Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Video criticizing Common Core - a bit disturbing!

My state (MN) adopted language arts but not math, saying the state's standards are already higher than common core. You wouldn't guess it by looking at my kids' math though!

I wonder if there is any data anywhere showing which states have the best performance in math/reading. So how does MN compare for math with its own standards, which they say are already higher than Common Core?

PSAT statistics probably come closest to this, because there is no superscoring or anything to muddy the waters.

Take a look at what the "cut" scores are-- but unfortunately, they aren't parsed into verbal versus math-- it's a composite value.


Still--- if you look at just Massachusetts and Mississippi, you can see that there is quite a spread of expectations and performance by the time kids reach high school.

As I understand it, the precipitating event was NY parents calling out the system on the mis-match of the test and the curriculum being taught. You may have recently shared a similar concern of toxic educational practices regarding curriculum which doesn't seem to support the content that is evaluated by assessments?

In NY, Spring 2013 standardized testing was that for Common Core, while students were being taught with unrelated curriculum and content. Some have said the Common Core standardized tests were not more rigorous per se, just different, and may have made an example of how poorly students (as well as their teachers, schools, districts, and States) will fare if they do not follow Common Core and "teach to the test".

Meanwhile on the Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Education, "Homeroom", Arne Duncan issued a bit of an apology for his earlier statements, calling it "some clumsy phrasing that I regret... I singled out one group of parents". (link- http://www.ed.gov/blog/2013/11/high-standards-for-all-schools-and-students-everywhere)

Having read the transcript, I couldn't get this old movie quote out of my head, especially the second sentence:


It's bad enough he's conflating CCSS with test-based teacher evaluations, but I'm pretty sure the I saw the Founding Fathers turning in their graves when he implied that the Department of Education should be voting on things.

In that regard, he's accidentally highlighting a problem predating Common Core, where only 24% of high school seniors scored at "proficient" or above in civics: story

Let me give an analogy. If I saw a video of a student giving an impassioned plea to the school board to not teach evolution because it will turn all the kids into bank robbers and serial killers, then I might ask "why does this video exist?"

I wouldn't be looking for an answer like "because its existence is not precluded by the laws of physics".

Maybe I should ask, in whose agenda is this student a pawn, and why?

This may be... and yet according to the FAQ on the Common Core website, "common assessments that will be aligned to the standards and replace existing end of year state assessments. These assessments will be available in the 2014-2015 school year."

It was my understanding (and I may wrong) that these new assessments may be used for more than gauging student readiness for career/college... but may also be used to evaluate teacher efficacy?

I know I saw somewhere data at one point showing MN and Massachusets (and a couple other states) to be the highest performers. I'll look for it again. An international math test? With any test, it would have to be controlled for race, socioeconomic status, etc. to get a true picture of how the curriculum is working. States with a large percentage of high income white people (or Asians?) will do best.
My brother says that everyone in TX in his kids' school finds the standardized tests to be extremely easy. He was shocked when I told him that something like 40 percent of kids aren't considered proficient in math here. Well, the test is harder. So let's say we wanted to move to a different state. How do we figure out what schools or districts would be comparable to our own? We can't, because the state tests are completely different.

Found it! You can click on states and get scores.

Snort!

+1.

This was precisely the question I asked myself.

Yes, but...you also have to consider the test. A lot of these tests are watered down. For example, look at these sample questions from Massachusetts (grade 4). Question 1 is at the level of 2nd or 3rd grade. And COPYING (not plotting) a number line (question 3)? And adding labels, which proves that students recognize that 51 1/2 in a table is the same as 51 1/2 on a number line? The hardest part of that one is a basic subtraction problem in part c. That's just ridiculous.

Alternatively, I've dug reasonably deep into the K-8 CC math standards and find them to be on solid mathematical ground. Fourth grade students learn to plot fractions and equivalent fractions on number lines. They add and subtract fractions and use a number line to see how things fit together. They begin the rudiments of proofs in mathematics.

Everything is explained in a mathematically correct way. It all builds logically. There is no memorization of algorithms.