Closing the achievement gap has been the mantra of education officials for decades, but a new form of education standards in math and English Language Arts, known as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), promises to reform the system like never before.
The initiative, which focuses more on collaborative and reflective learning, also pledges to leave behind the policies of No Child Left Behind, replacing it with a set of principles intended to enhance critical thinking skills and prepare American students in pre-K through 12th grade for the 21st century global economy. The move toward a single set of standards has been embraced and rejected by many.
Proponents say a new system is needed to bring the country’s already diverse set of education standards in line with one another. Opponents, however, believe the implementation of Common Core is in response to an education crisis that does not exist and is a way for the federal government to implement a top-down national curriculum, which will take away local control of education.
While Common Core refers to a new national set of education standards, it is by no means a federal initiative. The standards were created after years of discussion between private nonprofit education groups and state education departments, and were based on scholarly research, assessment data and comparisons with other high-performing states and countries, among other factors. They were officially released in 2010, with a majority of states adopting them in subsequent months.
The Obama administration has encouraged states to sign on to the new voluntary mandate, giving them an incentive to adopt Common Core if they participate in the federal government’s Race to the Top (RTTT) grants initiative. To date, 45 of the 50 states have agreed, with Alaska, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia rejecting the initiative and Minnesota adopting only the ELA (English Language Arts) standards.
However, as of May 2013, nine states are reconsidering, with some seeking a slow implementation process and others repealing the standards altogether. They include Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Utah.
Here in New York, the Board of Regents adopted the standards in January 2011, which was heralded by Education Commissioner John King as a solution to the state’s lagging graduation rates and the readiness of students for college and career. This past school year, instruction in ELA and math for grades 3-8 was aligned to the new standards and the standardized tests given to students this year reflected the new curriculum.
Digging Deeper and Getting Smarter
According to EngageNY.org, a website that was developed and is maintained by the state Education Department to support the implementation of the CCSS, students at every grade level will be expected to dig deeper into specific topics. That means they will learn more about fewer topics, but their teachers will also have more time to cover subjects in depth.
The new standards include a number of “shifts” in the way that ELA/literacy and math were previously taught. “The Common Core learning standards begin with the end in mind, starting with what students need to know to be college and career ready,” explains Jacqueline O’Donnell, director of the SWBOCES Center for Professional Development & Curriculum Support, which offers a broad range of professional development programs and services for educators, including training for the implementation of New York State’s learning standards and assessments.
One of the shifts required from students is that they read more nonfiction materials. While there is no specific reading list accompanying the standards, students are required to read a range of foundational American literature as well as challenging informational texts, such as America’s founding documents, and classic myths and stories from around the world. The intended result is that students will come to understand other perspectives and cultures through reading, listening and collaborative work in the classroom.
BOCES Supervisor of Literacy and Learning Sheila Bertoni suggested that parents can get a leg up on their children’s readiness by choosing quality fiction for them as well as giving them opportunities to digest nonfiction material that can be found in children’s magazines, newspapers and other authentic documents. Exposing children to age-appropriate newspaper articles and having “real life discussions” about them is also encouraged, she adds.
“In college and careers, there’s a lot of technical reading that needs to be done,” says Bertoni, adding that the breadth and scope of the new reading requirements will help students get smarter in other subjects as well, including science and social studies.
The new writing portion of the ELA standards focuses more on presenting logical arguments based on claims, providing solid reasoning and relevant evidence, in addition to requiring students to delve into opinion writing, even at the kindergarten through fifth-grade levels. Short, focused research projects, similar to the kind of work that is expected in the real world, as well as in-depth research projects, are other important facets of the writing requirement.
Bertoni likens it to helping students “get smarter,” particularly when they are handling primary source documents, such as those they might collect on a class trip or family vacation. Such documents can develop the skill of finding evidence to support their arguments, forming judgments and becoming all-round scholars, she notes.
Learning to Love Math
Even if math is their least enjoyable subject, Common Core consultant Peggy Golden says the new standards can make the subject more appealing to students, providing them with a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts.
Math is an area of the curriculum that has been undergoing change for years without much success, explains Golden, who is one of hundreds of experts writing curriculum models intended to align with the newly implemented mandate.
While the Common Core asks that teachers spend more time on fewer concepts, in the case of math instruction, that also means helping students make sense of the problems and encouraging them to persevere when trying to solve them. Giving students the opportunity to discuss their answers in class by constructing viable arguments and even critiquing the reasoning of others is also required.
Ann Rose Santoro, a third-grade teacher in the Port Chester School District who participates in the state’s Common Core Ambassador Program, says curriculum development is different this time around because the course modules she and others are working on are original concepts as opposed to previous teaching modules that instructors may have gleaned from publishing company textbooks.
The ambassador program, spearheaded by the state Education Department, seeks to inform and support the implementation of the CCSS through a network of effective and carefully selected teachers and principals who then bring what they’ve learned to other educators in their respective school districts.
For the first time in her 25-year career as a teacher, Santoro says she is excited about the prospects for students and teachers, as they will be provided with clearer goals and benchmarks to ensure that students are achieving certain skills and knowledge. “It feels like my first year of teaching again because I’m motivated to learn more and to share it with others.”
One Size Fits All
While there are plenty of opponents to Common Core, one man has made it his mission to highlight what he believes is an “unrealistic” education mandate. Kris Nielsen, a former science teacher and author of the book, Children of the Core (CreateSpace, 2013), says the CCSS is a one-size-fits-all solution to a perceived education crisis.
“Our education system was not broken on a national scale to begin with,” notes Nielsen, an upstate New York resident. “The Common Core and Race to the Top initiatives were a response to a threat that does not exist. The media helped spread the word that the United States was falling behind, which is why RTTT and CCSS were so easy to sell. The fact is, we were making great strides before this change.”
Nielsen says that in the past, teachers were integrating and diversifying their lessons so that learning was more interesting, especially important in the 21st century when the ability to understand how things work and how to communicate effectively with people is required.
“Our students must graduate from high school with the flexibility and skills to approach and think through many types of problems. The CCSS narrows that learning to a very specific skill set,” he adds.
In addition, Nielsen says the new standards do not represent important needs in math or English education, especially important if, for example, nonfiction texts are being introduced to children before they are proficient readers. Nor do they take into account the requirements of individual learners, especially children with special needs or even gifted students.
The architects of the standards say the education of well-rounded students is an integral part of the plan and that the clearer standards will help teachers integrate learning across all subject areas. The standards, they add, do not dictate what teachers should teach, but encourage them to devise lesson plans and tailor instruction to the individual needs of their students.
Port Chester resident Yvonne Gasperino is unwilling to sit on the sidelines. “When you peel away the layers of Common Core, it appears to be very dangerous,” she says. One of the most egregious, she adds, is the data mining of students’ personal information.
According to the Council of Chief State School Officers, one of the organizations that had a role in the creation of the Common Core, there are no data collection requirements being asked of individual states. “The means of assessing students and the data that results from those assessments are up to the discretion of each state and are separate and unique from the CCSS,” it states.
Gasperino, who heads up the effort, “Stop Common Core in New York State,” doesn’t buy it. She says the proposed tracking system is like watching “rats in a lab” and is a way for groups to harvest information without parental consent.
The mother of two is also concerned because the mandate was not tested before being rolled out and that corporate America has had a significant role in the implementation of the standards, referring specifically to the Gates Foundation-funded consultants and testing company representatives who worked with other groups to craft it.
“Instead of Bill Gates taking a wrecking ball to thriving school districts where they have a superior curriculum, why not take his billions of dollars and inject that money into a school district that needs it?”
Rather than looking at Common Core as a cure-all, Common Core expert and Rutgers University professor Marc Aronson says educators need to look at current and past assessment results, identify where the shortfalls existed and then decide how they can be improved upon. Questions like, what was done right or wrong with the old system, what helped us and what held us back are all important to ask, he adds.
Because children are naturally curious, Aronson says it’s important to provide them with materials that are appealing to them. “The world our kids are entering contains knowledge that is changing all the time. We have to train them to think, not train them to memorize.”
Colette Connolly is a freelance writer who frequently contributes to Westchester Family. She reports on a variety of topics, including health, education and family matters. Colette resides in the Bronxville area.
Resources
You can find more information on the new Common Core State Standards by visiting these websites:
Common Core Standards Initiative
Opposing opinions can be found here:
Stop Common Core in New York and its accompanying Facebook page.
