It’s All About Education: Why Common Core Won’t Help Our Children

Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Lauri Lee, GoLocalProv Education Expert

 

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There has been a lot of talk about the Common Core Standards (CCS); I’ve already written about them here, in fact. Despite the fact that 46 states (and the District of Columbia, as well as four territories, have committed to adopting the standards, it seems that more critics speak out each day. There are two main issues that keep cropping up. One is that Common Core is synonymous with standardized testing; the way schools intend to measure their effectiveness in achieving the Common Core standards is through administering standardized tests to students. The other question that has arisen is one of suitability: are the Common Core standards developmentally appropriate for the majority of the students in our public schools?

First let’s address the testing issue. For years, our main measure of student achievement has been standardized tests. In 1965, schools that received federal Title I funds were first required to administer standardized tests to their students. The use of standardized tests increased with demands for accountability; by the late 1980s, 33 states required some form of competency testing. The main point of those tests was to ensure that students had acquired minimum basic skills; those students who had not were often placed in remedial classes as a result of their test performance. When I taught in Maryland in the early 1990s, the Maryland State Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) was in its infancy: just as in many other states, students in selected grades spent about a week each spring taking an assessment designed to “test their mastery of the basics and how well they applied knowledge in authentic problem-solving situations. MSPAP's primary purpose was to provide information that could be used to improve instruction in schools.” This test continued for a decade, and then morphed into the Maryland State Assessment (MSA) program, which was correlated with the No Child Left Behind Act. Here in New England, there was a similar trajectory: the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) was adopted in 2005 by Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire, and Maine joined in 2009. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has been giving its students the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests since 1993.

What effect have all of these tests had on our students? As a classroom teacher and a reading and math specialist at that time, I can tell you how those tests changed the tenor of the classroom. Much of our focus, particularly in the spring, became about “test readiness;” teaching third graders to deal with the incredible stress they felt, making sure that they knew how to respond to unfamiliar test language and exactly what types of things to write for an essay topic asking, ‘Explain how the speaker feels at the end of poem 2. Use details from poem 2.’ Unlike earlier standardized tests, these tests were not meant to evaluate individual students but rather the performance of the school as a whole; thus, we also had motivational issues, students (and parents) who wondered, “Who cares if I blow off this test anyway? No one will know if I don’t do my best.” Did the results of the tests inform our teaching in subsequent years? To an extent, perhaps, but mostly the tests just introduced a lot of stress and wasted precious class time.  

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Over the years, the No Child Left Behind Act and the high-stakes testing associated with it continued to evolve, and the Common Core is the latest iteration. In fact, the tests designed to measure achievement of the Common Core standards were developed in conjunction with the Common Core standards: it is impossible to separate one from the other. Many states are planning to use either the Smarter Balanced Test or the PARCC test. Interestingly, both of these tests are administered online. This could become an issue since, just last month, a University of Connecticut study was released showing a marked disparity between the online reading skills of low-income students as compared to their wealthier peers.

Finally, Common Core standards were developed from the 12th grade down. The underlying question, “What do graduating high school seniors need to know?” was the starting point, and then standards for the lower grades were developed from there. The majority of the writers of the CCS were primarily researchers and assessment writers; very few of them had classroom experience. This step-down approach has dismayed many advocates for young children, such as the Alliance for Childhood. The Joint Statement of Early Childhood Health and Education Professionals on the Common Core Standards Initiative, released in 2010 and signed by numerous pediatricians, child development specialists, and educators, delineates many of the concerns surrounding the adoption of Common Core standards for children in Kindergarten through grade 3. In fact, many other countries known for their high-performing students (China, Finland, and Sweden for example) don’t even start formal instruction until age 7.

Any good teacher knows that you start by meeting your students where they are – you build upon the knowledge each student already possesses and actively engage them. The standards do not take into account the individual differences inherent in human development. These concerns about the Common Core are not going to go away anytime soon; in fact, we will most likely be debating them for years to come. I believe that our children are too precious a resource to use as guinea pigs for the next several years. Again, the research exists; we just have to apply that knowledge so that our schools become student-centered hubs of creativity and innovation, rather than factories than churn out good test-takers.

Lauri Lee is an independent consultant with over twenty years of experience in both public and private education, with learners from infants through adults. With experience in marketing, communications, social media, development, admissions, and technology, she is able to synthesize many of the issues facing our educational system today. She lives in Providence with her family, a big dog, and a small cat. She encourages you to connect with her on Twitter @fridovichlee or to contact her directly at [email protected]. 

 

Related Slideshow: RI Experts on the Biggest Issues Facing Public Education

On Friday November 22, the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant University, the Latino Policy Institute of Roger Williams University, the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, the Providence Student Union, and RI-CAN: Rhode Island Campaign for Achievement Now will host Rhode Island leaders in the public and nonprofit sectors for a symposium on "the civil rights issue of the 21st century, adequacy and equity and the State of Education in Rhode Island."

Weighing in on the the "three biggest factors" facing education in the state today are symposium participatnts Gary Sasse, Founding Director of the Hassenfeld Institute for Leadership; Christine Lopes Metcalfe, Executive Director of RI-CAN; Anna Cano-Morales, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees, Central Falls Public Schools and Director, Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University; Tim Duffy, Executive Director, RI Association of School Committees; and Deborah Cylke, Superintendent of Pawtucket Public Schools.  

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Sasse

"Provide a state constitutional guarantee that all children will have access to  an education that will prepare them to meet high performance standards and be successful adults.

Bridge the gap between the educational achievement of majority and minority students.  This will require the implementation of a comprehensive agenda for quality education in Rhode Island’s inner cities."

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Sasse

"Revisit school governance and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the state, school districts , neighborhood schools, and school teachers and school administrators.  Develop and implement a system to hold schools responsible for student outcomes."

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Sasse

"Build a consensus and buy in of all stakeholders around  the education reform initiatives being advanced by the Board of Education."

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Metcalfe

"Set high expectations and raise our standards across the state for anyone that contributes to the success of our students. From adopting the Common Core to discussing rigorous teacher evaluations, conversations around creating a culture of high expectations have to be at the center of the work."

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Metcalfe

"Expand opportunities and start earlier - we must ensure that all kids have access to a high performing public school of their choice, which includes full-day kindergarten."

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Metcalfe

"School facilities - with an aging infrastructure, underutilized buildings and the need to provide fair funding for school facilities for all public school students regardless of the public school they attend, this needs to be a top issue tackled by the RI General Assembly in 2014."

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Cano-Morales

"Meet the academic potential of all students but especially with regards to urban schools students -- 3 out of 4 are Latinos in Providence, Central Falls, and Pawtucket." 

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Cano-Morales

"Connect through specific best practices the academic successes of our students to careers jobs. Investing in schools is economic development as a whole for Rhode Island. " 

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Cano-Morales

"Increase the access to -- and completion of -- higher education and post- secondary opportunities.  Poverty? Struggling families? Education and access to careers and competitive wages is the best antidote."

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Duffy

"Providing adequate funding is critical -- and there are going to be pressures on the state budget, which mean stresses to meet the education funding formula.  With the predictions of the state's projected loss of revenue with the casinos in MA, education funding could be on the cutting board, and we need to ensure that it's not.  Do we need to look at strengthening the language of the constitution to guarantee funding?"

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Duffy

"Implementing the common core standards will provide continuity -- and comparison -- between states now.  With over 40 states involved, we're embarking a new set of standards here."

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Duffy

"Accountability and assessing student performance -- how that it's driven by the common core, we'll be able to compare the best districts in RI against the best districts in say MA.  That's the intent of the Common Core is a standardization of how we hold the system accountable."

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Cylke

"Issue one is quality.  Your quality of education should not be dependent on your zip code.  And the reality is, certain cities are distressed, or whose property values are not as high, I know each town has a different capacity to fund education. There's an absolute, clear relationship between the quality of public schools, and economic development of states. There's irrefutable evidence that quality public schools can make states more competitive."

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Cylke

"Issue two is equality.  In West Warwick and Providence, the per pupil spending is around $16K.  In Pawtucket it's $12.9.  What's wrong with that picture? If I'm in charge of overseeing that my students are college ready, they need to be adequate funding.  A difference of $3000 per pupil?  We're talking in the tens of millions of dollars -- more like $25 million in this case.  An exemplary school district is Montgomery County, MD -- they have roughly the same number of students, around 145,000 -- there's one funding figure per pupil. There's equitable funding for all kids."

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Cylke

"Issue three is Infrastructure.  A critical issue is whether the state is going to lift its moratorium in 2014 for renovations for older schools, ore new construction.  If that moratorium is not lifted, and those funds are not available, it is critical to us here in Pawtucket. The average of my schools is 66 years, I've got 3 that celebrate 100 years this year. These old schools have good bones, but they need to be maintained.  These are assets -- and this is all interrelated with the funding formula."

 

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