The New York Times reports the commies in New York are also questioning the Common Core curriculum:
The Common Core has been applauded by education leaders and promoted by the Obama administration as a way to replace a hodgepodge of state standards with one set of rigorous learning goals. Though 45 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to them since 2010, resistance came quickly, mostly from right-leaning states, where some leaders and political action groups have protested what they see as a federal takeover of local classrooms.
But the newest chorus of complaints is coming from one of the most liberal states, and one of the earliest champions of the standards: New York. And that is causing supporters of the Common Core to shudder.
Carol Burris, an acclaimed high school principal on Long Island, calls the Common Core a “disaster.”
“We see kids,” she said, “they don’t want to go to school anymore.”
Leaders of both parties in the New York Legislature want to rethink how the state uses the Common Core.
The statewide teachers’ union withdrew its support for the standards last month until “major course corrections” took place.....
The objections in New York have become so loud, and have come from such a wide political spectrum, that even the governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, has become a critic. Governor Cuomo has called the state’s execution of the standards “flawed” and appointed a panel to recommend changes......
The loudest of the complaints is based on New York’s decision not to wait for those new Common Core exams, which are expected to make their debut in 2015, but to begin testing students on the new standards last year. Teachers said they had not been fully trained in the new curriculums, and had not received new textbooks and teaching materials; many still did not have them in the fall. As the tests changed, the scores plummeted: Less than a third of the state’s students passed.....
Recently, at Public School 253 in Brooklyn, Myra Wenger applied her new curriculum in a lesson on ancient Athens, asking her second graders why the city adopted Athena, not Poseidon, in naming itself. A pupil, Daniel Gornak, 8, answered, “Because Athena gave more uses than Poseidon did, and more healthy things for Athenians,” and Ms. Wenger lauded his methods in consulting his marble notebook for the facts.
“They love it,” Ms. Wenger said of her lesson plans. “They’re very engaged, more than last year.”
In another room, a group of first graders sat on a mat, eagerly raising their hands to explain similarities between farming in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.
“They needed water,” one student, Rabiha Islam, 6, said.
“And, and, and,” she continued, searching for another answer, “they didn’t have, so they made canals.”
The school chose one of the country’s most popular Common Core curriculums, called Core Knowledge. It is based on the ideas of E. D. Hirsch Jr., whose 1987 book, “Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know,” argued that mastery of a common set of facts was critical to learning... (KF note: Careful conservatives, Hirsch's book has been listed in the conservative book clubs for years.)...
Ms. Burris, who leads South Side High School in Rockville Centre, and was named the state’s 2013 high school principal of the year, said the Common Core required children to grapple with topics in mathematics that are in many cases taught a year earlier than before and “in a more difficult way.”
“I fear that they are creating a generation of young students who are learning to hate mathematics,” she said.Rest of article
11 comments:
Rankin County is already using some Common Core curriculum in math, and 5 of the kids in my daughter's class were crying trying to do their math homework. It was very hard, and very difficult to even read and understand.
AARGGHHH!
The problem is that we have politicized education in this country!
The focus is not on maximizing the individual child's abilities anymore but WHAT they learn.
Educators have no authority to educate because every Tom ,Dick and Harry think they know all there is to know about everything these days!
Too many people don't want our young people to learn HOW to think and analyze and evaluate information but WHAT to think!
Worse, we can't possibly let our young people know there's more than one point of view in the world on any subject.
Conformity doesn't lead to progress but conformity of thought is the current goal for both political parties.
As a result, opposing sides can't tolerate challenges to their points of view and when challenged, can't defend their positions intellectually.
We seem to forget that not all our challenges will be internal and that we will face external enemies who will must understand to defeat!
Name calling isn't wit, badgering isn't strength but bullying which only has short term results. Offense is countered by defense and resolution is thus impossible.
A pox on both your houses!
... because every Tom ,Dick and Harry think they know all there is to know about everything these days!
Hark the true expert and their cautionary message for all, except themselves.
6:58,
My children are in RCSD as well and the math troubles are rooted in the how the subject is taught. Teachers are required to present multiple ways to solve a problem instead of just one. From what I understand, they are trying to teach several styles of learning to EVERY child. The result is (so far) more students who are confused than before CC. Even the kids who were traditionally the quickest to catch on are struggling. It's an absolute mess.
For the record, I don't hold the teachers accountable for this. I hold the Taj on Highway 80 responsible. The district was not ready for the roll out and are forcing the teachers to cram this down the kids' throats.
More insult to injury: the district in its infinite wisdom is dropping its Venture classes for high schoolers (and possibly those in middle school as well, since the state doesn't mandate gifted classes for that age) in order to help pay for CC implementation.
KF, shining a big bright light on what's shaking at the Taj might prove to be very useful.
Anybody know the latest on the pseudo nurse that was busted for getting paid for not working?
8:12 am how typical not to address the points but to attempt to attack the messenger !
As it turns out I do have expertise in advanced degrees ( yes more than one and only one is in education, my first career choice). I have class room experience as a former teacher and now as a guest teacher. I also raised children successfully to adulthood who also have advanced education and are financially and personally successful.
What , pray tell do you bring to the table except the weakness debate tactic in human history?
7:10/9:13
"Worse, we can't possibly let our young people know there's more than one point of view in the world on any subject."
The square root of 9 is 3 (or -3). Period. There is no other point of view.
As far as having "expertise in advanced degrees" I assume none of them are in English. People have advanced degrees. People have expertise. I don't know anyone who has "expertise in advanced degrees".
Quite right, 12:24 pm .
I decided not to name my degrees and apparently didn't hold down backspace quite long enough.
I know you'll find it shocking but there are even some debates in mathematics.
You entirely missed that I didn't say all points of view have equal weight.
For example, Hitler had a point of view. It was crazy. But, you can't attack his point of view if don't know what his point of view was. That was a problem for quite a few Americans like Charles Lindbergh who simply knew the trains were running on time!
Reading comprehension is important to education as well! But, then, that has to do with learning how to THINK for yourself instead of letting others think for you!
That was a problem for quite a few Americans like Charles Lindbergh who simply knew the trains were running on time!
Nothing "simple" about Charles Lindbergh, Jr., nor his father who a US Senator campaigned against passage of the 1913 Federal Reserve Act.
I think that you are confusing Mussolini with Hitler on the "trains running on time" shtick.
Charles Lindbergh nails it in his 11SEPT1941 peace speech!
No, Pug, it's her point of view that Hitler was tolerated because he made the trains run on time, despite other negative things he did.
Don't feed the troll Pug.
Don't feed the troll[,] Pug.
That's just another TBA drive-by shooting @8:08 PM.
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