative to a test-heavy year of public education.

I'll share some excerpts from my book as I write about standardized testing over the next few weeks, but for now I want to invite readers to share their opinions. How does your state handle standardized testing? Do you think the testing is improving the quality of your kids' educations? Should we have national standards, instead of a state-by-state patchwork? Or should we cut back drastically on the testing? Should teacher pay and school accreditation be tied to test scores? And if you don't like the testing, what are you doing about it?

These questions aren't for public school parents alone. All Americans have a stake in what's being taught in our nation's public schools-though I should stress that the purpose of the present discussion is not to attack public education, but to ask what sort of approach should be taken on the matter of standardized testing.

I, for one, plan to start my own crusade of the pen, writing to newspapers and legislators and Virginia Board of Education members. This is in addition to the volunteer work I can do at my school, and the teaching I can do of my own children. If anyone has recommendations for books, blogs, organizations, etc. that I should check out, I'm all ears. Each of us has to start somewhere, and I'll keep you posted on how it goes for me.

KATIE COURIC EXPLAINS COMMON CORE

http://news.yahoo.com/katie-couric-explains-common-core-in-schools-220038408.html?fbmark=katiec2014

Common Core

Depending on what side of the debate you’re on, the Common Core State Standards Initiative either gets a gold star or a big, fat F. 

You’ve probably heard of it. It’s a set of national standards for K-12 education created by a panel of experts, including governors and teachers, in 2009. There was no debate about the necessity for some kind of reform. American children had fallen far behind their counterparts in many other industrialized nations, at the time ranking 11th in reading, 25th in math and 20th in science. 

The Common Core seeks to raise the bar so that all kids are getting a higher-quality education and to establish some consistency across the board, so that, for example, all kindergartners can count to 100 and all fifth graders can divide by double digits. 

While it certainly got an A for effort, the implementation has been problematic. Some states and school districts complained that their teachers were not trained properly to use these complex teaching methods. Others feared that high-performing states would actually have to lower their standards to comply with the Common Core. 

This program is not mandated by the federal government, but it was highly praised and endorsed by the Obama administration. 

That has led some critics, like the Republican governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, to claim the White House is unfairly pressuring states, tying funding to implementation of the Common Core. 

To learn more about the issue, watch this video. Then you’ll be able to say, “Now I get it."

James Milgram Discusses Common Core Math Standards

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/james-milgram-discusses-common-core-math-standards-on-fox-business/

James Milgram Discusses Common Core Math Standards on Fox Business

Stanford University Mathematician and former Common Core validation committee member Dr. James Milgram discusses his concerns with the Common Core Math Standards on the Fox Business Network yesterday.

You can watch below:

 

TEACHER ALERTS STUDENTS OF PRIVACY RIGHTS, FACES DISCIPLINE

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/10/school-teacher.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FbYHz+%28Illinois+Review%29

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2014

BATAVIA - A high school teacher in Batavia who faced discipline for alerting students of their privacy rights before filling out a survey asking personal questions was approved for retirement this week. 

John Dryden, who taught 21 years, told three of his classes on April 18, 2013 that they had a Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves when they took a social-emotional learning survey. The 34-question survey asked about drug, alcohol and tobacco use, and emotions, the Daily Herald reports.

Dryden told local news outlets that he would have discussed  the survey with the administration, but he found out about the contents 10 minutes before class.

The school said they planned to use the surveys to provide counseling assistance. 

Then-Superintendent Jack Barshinger said the Fifth Amendment didn't apply because the surveys would have become student records and subject to student privacy laws, and police wouldn't have been able to prosecute based on a survey alone, the report says.