Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Chicago Teachers weigh in on Common Core

The Chicago teacher's union has weighed in on Common Core and it is not good.   Teachers around the country have issued concerns about Common Core, some valid and some not so much.   Of course, the first concern is a holdover from Race to the Top.   In order for states to get Race to the Top money they had to link teacher evaluations to some sort of objective student achievement measurement.   That link alone caused concern among teachers.
The along came Common Core with its, depending on your viewpoint, very high standards or developmentally inappropriate standards.   It didn't take very long for independent organizations to ramp up the issues by developing tests that would measure achievement on Common Core standards.

It was the perfect storm.  No Child Left Behind gave us high stakes testing, Race to the Top linked that testing to teacher evaluation and then Common Core set a very high bar for that testing and linkage.

In passing its resolution against Common Core, the Chicago teacher's union does not differentiate between the standards and their implementation.   The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have both supported the standards but not the implementation.  In voting against the standards, the Union has said that they "contain numerous developmentally inappropriate expectations", "reflect the interests and priorities of corporate education reformers" and "emphasize pedagogical techniques, such as close reading, out of proportion to the actual value of the methods".
In my view two out of three isn't bad.   I completely agree that the standards are extremely inappropriate for children's developmental level and also agree some of the methods emphasized are out of synch with reality.  Once these standards are fully implemented I think that situation will become even more evident.   You cannot decree development.   However, I think it is a good idea to align education with the workplace if we have any hope of preparing a work force that is ready for the work place.

No comments:

Post a Comment