He also invited all Kentuckians to dig deeper than simply echoing current right-wing political rhetoric and offer changes or provide specific tweaks to the standards which have now been operating in the state for 5 years.
With Kentucky House Education Chair Derek Graham and representatives from a number of education groups present Holliday challenged educational professionals to read the standards, consider whether the standards are placed at the appropriate grade levels, edit them, and let KDE know if they have missed any standards, all for the purpose of helping each of our children continue down the road to college- and career-readiness.
The Commissioner remarked that nationally "common core standards" has been made a polarizing term such that political opinions have taken control over the standards themselves. He called for Kentucky to demonstrate its leadership - not by being for or against common core - but by focusing on what our children should know and be able to do to be ready for college and life.
He expressed his sincere hope that the greatest number of people accepting the challenge will be teachers, parents and college educators. He suggested small group meetings and parent feedback parties. He suggested that folks should get together and give a few comments back if you have concerns. And also let us know if you don't have concerns. We need to know both positions."But don't tell us its a communist conspiracy to take over our kids," he said, "tell us how to fix them."
The website will be open through April 30th. The commissioner will report the results of the challenge publicly, and take revisions to the Kentucky Board of Education and then to the General Assembly.
"It is a process that I hope will change the conversation," Holliday said.
5 comments:
Wow, this just keeps getting better, now we have gone from "experts" developing common core to just letting general population determine curriculum. Its like some sort pop culture audience feedback TV show, except instead of deciding which dancer or singer gets voted off, we are going to let Kentuckians decide what standards to keep, change or discard. This is so sad that he would cram this stuff down teachers throats and then after the fact when he seeks some feedback he goes to non educators to make the determination. Right now I feel about as empowered as an educator as barnacle on a old ship.
Interesting take on it...the KCAS Challenge, in my mind, as a classroom teacher, is my opportunity to voice my opinion of what is working and not working in the classroom.
So I suppose it depends on perspective. If you want something else to complain about, well then, have at it. If, instead, you are interested in actually shaping the standards to reflect the needs of your students, then this is an opportunity for you to take the problems you see in the standards, address them head on and offer a solutions-oriented mindset through this process.
I get that you feel disenfranchised and far from empowered. We all have. But isolation in our classrooms is on us at this point. We are capable of driving our own profession. There is no time for passivity.
Take action.
SNL could do a skit about Kentucky and its dance with the standards. Having adopted them before they were final and now when they are official,they want the person on the street to rewrite them.
Is this Alice in Wonderland?
SNL could do a skit about Kentucky and its dance with the standards. Having adopted them before they were final and now when they are official,they want the person on the street to rewrite them.
Is this Alice in Wonderland?
I agree that teachers do not need to be passive and lay claim to their profession, but that should have started much, much earlier. The call should have gone directly to teachers (42,000)who have worked with the core, not the general public (4,300,000)who hasn't and probably won't read it. Let's face it, if the average Kentuckian hasn't read the Common Core now, I doubt he or she will at this point.
Equally, Com. Holliday wouldn't even be opening this up if it hadn't become some sort of political hot potato that he has no desire to become involved with. Seems like he should have been asking for input before we already committed so much time, energy and resources to integrating it all into our classes. Its like asking the entire extended family of the groom how they feel about the bride in an arranged marriage that happened four years ago. What's the point, they probably don't spend much time around her and she probably isn't going to change at this point anyway?
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