...I fear that this misguided drive to standardize education and improve test scores is happening all across the country, and if not, at least in certain pockets.
I'm going to put in a plug for standards here. The Common Core is probably the single best development in US education in decades.
Our education system has serious problems. Fads like whole language reading, math with no right answers, and goofy tricks for solving problems are the norm. With so few subject experts teaching, there's a lot of susceptibility to these fads. The Common Core fixes a lot of that because the standards were developed by experts.
I agree with HowlerKarma (in another thread) that the rollout has been imperfect. However, the schools are as much to blame for this problem as anyone. It's not like someone came along and gave them a month to get ready. The change was scheduled and announced THREE YEARS ago.
Personally, my fear is that the textbook manufacturers aren't up to the task of writing books that accurately reflect the standards. The problem is worsened in math because many K-8 teachers don't understand mathematics. Many of them were taught fads or just had to memorize. Plus, contemporary textbooks don't offer any information about why stuff works, either.
So, it's no wonder that so many teachers are having trouble, but again, the schools have all known that the CC was coming for a long time. So did the textbook people. They all had plenty of time to look at this stuff and get ready.
That's what professionals do.I agree that the situation may be very frustrating for students and parents. But I also ask myself how many parents have bothered to look closely at the standards (very few, I suspect) and how many approached their school boards in 2010 or 2011 to ask how their schools were getting ready for the CC rollout. And I wonder how many parents are being fooled with misinformation coming from the shouters among us (a lot, I suspect).
