Today I was invited to join a
friend on her visit to a local New Hampshire elementary school. She wanted to
look at the textbooks that will be used in order to align curriculum to the new
Common Core Standards in English and Mathematics.
…As
we began looking at the new Math and English series, he [the principal]
showed us the Everyday Math program and the McGraw-Hill English writing series.
He mentioned that although Everyday Math has been used for several years, it was
recently updated to align with Common Core.
…I
was looking for more important information. For instance: are schools forced to use the Common Core aligned “assessment”? His
answer was YES. He said that the Common Core aligned -Smarter Balanced
Assessment was mandated by the State of New Hampshire.
Several months ago, Commissioner Barry from the New Hampshire Department
of Education told a room full of legislators that the adoption of Common Core
Standards by local schools was
“voluntary”.
Now one would think that if the
Common Core aligned assessment was being mandated by the State of New Hampshire,
Commissioner Barry would be honest and explain that while the adoption of the standards may
be voluntary, the schools are essentially forced into aligning their curriculum
with the Common Core standards. So the term “voluntary” doesn't really mean it's
voluntary at all.
If the schools are forced to use
a Common Core aligned “test” and their curriculum is NOT properly aligned with
the Common Core standards the fear is that the students will not score well on
the standardized test. What we are setting up here is a de-facto national
curriculum that school districts will not be able to avoid.
New Hampshire recently applied
for a waiver from No Child Left Behind. In that waiver application, the NH
Department of Education had to
agree to hold schools accountable if their students did not perform well on the
Common Core aligned test.
Currently there is pending legislation (SB48) that
redefines schools that are low performing and calls them: “Priority" or "Focus”
schools.
Within this legislation, the
district must come up with a plan to remediate the situation. If that plan is
not sufficient, ultimately the New Hampshire Department of Education steps in to
help remediate the school.
How will the DOE help remediate the
school? One can safely assume it will be through a plan that suggests aligning
their curriculum to the Common Core standards. How else do you improve on a
Common Core aligned test? Remember, this is all supposed to be
voluntary.
There are other ways the Common Core
Initiative is getting schools and states to comply. Tying a teacher’s evaluation
to the standardized test is a way to get teachers to comply and teach to the
Common Core aligned standardized test.
If schools refuse to adopt Common
Core Standards, they lose Federal funding through the federal Lunch and Title
funding. This funding is used to help the children most in need.
My friend was wise enough to ask how the Feds
could use money as a punishment, especially since that money is targeted towards
the most vulnerable children in our public schools. Remember, this is supposed to be
voluntary.
As we were nearing the end of
our meeting, I flipped through the new Common Core aligned textbooks that were
just purchased. One of the complaints with the Common Core English standards
is the reduction in fictional or classical literature in favor of informational
texts and manuals.
I was able to snap a picture of one
example. There was a reference to a known political activist who has been
described as a Marxist: Cesar Chavez.
My friend caught a story about a boy
who wanted to change a law on bicycle helmets and how to go about organizing the
community to become politically active. I wasn’t able to get a picture of that example
but within these English textbooks, there was an attempt
to sow the seeds of political activism in children.
Introducing a political activist and political
activism outside the context of a political classroom adds a propaganda element
to what is supposed to be an academic class in English and writing.
It is not a matter of whether one agrees with
the philosophy of Chavez or whether a helmet law is a good idea, it affirms the
criticism that public schools are using children for political purposes. When
children are used for political purposes there is a direct cost to students in
our public schools. That cost is: LITERACY.
Does Common Core fix this problem or ignore
it? According to what I saw both in math and English, the problem of illiteracy
will not be fixed.
We are essentially asking schools to follow
another reform effort, buy new materials, pay for professional development but
continue to ignore the biggest problems.
The two academic content experts
that sat on the Common Core Validation Committee (Prof. Sandra Stotsky, English
and Prof. James Milgram, Mathematics) refused to sign off on the Common Core
standards. Parents should take time to research these experts and read why they
do not believe these standards should be adopted. They identify the numerous
flaws and now we can see that the textbooks and programs reflect those flaws.
…English/Language Arts is a core
subject that should be free of political bias. Math education should require
mastery of basic math facts and if that program is failing students, parents
should not have to turn to tutoring services to fill in those gaps.
Political education should be introduced at an
age appropriate grade level and all views, opinions and facts should be
presented.
Common Core has been criticized
fairly when it comes to the poor quality of the standards and how these
standards will be used to push a political agenda in the classroom. It’s now up
to the parents to demand better for their children instead of finding out that
their children were educated to become political activists at the expense of
literacy.
