Arne Duncan: ‘White suburban moms’ upset that Common Core shows their kids aren’t...

[Gingersnap]

[QUOTE]

Arne Duncan: ‘White suburban moms’ upset that Common Core shows their kids aren’t ‘brilliant’
BY VALERIE STRAUSS
November 16, 2013 at 6:11 pm


(Update: Adding more on opposition to Core, where Duncan spoke)
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents Friday that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

Yes, he really said that. But he has said similar things before. What, exactly, is he talking about?
In his cheerleading for the controversial Common Core State Standards — which were approved by 45 states and the District of Columbia and are now being implemented across the country (though some states are reconsidering) — Duncan has repeatedly noted that the standards and the standardized testing that goes along with them are more difficult than students in most states have confronted.

The Common Core was designed to elevate teaching and learning. Supporters say it does that; critics say it doesn’t and that some of the standards, especially for young children, are not developmentally appropriate. Whichever side you fall on regarding the Core’s academic value, there is no question that their implementation in many areas has been miserable — so miserable that American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, a Core supporter, recently compared it to another particularly troubled rollout:

You think the Obamacare implementation is bad? The implementation of the Common Core is far worse.

New York was the first large state to implement the standards and give students new standardized tests supposedly aligned with the Core. Test scores plummeted earlier this year. State officials had predicted the scores would drop 30 percent — and that’s exactly what happened. (How they could predict that with such accuracy was addressed in a previous Answer Sheet post.) Opposition to the standards, both their content and their implementation, has been growing in New York (and other states) among teachers, principals, superintendents and parents, some of whom have refused to allow their children to take the exams.

More. Could this quote be made about Hispanic Moms? Black inner city Moms?

Wa Po

[Gingersnap]

LOL! This story is now being yakked about on local radio. I guess the White Suburban Moms finally got a chance to read the news.

[Billy Jingo]

More. Could this quote be made about Hispanic Moms? Black inner city Moms?

Probably not since they are told constantly that their schools suck and their kids are morons.

[Novaheart]

Probably not since they are told constantly that their schools suck and their kids are morons.

You've never watched a school and community be destroyed overnight, have you?

I have. I won't forget it. I won't shut up about it. And I won't let Rachel Maddow mock me into submission on the subject.

[Billy Jingo]

You've never watched a school and community be destroyed overnight, have you?

I have. I won't forget it. I won't shut up about it. And I won't let Rachel Maddow mock me into submission on the subject.

Good for you.

[Michele]

[QUOTE=Gingersnap;12711]

More. Could this quote be made about Hispanic Moms? Black inner city Moms?

Wa Po

I think this could definitely be true.

[Gingersnap]

Probably not since they are told constantly that their schools suck and their kids are morons.

Really? In Colorado we are constantly told that inner city children and the children of illegal aliens are the smartest, most promising demographic in the 5 - 18 age range. If they test poorly compared to a nearby school, the problem is usually believed to be cultural - too many over-eager parents at inner-city, diverse school B and not enough at inner-city, diverse school A.

Who knew Texas would be so different?

[Celeste Chalfonte]

We are a highly mobile society. There should be some basic standards that all schools follow, so that kids moving from one state to another don't find themselves completely academically out of step with their age peers. Especially in the lower grades, we need to ensure that a 5th-grader who moves from Georgia to Maryland doesn't lose a year or more (as commonly happened when I was that age), or the parents of a 4th-grader from Iowa who move to Tennessee don't have to choose between their child wasting a year while his age peers catch up or paying for private school.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that Common Core, as it presently exists, is any kind of reasonable answer. I haven't encountered it personally, but it certainly seems to have a lot of detractors who aren't some kind ideologues.

[Novaheart]

We are a highly mobile society. There should be some basic standards that all schools follow, so that kids moving from one state to another don't find themselves completely academically out of step with their age peers. Especially in the lower grades, we need to ensure that a 5th-grader who moves from Georgia to Maryland doesn't lose a year or more (as commonly happened when I was that age), or the parents of a 4th-grader from Iowa who move to Tennessee don't have to choose between their child wasting a year while his age peers catch up or paying for private school.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that Common Core, as it presently exists, is any kind of reasonable answer. I haven't encountered it personally, but it certainly seems to have a lot of detractors who aren't some kind ideologues.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is an education initiative in the United States that details what K-12 students should know in English language arts and mathematics at the end of each grade. The initiative is sponsored by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and seeks to establish consistent education standards across the states as well as ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit-bearing courses at two- or four-year college programs or enter the workforce.[1]

It doesn't sound any different from what ought to have been in place, and what our educators employed when we were students. They must have been using some standard to determine "at grade level" or "above grade level" and of course they used the Iowa Test Of Basic Skills. So since we're being told that what seems basic and familiar is "new" (and upsetting) then I am going to assume that one of two things has happened:

1- Either they really did dumb down the school system after our time in it…. or
2- This is more bullshit.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is an education initiative in the United States that details what K-12 students should know in English language arts and mathematics at the end of each grade. The initiative is sponsored by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and seeks to establish consistent education standards across the states as well as ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit-bearing courses at two- or four-year college programs or enter the workforce.[1]

It doesn't sound any different from what ought to have been in place, and what our educators employed when we were students. They must have been using some standard to determine "at grade level" or "above grade level" and of course they used the Iowa Test Of Basic Skills. So since we're being told that what seems basic and familiar is "new" (and upsetting) then I am going to assume that one of two things has happened:

1- Either they really did dumb down the school system after our time in it…. or
2- This is more bullshit.

Some of each, I think. The private schools in Florida still mostly use the ITBS or a comparable measure, the CTBS (not sure what the C stands for). For some reason, mostly having to do with massive cronyism, I suspect, the public schools use the notorious FCAT, a ridiculous test that was developed at great cost just for Florida public schools.

[Gramps]

We are a highly mobile society. There should be some basic standards that all schools follow, so that kids moving from one state to another don't find themselves completely academically out of step with their age peers. Especially in the lower grades, we need to ensure that a 5th-grader who moves from Georgia to Maryland doesn't lose a year or more (as commonly happened when I was that age), or the parents of a 4th-grader from Iowa who move to Tennessee don't have to choose between their child wasting a year while his age peers catch up or paying for private school.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that Common Core, as it presently exists, is any kind of reasonable answer. I haven't encountered it personally, but it certainly seems to have a lot of detractors who aren't some kind ideologues.

I had an ad hoc with a couple of friends this week about common core. Both came through traditional or 'sort of transitional' education (they are more than 30 yrs younger than me) and have kids in elementary.

One of them gave me a demonstration of subtraction in the 4th grade.
It worked, but it had zero movement into later concepts.

I laughed.
I asked, how will they apply that to algebra?

No answer.

[Gingersnap]

If the point of Common Core is position American students advantageously in a global employment market (and that's the bottom line point), then looking at how similar Western nations do that would be smart. We would have to fine tune those ideas to compensate for chaotic families, high legal and illegal immigration, and 50 years of made-up pedagogy but it could be done.

Common Core just isn't going to get us there.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

I had an ad hoc with a couple of friends this week about common core. Both came through traditional or 'sort of transitional' education (they are more than 30 yrs younger than me) and have kids in elementary.

One of them gave me a demonstration of subtraction in the 4th grade.
It worked, but it had zero movement into later concepts.

I laughed.
I asked, how will they apply that to algebra?

No answer.

My 4th-grade class was a test group for the "new math" or "Cleveland math." We spent that whole year on set theory and a little base 2. Set theory has a place. That place is not the spot where decimals used to be. Fourth grade was when the rest of the world got serious about fractions and learned decimals. When my father found out I was coloring in Venn diagrams instead, we suddenly had TWO sets of homework. For school I colored and learned about intersection and whatnot and a few pre-algebra concepts. For Dad I learned how to do fractions and turn them into decimals. Guess which one was more useful, both in school and in the real world.

[Michele]

While there is nothing wrong with some common sense standards for schools, Common Core isn't the solution. What is it? It's a nationally mandated educational reform of one-size-fits-all, and a national data collection system of students from K-12 or college that even asks how much family income do you have, and up to 400 other little pieces of information that are supposed to follow you throughout your life. The cost to implement this program is expected to be astronomical to already tightly squeezed school districts and profit companies like Microsoft significantly.

[Gingersnap]

I wonder how many parents really know about the data collection end of this project.

We already know that no government database is either accurate or secret so that should be alarming on its own. Worse are some of the metrics. Does anybody really believe that data on religion, drug use, gun ownership, or income will simply be kept and not eventually used? And used for what?