Hot off the press: draft of the national standards

[Connie Weber]

Hot off the press: draft of the national standards

"Skills Set Drafted For Students Nationwide" --Nick Anderson, Washington Post

Here it is... And I'm getting ready for a parent curriculum meeting right at this moment so I only have time to put up the post. I'm sure we'll be discussing this shortly.

[Mike]

Hi Connie.... hope this finds you well! Time for comments is NOW....

Here is the latest information on the project:

The Common Core State Standards is a joint effort by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in partnership with Achieve, ACT and the College Board. Governors and state commissioners of education from across the country committed to joining a state-led process to develop a common core of state standards in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12.

These standards will be research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations and include rigorous content and skills. The NGA Center and CCSSO are coordinating the process to develop these standards and have created an expert validation committee to provide an independent review of the common core state standards, as well as the grade-by-grade standards.

The NGA Center and CCSSO released the first official draft of the college- and career-readiness standards. Feedback on the draft is being accepted until October 21, 2009.


If you are interested in seeing the standards and providing feedback...your opportunity to do so can be found here: http://www.corestandards.org/

Check them out! Certainly seems to be the way we are going... so the time for comment is now!

be well.... mike

[Connie Weber]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the link. I've printed pretty much the whole thing off. The printed pile is about two centimeters deep. So we have until October 21st to look things over and respond?
Although it's not the most interesting reading, I think it behooves us to look things through rather carefully. I hope a number of people from Fireside check out the document. Let's get informed; educational history is in the making.

[Mike]

Hi Connie... hope all is well!

Certainly worth checking out... but i caution everyone.... the real issue to me isn't about the standards being "good" or "bad"..... the issue is "STANDARDIZATION" period.

My take, we fail to see the "industrial-factory" thinking and its assumptions that follow the development of standards. It runs always in a very predictable manner...regardless of the "quality of the standards".

Think....train track or assembly line and go down the line a bit.....it always goes to the same place!!!

Here is the track and the almost automatic thinking that follows:

Step 1: KNOWLEDGE: All the current knowledge to date...now doubling extremely quickly.

Step 2: Gather "experts" and they decide what is important to know and to learn. These experts now gathered nationally... will "define" the correct body of knowledge. Notice the questions that are missing: for instance..... Do All people need algebra 1 and 2? How about Geometry and Chemistry.... what is missing for the discussion...who's voices are not present?

Step 3: Curriculum: The core content from step 2 is broken down into smaller "chuncks". These chuncks tell you what "every" student should "Know" from kindergarten and quickly moving toward college ( see the P-21 initiatives ) The go grade by grade in a nice, neat, straight line. Peek inside these grade level benchmarks and you will see progamatic maps...day by day...week by week.

Step 4: Purchase progams and materials...aligned with the curriculum maps.

Step 5: Train ( key word train ) teachers to "deliver" the program.

Step 6: LAST BUT NOT LEAST---- TESTS---lots of them to check the quality of the line.

Funny....America has really lost its industrial base...its factories are all but history...yet its thinking is still deeply embedded in industrial age thinking.... Taylorism is alive and well!

Any one out there seeing this go in a different direction????

be well..mike

[Jennifer Lubke]

Hi, Connie and everyone,

I haven't had a chance to process it all, but I did want to alert Fireside folks, particularly English teachers, to the National Council of English Teachers' stance on the drafting of national standards. There is also a conversation starting on the NCTE Ning, and NCTE leaders want teachers' input.

A little background: NCTE was not invited to contribute to the original draft. They were asked to provide critique of a draft issued in July. Judging by President Kylene Beers' Sept. 21 open letter to members, the Common Core Standards people did not fully integrate NCTE recommendations into the latest draft of standards now "hot off the press."

Beers has asked members to read the drafted standards, as well as the NCTE report issued in August, and make their own determination about "how well and to what extent our recommendations were followed in this current draft." Interesting stuff!

I'm totally with Mike on this one. At the same time, I am proud that my professional organization is staying on top of this situation and doing their best to keep members apprised of developments. Whether our voices will be heard, well, . . .

[Connie Weber]

Thanks Jennifer and Mike--

Yes, I think Mike's event-sequence that would follow the nationalizing of curriculum is the essential focus. It can lead to the heart being cut out of teaching, when it gets as far as teachers feeling they are trained deliverers of curriculum; that's the mindset that leaves out the art, creative responsiveness and flexibility, ownership, passion, personal involvement in the process. It keeps the emphasis away from being a learning community--all together, teachers and students, and instead keeps us stuck in a factory model of education.

Jennifer,
Thanks for keeping us attuned to the National Council of English Teachers, their recommendations and council. As I recall, people of NCTE, in the standardization efforts just before this current wave, were asked to participate by giving recommendations, and then were not really listened to. So it'll be interesting to see what goes on in this round. Please keep us updated about what's going on, point us to discussions of importance, ok?