Common Core: Does the Strategy Add Up?
FOX45 Baltimore
November 13, 2014
Last year, many Maryland schools began implementing new federal standards called Common Core.
The new system has been met with mixed reviews.
For years some educators have sung the praises of Common Core. Dr. Joe Hairston, former superintendent of Baltimore County Schools is among those who give the new standards very high marks.
“The Common Core is an evolution,” Hairston said. “It’s something that is good and it is for the future.”
However, some parents disagree, calling it a corporate-driven money-maker for those who write textbooks and tests.
“And really it’s an abandonment of many things that have worked, ” says parent Cindy Sharrett.
Sharretts is critical – in part, because the new curriculum was created mainly by corporate executives, with clear business interests.
“The large employers say, ‘This is what I’d like in a ready-made, potential employee,’” Sharretts said. “’And so would you please create that type of thinker and that type of producer.'”
Parents also have a problem with the way some educators are teaching “to the test,” meaning everything they do in the classroom is focused on new standardized exams. But at some schools, confusion has led to lower scores.
One mother explained to FOX 45, “Now you’ve got kids, because of Common Core standards, already thinking they’re failures at school before they’re not even at the age of 6 or 7 because they’re not reading at the proficiency determined by a corporate agenda.”
But proponents of Common Core say it encourages higher-order thinking and claim that most of the resistance comes from parents and teachers who weren’t properly prepared for changes.
“States in areas where there’s a lot of frustration and frustration…are those who’ve not had appropriate resources and support in professional development and those who have perhaps rushed into implementation.” Hairston said.
So why rush it in the first place ? Some blame the Feds.
“I think both opponents and proponents of the Common Core can agree on one thing – that when the federal government got involved, it’s where this really went awry,” Kara Kerwin from the Center for Education Reform in Washington DC said.
Kerwin says Common Core is often misunderstood and that states have interpreted the standards differently. In fact, she says there’s not much “common” about it.
“There’s a huge disconnect between what it actually is and what the content should be and then how to do it,” Kerwin said.
When the Obama administration began tying teacher assessments and “race to the top” grant money to the new tests, it caused some unnecessary panic.
Hairston explains, “I think the real issue at this point now is to clearly understand that the federal government has no constitutional responsibility to force the curriculum.”
The lack of clarity about Common Core is only part of what convinced Ann Miller to pull two of her children out of public school.
“With everything that I was learning, I became very alarmed,” Miller said.
Her main fear however is the data that’s being collected on students – from both exams and surveys. Its information the government and private companies will be able to access for many years to come and she questions — for what purpose?
“Children are actually the demographic that is most targeted for identity theft, by far,” Miller said. “So this is a gold mine here and our legislature and our school system is failing to protect our children.”
The fears surrounding Common Core are widespread and there’s still no real evidence that it will improve our educational system.
So critics remain skeptical…and educators, hopeful.
