Monday, May 04, 2015

The truth about Common Core standards

This from Joe Gerth, who gets it right, in the Courier-Journal:
Truth is generally a casualty in political battles and there's not an issue that's suffered more wounds in this year's Kentucky governor's race than the Common Core academic standards that Kentucky adopted in 2010.

At a recent debate, all the Republican candidates for governor criticized the standards and either flat out said or implied that if elected, they would repeal the standards.

Matt Bevin says Common Core federal "overreach"
Louisville businessman Matt Bevin claimed that under the standards, students aren't being required to learn their multiplication tables. Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said that under the standards, "two plus two doesn't equal four anymore."

Former Chief Justice Will T. Scott said he was glad he graduated from high school in 1965, "before the federal government came in and said we're here to help you."

And former Louisville Metro Council member Hal Heiner recommended getting rid of Common Core but in an interview later, couldn't name one problem with the standards other than the fact that the federal government has endorsed it.

"I am for high standards, but I am not for the federal government deciding month to month or year to year what those standards should be."

The fact is, there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding the standards and the candidates are out peddling them.

Common Core came from an initiative of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, which set out to create a system of benchmarks for students in an effort to set basic standards that students should strive for around the nation.

The problem was that some states frankly weren't producing college-ready and job-ready students and such benchmarks were supposed to help ensure that students would succeed after matriculating.

But at some point the standards went astray — when President Barack Obama's education department endorsed the program and began tying federal educational funding to adoption of the curriculum.

U.S. News & World Report said that "backlash and cries of government overreach bubbled to the surface when the Obama administration slowly pumped up its support for Common Core."

Kentucky was the first state to adopt the standards, in part because of Republican efforts to replace the old CATS test which many in the GOP opposed because it was an outgrowth of the Kentucky Education Reform Act, because it assessed schools rather than individual students and because it gave no indication of how Kentucky students were matching up to those in other states.

In 2009, the legislature passed Senate Bill 1 that called for the state to ditch the old CATS test and adopt a national test that would assess students and allow the state to compare educational attainment against other states.Additionally, the bill called for adoption of national and international benchmarks for students. It was sponsored by Republican Senate leaders at the time, as well as current floor leader Damon Thayer, of Georgetown, and given the designation SB 1 to convey its importance. Comer voted for the measure.

In 2010, the state rather than go about the lengthy and expensive effort to create its own benchmarks and curriculum, adopted the Common Core standards, which creators went to great lengths to draw up without input from the federal government in an effort to avoid criticism of federal overreach.

Under common core, schools do have latitude in the way they teach which, which may lead to some schools deciding that rote memorization or other age-old methods of learning aren't the best option now.

But when Bevin said students aren't required to memorize multiplication tables because of Common Core, he was flat wrong. My daughter goes to a Common Core school and she has a quiz on multiplication tables every week.

Decisions like that are being made locally, if they are being made. That's exactly the type of freedom the candidates are calling for when they stress local control.

And when Bevin complained about "10 is your friend," he was talking about a strategy for adding numbers, which frankly, I struggled with at first when my daughter brought it home. It encourages younger kids to understand the relationships that exist between numbers and helps those who struggle with adding the old fashioned way to get right answers.

When Comer said that under Common Core, "two plus two doesn't equal four anymore," I assume he's talking about the fact that students can get credit for employing the right techniques to get an answer, even if they ultimately get the wrong answer.

We used to call it partial credit, when I was a kid.

But whatever, Common Core isn't a liberal conspiracy. The U.S. Army has endorsed it. So has the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Some have argued that Common Core standards aren't rigorous enough and should be toughened. That's a conversation worth having, but candidates have a responsibility to keep the discussion smart.
They aren't doing that now.

2 comments:

Richard Innes said...

Actually, Joe Gerth doesn’t get it all right, either.

Part 1

For example, he writes, “But at some point the standards went astray — when President Barack Obama's education department endorsed the program and began tying federal educational funding to adoption of the curriculum.”

The truth is the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA) invited the federal government’s money and involvement early on in the CCSS development process. If you look at the Memorandum of Agreement (online here: http://www.freedomkentucky.org/images/c/c6/2009_CCSS_Commitment_MOA_from_Open_Recs_Request.pdf) that Governor Beshear signed in May of 2009 with the CCSSO and NGA, you will find on the last page a discussion of a “Federal Role” in the standards. The feds didn’t horn in. The CCSSO and NGA invited federal involvement in the Common Core initiative early on. That invited involvement included funding, funding-based incentives, support for new CCSS assessments and teacher PD, to name just a few areas. President Obama and Arne Duncan were invited to the party almost from the start.

Furthermore, it is hard to believe that two Washington-savvy groups like the CCSSO and the NGA would not know that federal strings always follow federal money.

Gerth also writes, “In 2009, the legislature passed Senate Bill 1 that called for the state to ditch the old CATS test and adopt a national test….”

The only place a Word search of the Enrolled Version of SB-1 from 2009 shows the term “National Test” appearing is in regards to some comments about the ACT. However, the ACT is not appropriate for use at all grade levels and clearly does not meet other requirements for the new SB-1 required assessments. The closest I think we get to what Gerth asserts are references to getting national norms from the new state program, but the overall assessment discussed is clearly to be a state developed assessment, created by people here in Kentucky. There was no mandate to adopt a “national test.” For that matter, there was no direction or permission to wholesale adopt a national set of standards instead of standards developed by Kentuckians, in Kentucky, under Kentucky’s open records and open meetings rules, for Kentuckians.

Richard Innes said...

Actually, Joe Gerth doesn’t get it all right, either.

Part 2

It’s worth noting that what the Kentucky Department of Education produced – the KPREP – does not provide nationally comparable norms (except for a companion nationally normed standardized achievement test). The main KPREP results cannot be compared to other states. That point was emphasized in 2013 when the first results from New York’s new CCSS-aligned assessments came out. Cautions were immediately issued that the New York results could not be compared to Kentucky’s even though both tests were supposedly aligned to the CCSS. The two states’ Common Core tests were not “common.”

Gerth says, “Additionally, the bill called for adoption of national and international benchmarks for students.”

No, it didn’t. What the bill says is “Consider international benchmarks.” While the final Kentucky standards were to compare well against the best national and international standards, the final benchmarks were to be developed in Kentucky, by Kentuckians. The final decision on the standards was not to be made by Work Groups operating under secret conditions and populated by not one person from Kentucky. That is how Common Core was developed, however.

Gerth needs to spend more time with SB-1, including investigating how the current KPREP really does not comply with the bill’s requirements. While some things the candidates are saying are not quite right either, Gerth really doesn’t do any better.

Gerth’s closing comments are valuable. He says, “Some have argued that Common Core standards aren't rigorous enough and should be toughened. That's a conversation worth having….”

The facts are that Common Core math essentially cuts off after the 10th grade year for any student wanting to go on to more demanding colleges and STEM careers. Trigonometry subjects and pre-calculus are not included by intent of the people who wrote CCSS. That isn’t the right answer for Kentucky and it isn’t what legislators who co-sponsored SB-1 in 2009 intended, either. The legislation intended that the final standards would compare well to the most demanding national and international standards and serve the needs of all students, including “Advanced Learners.” Common Core and KPREP fall short of that requirement and need work.