Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Common Core Standards & assessments

It appears our district/state is relying more and more on Common Core Standards to determine grade level expectations, instructional content, curriculum, etc. As a result our school is utilizing a particular assessment that apparently can predict student performance on common-core aligned standardized state testing. This particular assessment that our school uses also promises that with this given assessment they can then tailor the instruction for the student. Perhaps I'm biased and overly pessimistic because I'm opposed to high-stakes standardized testing (i.e. PARCC) and the amount of time spent testing, but I view these programs that advertise accuracy in predicting a student's standardized CC state test performance and then tailors student instruction to improve these scores as just a way to teach to a high-stakes test.

From a layperson's perspective I'd like to know the benefit of using these types of academic assessments over assessments such as MAPS, TERRA NOVA, ITBS, Explore, in particular to determine subject acceleration since that is the wall I'm up against right now. Part of my frustration about this is what my dd's 4th grade teacher feels needs to be mastered. First one is to be proficient in explaining in written form how a student solves a math problem. I think this is a good skill to have but preventing a student from moving on to higher, above grade-level math because this isn't mastered is frustrating to the student. Second, being able to learn multiple ways to solve/tackle/approach a math problem. Why do students who are mathematically talented need to learn multiple ways to solve problems? Growing up I had math teachers that would try to teach me certain ways to approach high school math but ultimately I had my preferred method for solving problems. I believe our brains are all wired differently, why should we be forcing students to learn all the ways to solve problems before moving on to a new math skill. Yes, teachers can present different tactics, approaches, or methods but why does the student need to be able to show proficiency with all of the methods? Why can't they just do what works for them?

My dd and her self-contained gifted class have been working on multiplication for the past 8+ weeks. The program she is in promised above grade level, accelerated instruction. It seems to me to be the complete opposite and it might possibly be a result of their performance on this assessment they took at the beginning of the school year that predicts Common Core standardized state test performance. If it's not directly related to this assessment, based on what the teacher told me it seems to be because they have to cover and master the grade 4 standards which are aligned to common core.

There may be another perspective here. If a student can't explain how she solved a problem, it's possible that she doesn't fully understand it. If this is the case, the lack of understanding can appear later and cause problems. I've seen this with my kids. I remember my DD doing percent-to-decimal conversions easily. She got lost a few days later when the same kind of problem was presented in a very different way (e.g. with different wording or from another perspective). I didn't understand why she was tripping up, until I went back to basics with her and realized that she hadn't internalized a concept. It's possible to be, err, algorithmically fluent while not understanding the concepts. If the base of poorly understood concepts gets to be too big, algebra and geometry can be very difficult.



It's important for students to have to perform different methods and then pick which ones work for them. It's good to know that there are other ways of doing something. But...forcing them to master them all seems to be extreme. It also seems like a waste of time to force mastery of 3 different ways to multiply 82*13. IMO, if the kid can consistently and coherently explain what she did ("I put a 0 on the second line because the 1 in 13 is really 10"), it's time to move on.


Remember that your daughter's teacher might not fully understand the concepts of K-8 math herself, and that she's under a lot of pressure over test scores. If the scores are too low, the school can get into trouble and the teacher's job might even be at risk. I agree that it's a bad system, but right now your DD and the teacher are stuck with it. The teacher may be stressed out that the kids won't pass the test and is making extra extra sure that they will. She might also not understand gifties. I agree that your description makes the situation sound bad for the kids, though. I'm just trying to explain where it came from without necessarily defending it!

Have you talked to the teacher and/or any of the other parents with kids in this class? It might be good to hear her perspective and if other people are unhappy, it's easier to create positive change.