The new Pioneer Institute review of the common standards credits the common standards with “considerable progress” between the January and March drafts, but claims that the standards writers have some work to do before the standards are “at least as good as those in states that have empirical evidence, within the state, nationally, and/or internationally, attesting to the effectiveness of their current standards.” Massachusetts is certainly one of those states; they outperform other American students on TIMSS and earn top marks on NAEP. The Bay State earned straight A’s in Fordham’s most recent State of State Standards, and its ELA framework was praised for its “competency, explicit and unmuddled expectations, and strong vocabulary instruction.” And Pioneer’s review includes many worthy recommendations for improving the standards, such as adding “standard D” from David Conley’s Understanding University Success, which requires students to be “familiar with a range of world literature.”
But we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the common standards are better – in some cases, much better – than the standards currently in place in most states. Massachusetts’ high standards are an outlier, and Massachusetts doesn’t have a compelling reason to adopt the common standards except the potential for more money.
James Elias
Read the U.S. Coalition for World Class Math’s feedback report on the March draft of the K-12 Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Down load the report at
http://www.box.net/shared/4pir4yobzu
The CCSSI should field test the common core state standards for a minimum of a year prior to wide-spread use.
The CCSSI should actively support, promote, and help states establish consortiums to develop sets of standards.
The CCSSI should declare the Massachusetts , California, and Indiana mathematics standards as acceptable alternatives to the common core state standards.
In the math standards, “understand” should be replaced with more precise measurable verbs that will clarify the desired proficiency level.
The math standards should specifically include standards that develop skills related to simplifying fractions, finding factor pairs, finding prime factors, finding common denominators, finding least common multiples or denominators, and finding greatest common factors to provide students with the necessary foundation for success in authentic algebra and beyond.
The standards are a great improvement over the January draft in many ways, although they still fall short of being world class, thus not good enough for the students of this country.
The common core state standards for math do not match up to the standards for MA, CA, and IN. The common core state standards are not world class. Anything less than world class is not acceptable for the students across the country.
Since Massachusetts is at the top (sometimes with company) of every reasonable country-wide assessment, clearly we’re doing something right. Our department of education (DESE) continues to tighten the screws, so to speak.
Yet, we are being asked by the federal government to accept standards that are demonstrably lower then our state’s current standards. And as for “the potential for more money”, it’s not just a few thousand, or a few million, it’s in the area of $250,000,000, a very sizeable chunk of change.
If the fed wants to change the mission of high schools from producing productive citizens to preparing everyone for college, then they should be looking to the top, say, 10 states for their standards and building national standards from that and not some vague unmeasurable standards that ensure a “race to the middle”.
So, what about the bottom 75% of the states whose students are currently being shortchanged? What is the states’ excuse for handicapping their own blood and kin right out of the gate? Beats me.
Go to http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/statecomparisons/withinyear.aspx?usrSelections=1,MAT,5,0,within,0,0 and click on the first “Scale Score” button.
I notice that the highest state in the south is Texas, coming in at a whopping 19th or so (depending upon the particular grade/subject). With the exception of Rhode Island and Michigan, all the scores below the national average are from the south. Would these be the same states that have wooed corporations in the past with tax breaks and other expensive amenities to move south? Well, at least we know where the education money went.
The end result will be a whole bunch of congressional votes to keep the standards low. So all y’all do that and leave the top 10 to go our own way until such time as we are no longer the top 10. If that ever happens then step in and dope slap us. In the mean time, we’ll take our share of the ante please.
And, oh yes, if you’re a great student in the south, I invite you to move to the north where your hard work will be appreciated and supported.
Riffing off Stew, as a Rhode Islander, I’m constantly baffled by our habit of importing education leaders from the south.