What if President Obama was anti-Common Core?

The president and other powerful men, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Bill Gates quickly come to mind, have pushed the Common Core so hard that 45 states have adopted it, virtually without question.

It's no secret that President Obama is very much in favor of the Common Core State Standards. Just about every speech he delivers on education centers around higher standards and accountability.

Via: WashingtonPost.com

With these omnipresent bureaucrats touting the Common Core as the be all, end all of education reform, many education publishers, consultants and other opportunists are churning out Common Core success programs faster than you can say, "Race to the Top."

For their part, public school teachers participate robotically in professional development sessions about teaching Common Core Standards as readily as they create seating charts and distribute textbooks. Why? Because they are told by administrators to do so, regardless of the fact that there is little if any evidence that the Common Core is effective.

Still, the Common Core marches forward, with teachers beating the drums that carry its beat, mainly because they feel they have no other choice. What if the table turned, though?

What if President Obama and his cronies were against the Common Core? What if Arne Duncan preached the deleterious effects of standardization, and what if Bill Gates said he'd only give money to districts practicing 21st-century progressive methods?

Is it possible that publishing companies, like Pearson, might suddenly turn out teachers guides on project-based learning? Might books like Role Reversal become New York Times Bestsellers?

I say, for just one moment, let all educators, administrators and teachers alike, pretend that President Obama hates the Common Core. How would your school and your classroom change?

Isn't it time to take back American education?


Cross posted at ASCDEdge.org

Don't miss ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com and Mark's new book, The 5-Minute Teacher: How do I maximize time for learning in my classroom

Is the College Board dooming higher ed?

According to Education Week, the College Board is aligning four of its testing programs with Common Core State Standards, in an effort to assess students' mastery of skills in literacy and math, as outlined by the standards.

Credit: Crmoony.com

Instead of making a move to evaluate students on their body of work, the College Board is falling into line with bureaucrats and the publishing lobby, in their move to label students' abilities and achievements, based on ill-conceived learning outcomes and high stakes tests.

Am I the only one who finds this decision more than a little confounding? What possible incentive could the College Board have to align itself with a system that has not proven that it can effectively evaluate students?

For years -- mainly since No Child Left Behind was enacted -- professors have complained that students enter college unprepared for the intellectual challenges it brings. Now, they will assess so-called mastery of skills with standards that claim to be different, yet have no history of success. In fact, the Common Core is under so much fire that some states are considering abandoning it completely.

It seems that the College Board is taking an "If-you-can't-beat-them-join-them" approach, which may ultimately doom higher education as much as the Common Core may doom K-12 schools.

Don't miss ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com and Mark's new book, The 5-Minute Teacher: How do I maximize time for learning in my classroom

Why I'm against the Common Core

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mike Forest stirred up a bit of a hornet's nest. In this video, Forest vilifies the Common Core State Standards, which his state is now reconsidering.

I first learned of this from an intelligent blogger and educator, Steven Weber, who takes Forest to task in his post here. Then, fellow ASCD author, Mike Fisher, took the reins in his own response to Forest.

As much as I value the insights of both Weber and Fisher, inspiring and articulate educators, I must respectfully disagree with both and, as much as it pains me to side with a politician, I agree with most of what Forest says in his YouTube attack on the CCSS.

Readers of my book, Role Reversal, know I'm staunchly agains standardization of any kind. While many of my esteemed colleagues at ASCDEDge blog about the merits of the Common Core, I am more than willing to be the stentorian voice against it. While it's easy to join the masses, who fall in line with the district administrators and state bureaucrats who praise the Common Core as the answer to failing American education, I simply can't join this fraternity.

My issues are simple enough. 

1. Standardization of education is just wrong.This is exactly why parents take their children out of public schools. They want something different, inspiring and unique for their children.
2. I already collaborate with teachers nationwide. The notion that the Common Core makes it easier for teachers to collaborate is ludicrous and insulting. Some of my best ideas for instruction have come from attending conferences and chats on Twitter and other social networks with smart, experienced educators.
3. Politically-driven education initiatives put private companies in charge. Not to be too cynical, but it's difficult for me to see the Common Core as much more than opportunity for education publishers and consulting firms to make more money. For years, workbooks poured in to our classrooms, all designed to help our students pass "The Test." Now, they must be discarded. Ah, not to worry though. There are plenty of new "Master-the-Common Core" books on the way and many consultants showing veteran teachers how to teach with new standards. (That last sentence makes me nauseous.)
4. The old way wasn't broken. What money-hungry bureaucrats don't want people focusing on is the fact that prior to NCLB and CCSS, education was just fine. Teachers used to focus on helping students become thinkers and problem-solvers. They collaborated, graduated, went to college and flourished. Now, we teach students how to pass a test, yet scores continue to decline. I'm not sure how the Common Core will change this. Some say with depth and rigor; I've seen the standards, and I just don't see this.
5. The problem in education is poverty. As noted researcher Stephen Krashen has alluded to for decades, the problem in education is that poverty-stricken children don't value school, so they don't regularly attend. Remove the impoverished from test scores, and America leaps to the top in the world, at least using this misleading barometer. Sadly, instead of trying to end poverty, we continue to give billions of dollars to organizations like Pearson, so it can churn out more workbooks.

So, with due respect to my colleagues, brilliant people with good intentions, I am against the Common Core and all that it stands for.

This is cross posted at ASCD EDge


Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com

The Common Core Monster

Cross posted at ASCD EDge

The education blogosphere is rife with posts about the Common Core State Standards. This monster is approaching fast, and it's scarier than any of Spiderman's evil foes (pick your movie version).
Think I'm overstating? Check out what one blogger says:

"Ultimately, state leaders—educators among them—need to decide what expectations students across the state will be held to."

This perspective underscores the danger that the monster presents. Why should a state leader, who has never been in my classroom, who has no idea of the needs of my students, decide what the expectations are?

This arrogant notion CCSS authors have -- that they know what's best for my students -- is as bad, perhaps worse, than the monster we currently have.

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in February by world education leader, ASCD

No common sense to Common Core

I found this in the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts:

Certain measures are less valid or inappropriate for certain kinds of texts. Current quantitative measures are suitable for prose and dramatic texts. Until such time as quantitative tools for capturing poetry’s difficulty are developed, determining whether a poem is appropriately complex for a given grade or grade band will necessarily be a matter of a qualitative assessment meshed with reader-task considerations.

Huh? If you can explain it, please do so, because I can't make sense of it.