10 Things BATs Know about Common
Core
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT
BATs continue their fight
against the CCSS. We do not believe in a
“one-size” fits all standard for education and we do not believe in a top down
federal approach to control education for profit. BATs fight the CCSS for a variety of reasons
but specifically we know that the CCSS doesn’t make up good education and will
not fix, nor lower, our child poverty rate.
This document hopes to clear up a few things: 1. Dispel some of the myths about the CCSS as
superior set of educational standards.
2. Give readers a clear vision of what these standards look like from
the lens of the practitioners who teach our most vulnerable children – those in
poverty. 3. Finally it hopes to set a course for BATs to advocate strongly for our children who live
in poverty, who must be forced to overcome it without the supports and
resources they need in our schools. BATs
are committed to raise their voice to advocate for an educational system that
helps to provide some relief to children who suffer from the trauma of
poverty. WE use the word “some relief”
in this missive because schools and teachers cannot eradicate poverty and we
feel the government must begin to
acknowledge that children in poverty don’t succeed in school because of
poverty. Poverty will follow children no matter where you want to send
them to school via a charter or a voucher.
Poverty will follow a child no matter who teaches them – TFA or a highly
qualified teacher. BATs are firmly
committed to expose that CC, charters,
vouchers, or TFA will not eradicate poverty and corporate reformers attempts to
divert the conversation away from child poverty is nothing short of abuse.
BATS DEBUNK THE CCSS
1. THE GOAL IS COLLEGE AND
CAREER READY FOR ALL STUDENTS
A. The CCSS have never been subjected to any research
studies linking them to readiness of any kind.
B. Standard #1 reads “entry-level college” which could mean
a 2 year community college or vocational school.
C. All children are not or will not be “College and Career
Ready” for many different reasons.
D. The expense of implementing and assessing of the CCSS causes electives such as art, music, and sports
to be cut from schools which prevents students from discovering future
interests and talents.
E. Review the types of Common Core work children are
doing--how does it reflect what they need to know for the workplace? The CCSS does not even live up to its stated
goals to teach real world skills needed for the workplace.
F. Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institute predicted that
the CCSS would have little to no effect on academic achievement. He noted that from 2003-2009 states with good
standards raised their NAEP scores by roughly the same margin as the states
with bad standards .
G. The way that the CCSS is designed is that if a child is
chronically transient, they will be behind regardless--even more so with a
curriculum two grade levels above a developmentally appropriate one!
(3,5)
2. STATES LED THE EFFORT
TO DEVELOP COMMON CORE, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
A. The
groups that created the CCSS--Achieve and The National Governors
Association--received funding from The Gates Foundation, and created the CCSS
with almost no input from teachers. The
only educational experts were board members from publishing companies who will
benefit financially from the implementation of CCSS. Teachers learned about the
CCSS after they were written.
B. A
check of one’s State Board of Education meeting minutes will show that states
were forced to adopt the standards in order to apply for Federal Race to The
Top Funds.
C. States signed onto the CCSS before the standards were
completed and unveiled.
E. Many states and districts are
already withdrawing from CCSS for financial and other reasons.
F. Race to the Top had a $5 billion dollar price tag. Arne Duncan set the conditions for the
“race.” To be eligible, states had to
agree to adopt the CCSS and tests.
G. Billionaire entrepreneurs entered the education market
due to the $5 billion which was up for grabs.
Consultants and vendors offered services to districts, and publishing companies hurried to
align their products with CCSS. For
example, Denver spent 35% of its budget on consultants instead of students,
teachers, or schools.
H. The Gates Foundation supported the creation, evaluations,
and promotion of the CCSS.
I. States had to agree to Arne Duncan’s conditions to
receive a waiver from NCLB, and one of those conditions was to accept CCSS .
(3,6)
3. THE CCSS ARE NOT
CURRICULUM AND DO NOT TELL TEACHERS HOW TO TEACH
A. This is true, but the standards were written without the
creation of materials, so some states like New York have created “modules” that
are curriculum and script teachers.
B. The mandated (expensive and error-riddled) tests that
accompany the CCSS will be the de facto curriculum. What is tested is what will be taught.
C. Due to its heavy reliance on testing, schools will feel
the need to implement curriculum aligned with the CCSS. Many school districts have neither the time
nor the funding to develop these aligned curriculums. The companies that have had the largest input
into the CCSS, do have curriculum designed to be aligned to the tests. While the CCSS doesn’t directly tell schools
what they need to teach, it does make it difficult for students to do well on
the test unless they’ve had a curriculum aligned with the test.
(7)
4. BETTER STANDARDS CALL
FOR BETTER ASSESSMENTS
A. Students are tested without regard to accommodations as
legally mandated by IEP’s.
B. No modifications or adjustments are made for students
with disabilities or English Language Learners.
C. Teachers are not allowed to see the assessments in order
to diagnose children and to further their instruction of them and the class.
D. Assessments will be moved to computer assessments. Children will be required to do this without
keyboarding skills and little contact time with the teacher. Prolonged computer use can lead to vision problems and
carpel tunnel syndrome.
E. The claim that CCSS assessments are better than other
standardized tests is fallacious. For
example, they were tested in 2013 in NYS
and 70% of children failed them.
F. CCSS Assessments like PARCC/SBAC do not take into account
the special issues of rural schools, many of which do not have enough computers
or server space for the information.
MANY SCHOOLS WILL BE FORCED INTO MAKING DIFFICULT BUDGET CUTS IN ORDER
TO AFFORD TO THESE TESTS!
G. National standards and tests have been purposely designed
to create a national marketplace for more curriculum and testing products, not
to better public education. This reveals
a disingenuous agenda.
(3)
5. THE CCSS FOCUSES ON 21ST
CENTURY SKILLS
A. The implementation of Common Core has already begun to
eliminate vocational and technical education in many districts and states. These massive cuts restrict our students’
options to explore 21st century careers.
B. The cost to implement and assess the CCSS have caused
huge cuts in music, art, and hands-on science. Research overwhelmingly
validates the positive effects of music and the arts for improving learning,
social skills, and, ironically, test scores.
Cutting hands-on science makes no sense given the importance being
placed on STEM.
C. Problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, and
creativity are skills needed for the challenges of the 21st century, but they
won’t be taught because they aren’t part of the CCSS assessments.
D. As the world changes rapidly, our students must be taught
to be flexible in how they think. The
CCSS emphasizes rote memorization and teaching to the bubble/computer tests
instead of preparing them for the future.
(8)
6. THE CCSS CREATE
CONSISTENT LEARNING GOALS FOR ALL STUDENTS REGARDLESS OF WHERE THEY LIVE OR GO
TO SCHOOL
A. A check with the Department of
Education in one’s state will show the percentage of children affected by transiency. Does this
percentage warrant a standardized curriculum for all children?
B. Public school students are
a highly diverse group which includes many different cultural and ethnic
backgrounds, and learning difficulties. This tremendous range of needs and
accommodations must be considered.
No single education plan (especially one designed by mostly
non-educators) is capable of meeting the needs of all children across the U.S.
C. The way that the CCSS is designed is that if a child is
chronically transient, they will be behind regardless--even more so with a
curriculum two grade levels above a developmentally appropriate one!
7.
CCSS ARE ALIGNED TO COLLEGE AND WORKPLACE EXPECTATIONS
Research the authors of the
CCSS to determine if they are authentic leaders in higher education. Google
their curriculum vitae to determine the breadth and depth of their
contributions to research and literature on domain-specific knowledge as it
relates to future success. What are
their contributions towards ensuring a free public education for all children?
8. CCSS ARE BENCHMARKED
AGAINST ACADEMIC STANDARDS FROM THE WORLD’S TOP-PERFORMING COUNTRIES
A. The CCSS were not benchmarked against other countries’
standards. CCSS were created in a “top
down” approach with no regard for the primary grades. Many countries do not set standards for their
youngest learners.
B. If states are satisfied with their existing standards,
why would communities want anything different? For example, Maryland’s schools
are excellent, so why would they be forced to change their standards?
C. The world’s top performing countries don’t place much, if
any, emphasis on testing. Finland has
one of the best education systems in the world, and it relies on teacher
autonomy and less testing in order to achieve this. These tests are nothing more than the
precursor for national standardized testing. They are culturally biased,
incapable of measuring non-verbal learning or complex thought, and will ultimately
cost more than they’re worth .
(1,2)
9. The CCSS CALL FOR
CHANGES IN LEARNING FOR ELA AND MATH
A. Students are not being asked to explain their thinking;
they are having strategies forced upon them, and they are being tested on test
strategy not thinking skills.
B. The CCSS math places students an average of two years
behind math programs that exist currently.
In a technological society, having less access to higher forms of math
is detrimental to student advancement post high school, and places them behind
for college expectations.
C. The CCSS in math are so lacking, that the only
mathematician on the CCSS validation committee refused to sign off on them.
D. School districts’ budgets will be stretched so tight,
there will have to be program cuts in order to buy the materials and equipment
needed to teach and assess the CCSS. The
economic burden on districts will be to the detriment of programs that kids
need and love.
E. The companies that had the greatest input in designing
CCSS will be the ones selling the textbooks and presenting (for hefty fees paid
by taxpayers) at teacher training seminars.
F. Standards call for changes in testing, which means
changes in learning opportunities. Most
important to the CCSS are testing outcomes; therefore, learning will be
restricted to what is tested.
(9)
10. CCSS DELVE DEEPER INTO
CORE CONCEPTS
A. The CCSS
places more emphasis on reading informational texts (government pamphlets,
heater instructions, technical manuals) than on classical literature.
B. The CCSS
presents historical text out of context (or with no context); therefore,
students will not gain a broad
understanding of the text.
C. The CCSS
gives historical text isolated from the event in history from which it
came. It is a shallow reading, a reading
that doesn’t encourage students to question what the author may have meant, a
reading that doesn’t teach them how to recognize symbolism, motivation or
multiple meanings, and takes the flavor out of the text
D. The CCSS
insistence on reading in isolation does not encourage students to develop
life-long love of reading, which is critical for developing higher-level
thinking and analytical skills.
BAT TEACHERS TEACHING KIDS IN POVERTY USING CC – All of the
teachers who responded teach in high poverty districts – here is their
experience with Common Core.
- Since CC has been implemented in our school I
cannot run our music program
- Since CC no seat time can be lost for students to participate in
choral groups, getting string and band lessons started was delayed
- I cannot jump into the CC lessons via EngageNY because my
students are so far behind
- My students already feel inadequate and now they are more
frustrated. They often ask, “Why do
we have to keep taking all these tests.”
- All the data that has come with CC, testing, and new reform, and
the entering of that data by teachers, has taken me away from the kids.
- Instead of thinking how to make lessons fun and interesting for
kids, I have to think of how it applies to CC – shouldn’t education be
about kids?
- EngageNY Math modules are impossible to finish with students who
come to us behind in their academic ability to do math. We don’t have the materials required to
teach and we have no time to remediate if the kids need time.
- We are expected to get our students on or above grade level but
they come to us below grade level.
- I have students who are attending school for the first time in
their lives and can’t read the language nor write it
- My average class size is 30-35 students and I have a complete
lack of resources to teach CC to kids who are working behind grade level
- I have students who are 15 years old and in their first year of
high school – they can’t read or write English but are expected to deal
with “complex text” in CC
- I am teaching, demonstrating, acting out vocabulary for our core
reading stories. For most of my
students the higher thinking activities are not where they are
academically
- CC expects projects but students are unable to work at home
- CC packs my schedule with math computer lab, language computer
lab, writing program, word study that we do not have time to work on
projects
- CC has caused me to miss out on creative learning opportunities
due to testing, testing, testing to the CC
- My students hate school because they are frustrated and bored; CC
has turned them off.
- I cannot teach the 2B modules for 3rd grade ELA
because I have none of the books.
2B was supposed to be out in November and is still not out.
- My kids find the math confusing and the tests don’t test what
they expect us to teach. The kids
take the tests after working so hard to learn the concepts, fail the
tests, and get frustrated.
- I have been a teacher in a high poverty district for 13 years, I
have never seen anything like what my kids have had to endure this year
under CC and NCLB waivers
- We have spent the first 2 ½ months of school testing – the kids
are already burnt out
- I have a class of 27 students.
5 parents are incarcerated, 3 students are homeless, 4 have no
winter clothing, 21 are on free/reduced lunch –they have bigger issues to
worry about other than being “college and career ready.”
- Since implementing CC I have noticed an increase in anxious and
aggressive behavior – Students are chewing the erasers and metal off their
pencils and eating it. They are
chewing on their pants, shirts, and sleeves and making holes in them. They are using pens and markers to write
on themselves.
- Since implementing CC I have noticed an increase in suicidal
statements; why? Because we are giving them 8 different learning targets
each day. We’ve cut recess and
crammed more kids into the cafeteria for lunch to maximize learning
time. We are making them
self-regulate with a gazillion transitions and center activities while we
test and re-teach and differentiate.
- What does text complexity level mean, and who gets to
decide? There is a huge body of
research that confirms teaching children at frustration reading levels is
harmful.
- The cancelled art in my school because it cut into test prep.
- The CC is too much for children never exposed to early childhood
classes
- They removed all the blocks, housekeeping, playdoh, puzzles, and
art centers from my 1st grade classroom
- The curriculum for my 1st grade class is similar to 2nd
and 3rd grade – my students feign illness, act irrational as a
direct result of the testing and Common Core.
- Here is what I can’t do anymore – plays, celebrations, holidays,
show and tell, student-led learning, performance assessments, service
learning, class meetings, gardens, and arts.
- CC is not the answer to urban education. I struggle teaching my third graders the
basics they need. My students come
to me far behind. I feel like I am
teaching far over their heads
- Students I teach don’t get the abstract, they get the
concrete. Explaining multiplication
and division to students who are still counting on their fingers is very
difficult. Getting them to see the
connections between reading and writing is very difficult
- I find the math EngageNY math modules poorly crafted and
inappropriate for the age I teach.
It is causing my students so much stress.
Concluding Statement
The CCSS will not be the
magic wand that will end child poverty in this nation. BATs know this and will fight the hoax that
it will. Child poverty will not end with
vouchers, charters, and CCSS. Poverty
will follow all children to these places.
It has already been seen that increased charters, voucher systems, and
increase of TFA in our poverty communities DOES NOT ELEVIATE the effect that
the trauma of poverty has on children and their education. Child poverty rates continue to increase and
by accepting that CCSS, Vouchers, and Charters will cure child poverty we are
absolving the government to do something about it.
That being said, BATs and
other warriors that fight the corporate takeover of our public schools needs to
think what will happen when we do defeat corporate “reform?” What will schools
look like that educate our most vulnerable children – those in poverty. Child poverty will not magically end with the
defeat of CC, Charters, Vouchers, or TFA – BATs will commit their voices to
making sure that the government be held accountable for not addressing that
this is the main reason why children don’t succeed in school. BATs will commit
their voices towards the fight that schools in poverty communities must be
reworked to meet the distinct needs of all their children. BATs will commit their voices to make all
schools a respite from poverty for children and to hold those accountable who
continue to dismiss it as the leading factor of why children don’t succeed in
school.
References
1. http://www.
Washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/what-the-us-cant-learn-from-finalnd-about-ed-reform/2012/04/16/gIQAGIvVMT_blot.html
2. BATs – Oral
History
3. Ravitch,
Diane; Reign of Error
4. www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/executive-summary.PDF
Thank you for laying it on the table!
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