The underlying message is that Common Core standards are so excellent
and unique that states attempting to distance themselves from them
won’t do any better.
Yet this message is incorrect, and Common Core is dying. Consider the following. First, the curricula of high achieving nations vary widely.
Singapore’s curriculum differs from Japan’s, which in turn differs from
Hong Kong’s. Pretending that Common Core succeeded in finding the unique and
perfect combination where others failed—and without any evidence of
success—is both arrogant and foolish. Further,
all serious studies have
found Common Core academically mediocre, trailing behind international
high achievers in its expectations. As for the proponents’ definition of
“alignment,” they consider having the same content but in a different
grade as “aligned.”
One is forced to conclude that Common Core’s
“excellence” exists only in the mind of its peddlers.
But mediocre academics are not the reason for Common Core’s death.
Rather, its death comes because states are abandoning its goal of
lock-step national uniformity.
A five point decline in NAEP would mean that eighth graders in 2015 were
roughly six months of school behind eighth graders in 2013. The same
calculations using the more conservative actual decline of three points
leads to an estimated loss of roughly four months of school. This is serious.
I’ve examined this issue empirically by exploring whether
differences among states in the 2015 versus 2013 NAEP results in
mathematics are associated with differences among states in whether
students participated in a full blown Common Core assessment through one
of the two assessment consortia (Smarter Balanced, and PARCC) at the end
of the 2014-2015 school year. Twenty-eight states participated in a
full blown Common Core assessment whereas 22 did not."
How can an entirely different exam effect the outcome of this - or
any to be more inclusive - exam?
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Easy. In spite of the excessive time spent in the actual
administration (so much that the testing process collapsed entirely in
some states), FAR more time was spent in preparation for them.
Combined with the implicit non-teaching aspects of Constructivism
(blessed nationally by the Standards for Mathematical Practice of the
CCSS-M), the explicit non-teaching aspects of learning how to put
numeric/symbolic answers down in a form that the computer will accept
them and to write a bunch of BS pretending to have achieved "deeper
understanding", a great deal of time that should have been devoted
to the teaching and learning of mathematics in a zero-sum, math-time
situation was lost.
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Quick View - CCSS created Math Chaos and scores declined ... When can we stop? Do not ask permission demand this stop.
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