Common Core: Educate Me!

[Adrift]

It's gotten to the point that when I'm trying to help my son with his math, I teach him how to do it the old fashioned way and tell him to just ignore his teacher because what she's teaching him doesn't make sense and is too labor intensive.

But the reason it has become a conversative versus liberal issue is because common core is basically an attempt to make everything "equal" and "fair" and increase the number of kids who qualify for college. It's essentially one big affirmative action program.

I don't understand how they can be both too labor intensive and also designed to increase the number of kids who qualify for college. But anyways, wouldn't you want more kids in college? How is that a liberal thing, or an affirmative action thing?

[Mountain Man]

This is simply and clearly a blatantly false myth which keeps getting bandied about the Internet because it justifies the irrational hatred people have for the Common Core. The fact of the matter is that the Core Standards were developed by teachers, professional educators, and education standards experts from all around the United States.

Source: Washington Post

For starters, the misnamed “Common Core State Standards” are not state standards. They’re national standards, created by Gates-funded consultants for the National Governors Association (NGA) [...] Of the 135 members on the official Common Core review panels convened by Achieve Inc., the consulting firm that has directed the Common Core project for the NGA, few were classroom teachers or current administrators.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ental-trouble/

© Copyright Original Source

The Common Core does not define any sort of grading standards. Educators are free to use whatever grading system they'd like, be it the traditional alphabetic system, or a percentile system, or a GPA system, or the descriptive system you've listed.

Source: SchoolFamily.com

For an increasing number of students, report cards with traditional letter grades are a thing of the past. Instead of A’s and B’s, their report cards might have 2’s and 3’s or unfamiliar letter grades like O and P. This new look is a result of standards-based grading, an approach in which students receive scores for both academic achievement and student work habits.

Standards-based report cards have been most commonly used at the elementary level, but some middle schools and high schools are adopting them, too. In states that have adopted the Common Core State Standards, some school districts have moved to standards-based grading to show how students are meeting the standards.

http://www.schoolfamily.com/school-f...s-need-to-know

© Copyright Original Source

[Mountain Man]

I don't understand how they can be both too labor intensive and also designed to increase the number of kids who qualify for college. But anyways, wouldn't you want more kids in college? How is that a liberal thing, or an affirmative action thing?

It depends on whether the kids are getting into college by their own merit or if college education is simply treated as another government handout or entitlement that is bestowed on the "needy". In my experience, common core proponents almost invariably treat it as the latter.

[Adrift]

It depends on whether the kids are getting into college by their own merit or if college education is simply treated as another government handout or entitlement that is bestowed on the "needy". In my experience, common core proponents almost invariably treat it as the latter.

Sounds a little conspiratorial, but ok.

[Boxing Pythagoras]

Source: Washington Post

For starters, the misnamed “Common Core State Standards” are not state standards. They’re national standards, created by Gates-funded consultants for the National Governors Association (NGA) [...] Of the 135 members on the official Common Core review panels convened by Achieve Inc., the consulting firm that has directed the Common Core project for the NGA, few were classroom teachers or current administrators.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ental-trouble/

© Copyright Original Source

Selective fact mining might seem conclusive to people who already share an irrational hatred of the CC, but it's fairly unconvincing to anyone actually interested in the truth. Even this quote doesn't support your initial claim, though. Firstly, it explicitly notes that there were professional educators involved in the development of the CC standards (even if it uses the vague qualifier that they were "few" in number); and secondly, the quote only addresses review panels, and conveniently ignores the teams which actually wrote the standards to be reviewed.

Source: SchoolFamily.com

For an increasing number of students, report cards with traditional letter grades are a thing of the past. Instead of A’s and B’s, their report cards might have 2’s and 3’s or unfamiliar letter grades like O and P. This new look is a result of standards-based grading, an approach in which students receive scores for both academic achievement and student work habits.

Standards-based report cards have been most commonly used at the elementary level, but some middle schools and high schools are adopting them, too. In states that have adopted the Common Core State Standards, some school districts have moved to standards-based grading to show how students are meeting the standards.

http://www.schoolfamily.com/school-f...s-need-to-know

© Copyright Original Source

Lovely! You've found a fear-mongering propaganda page which makes a similar untenable claim. Once again, the actual Common Core standards are found here: http://www.corestandards.org/

Can you link to the actual standard which defines grading practice?

[shunyadragon]

I keep hearing "the math is crazy"... I remember when my kids were talking about "the new math", and it was wacky back then - 20 years ago.

But then I hear others say it's not "curriculum", it's minimum standards.

I remember the beginning of New Math when I was in school. I learned some new concepts, but New Math itself as not sufficient.

[jpholding]

Here's all I know, and the picture in Florida.

The one example I saw of Common Core math didn't look new to me. It reminded me of the "base ten counting" that I was taught in elementary school. Practically useless to me, but hardly incoherent.

A state legislator near here had a fit in front of his county's school board about Common Core when one of his grandkids asked for help with her homework and he couldn't figure out what was going on. I didn't feel much sympathy for him since he had supported it before. Guess he had to pass it so he could find out what was in it. I think he was more upset that he was made to look like a fool in front of his granddaughter than anything else.

The legislator was GOP by the way, and Jeb Bush is one of the big names behind Common Core here.

Rick Scott has claimed to have dumped it, after having said he was in favor of it (flip, flop) but in reality he just tweaked it a little and issued it under a new name. Many in his fanatic base dropped him and said they'd vote for the Libertarian candidate because of it. When the standardized testing rolls around in March it should be interesting to see how low his approval rating plummets.

[Mountain Man]

Selective fact mining might seem conclusive to people who already share an irrational hatred of the CC, but it's fairly unconvincing to anyone actually interested in the truth. Even this quote doesn't support your initial claim, though. Firstly, it explicitly notes that there were professional educators involved in the development of the CC standards (even if it uses the vague qualifier that they were "few" in number); and secondly, the quote only addresses review panels, and conveniently ignores the teams which actually wrote the standards to be reviewed.

Lovely! You've found a fear-mongering propaganda page which makes a similar untenable claim. Once again, the actual Common Core standards are found here: http://www.corestandards.org/

Can you link to the actual standard which defines grading practice?

Naturally any source that supports my position is "fact mining" and "fear-mongering propaganda".

[Boxing Pythagoras]

Naturally any source that supports my position is "fact mining" and "fear-mongering propaganda".

It's very easy for you to confirm that those sources aren't just fear-mongering, fact-mining propaganda: simply link to the particular Core Standards which define grading practices.

Also, find some way of legitimately demonstrating that all of the educators listed in the following documents were not actually educators:
http://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/...OREK12TEAM.PDF
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/...eport_6.10.pdf
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/...ck-summary.pdf

[Jedidiah]

Well, CP, it looks like everyone is either for or against.

[Cow Poke]

Well, CP, it looks like everyone is either for or against.

And some, like Bobby Jindal, were for it THEN against it.

[Mountain Man]

It's very easy for you to confirm that those sources aren't just fear-mongering, fact-mining propaganda: simply link to the particular Core Standards which define grading practices.

No, you're right. I'm sure my sources are just making it up. That's the only explanation.

Look, if you want to know the truth about common core then just follow the money. Who profits from its implementation? Even the left-leaning Huffington-Puffington Post gets it:

Source: HuffingtonPost.com

Why the rush [to implement common core]? Because both the states and the federal government, having disinvested in education, were desperate for money, a desperation that allowed anyone with enough money to be able to promote any plan they desired.

Gates required that implementing the new standards meant accommodating his "next best thing" -- the next best thing (textbooks, tests, and computer-assisted learning aids) all having been researched, developed and manufactured by the very foundation or its friends that had promoted the standards.

The corporate appetite for profit and the willingness of policymakers to accommodate it trumped any involvement in the development of Common Core, by the school leaders and teachers who will be responsible for implementing it.

[...]

The fact that Gates can manipulate such a vast group of policymakers, politicians, education groups, researchers and the federal government into changing policies and laws in order to gain acceptance of unproven common core standards leads you to wonder if this influence isn't being used to ensure that public education fails.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diann-...b_5489233.html

© Copyright Original Source

[Boxing Pythagoras]

No, you're right. I'm sure my sources are just making it up. That's the only explanation.

Look, if you want to know the truth about common core then just follow the money. Who profits from its implementation? Even the left-leaning Huffington-Puffington Post gets it:

Really? And here I was thinking that I could know the truth about the Common Core by actually, you know, reading the Common Core standards and teaching mathematics to students. But, no, you're right-- I should probably just trust sensationalist media columns instead.

So, that's a no-go on providing an actual link to any Common Core standards which delineate grading requirements, then? And on showing that the educators who developed the Common Core weren't actually educators?

[Mountain Man]

Source: NPR

When it comes to report cards, most people think of grades like A, B, C or maybe F. But more and more parents around the country are seeing their kids come home with grades like E, M, IP or LP. It's part of a growing trend to make grades more reflective of the specific skills students have actually mastered, and its getting a boost from the move to Common Core standards.

[...]

DANIEL DOMENECH: The Common Core offers the best opportunity for the adoption of standard-based grading around the country.

EVANS-BROWN: Dan Domenech is the executive director of the American School Superintendents Association. He says, as the Common Core, a set of shared goal posts for what students are expected to know, has spread across the country, standards-based grading has spread with it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=249784848

© Copyright Original Source

Let me guess, NPR is just another fear-mongering propoganda machine, right?

And if you hunt around, you can find that the long list of concultants you provided were hired guns for Bill Gates who are in on the "fix" and stand to make millions off of common core's implementation.

Source: TruthInAmericanEducation.com

These standards were never developed by classroom teachers or school administrators. The architect of the Common Core is David Coleman. Coleman has never been a teacher. One of the chief criticisms of the Common Core, by teachers no less, is that they were not involved in the development of the Common Core. She is right that “experts” were involved, but that is a pretty subjective term. I find it fascinating how somebody could be deemed “an expert” on how and what teachers should teach every child across the country.

Then there’s the fact these standards have never been field tested anywhere.

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/...dards-exactly/

© Copyright Original Source

Source: Washington Post

The pair of education advocates had a big idea, a new approach to transform every public-school classroom in America. By early 2008, many of the nation’s top politicians and education leaders had lined up in support.

But that wasn’t enough. The duo needed money — tens of millions of dollars, at least — and they needed a champion who could overcome the politics that had thwarted every previous attempt to institute national standards.

So they turned to the richest man in the world.

On a summer day in 2008, Gene Wilhoit, director of a national group of state school chiefs, and David Coleman, an emerging evangelist for the standards movement, spent hours in Bill Gates’s sleek headquarters near Seattle, trying to persuade him and his wife, Melinda, to turn their idea into reality.

[...]

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation didn’t just bankroll the development of what became known as the Common Core State Standards. With more than $200 million, the foundation also built political support across the country, persuading state governments to make systemic and costly changes [...] The Gates Foundation spread money across the political spectrum, to entities including the big teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, and business organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — groups that have clashed in the past but became vocal backers of the standards.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...f0a_story.html

© Copyright Original Source

And, of course, Bill Gates expects a return on his investment seeing how his group is responsible for vetting, and profiting from, the sale of common core approved textbooks and teaching materials.

Source: Breitbart

What this means is that school districts will now be encouraged to purchase certain textbooks published by certain textbook companies. Would any school district dare choose a curriculum that is poorly rated by EdReports? Will the “best” textbooks likely be the most expensive ones? What will happen to funding if a school district chooses books and instructional materials that are not fully aligned with the Common Core – as determined by private nonprofit EdReports?

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...th-Common-Core

© Copyright Original Source

Just follow the money.

[Boxing Pythagoras]

Source: NPR

When it comes to report cards, most people think of grades like A, B, C or maybe F. But more and more parents around the country are seeing their kids come home with grades like E, M, IP or LP. It's part of a growing trend to make grades more reflective of the specific skills students have actually mastered, and its getting a boost from the move to Common Core standards.

[...]

DANIEL DOMENECH: The Common Core offers the best opportunity for the adoption of standard-based grading around the country.

EVANS-BROWN: Dan Domenech is the executive director of the American School Superintendents Association. He says, as the Common Core, a set of shared goal posts for what students are expected to know, has spread across the country, standards-based grading has spread with it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=249784848

© Copyright Original Source

Let me guess, NPR is just another fear-mongering propoganda machine, right?

You realize that this quote does not say that "standard-based grading" is a requisite-- nor even a suggestion-- of the Common Core, right? In fact, it rather clearly delineates that the two are separate concepts, and that the adoption of the Common Core might also aid in the adoption of these different grading solutions.

Once again, the Common Core does not delineate any standards for grading. But perhaps we should all adopt your epistemology, instead-- after all, why should you actually bother reading what the Common Core really says when you have news media telling you what you should believe?

And if you hunt around, you can find that the long list of concultants you provided were hired guns for Bill Gates who are in on the "fix" and stand to make millions off of common core's implementation.

Source: TruthInAmericanEducation.com

These standards were never developed by classroom teachers or school administrators. The architect of the Common Core is David Coleman. Coleman has never been a teacher. One of the chief criticisms of the Common Core, by teachers no less, is that they were not involved in the development of the Common Core. She is right that “experts” were involved, but that is a pretty subjective term. I find it fascinating how somebody could be deemed “an expert” on how and what teachers should teach every child across the country.

Then there’s the fact these standards have never been field tested anywhere.

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/...dards-exactly/

© Copyright Original Source

Lovely. Out of all the names listed and actual teachers referenced, you've found one person who was never a teacher. Of course that completely overshadows the scores of teachers that did actually work on the development of the Common Core standards!

And, of course, Bill Gates expects a return on his investment seeing how his group is responsible for vetting, and profiting from, the sale of common core approved textbooks and teaching materials.

Source: Breitbart

What this means is that school districts will now be encouraged to purchase certain textbooks published by certain textbook companies. Would any school district dare choose a curriculum that is poorly rated by EdReports? Will the “best” textbooks likely be the most expensive ones? What will happen to funding if a school district chooses books and instructional materials that are not fully aligned with the Common Core – as determined by private nonprofit EdReports?

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...th-Common-Core

© Copyright Original Source

Just follow the money.

By Odin's right eye! Not Capitalism! Nothing which operates on the principles of Capitalism can actually achieve its stated goals! Obviously, if there are people earning a living-- or, gods forbid, turning a profit-- from their work, that work can't possibly have any actual benefit! Surely, if the people behind the Common Core actually had the goal of helping students, they would work their full-time jobs for free, just like every other teacher in the nation! Oh, wait...