It’s no secret that the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) have received lackluster reviews nationwide. However, Common Core Learning Standards have been adopted to help students become the best thinkers and problem solvers they can be, along with preparing all students in America for college and career-readiness and to equip them to be competitive in our global society. The math standards are specifically designed toward greater focus and coherence while the English Language Arts standards are designed as an integrated model where literacy is taught across the content areas.
NYS revises their standards on a regular basis. So, why the negative perceptions of the CCLS? For starters, the CCLS are not a curriculum. Rather, they are a specified set of goals and expectations that detail what knowledge and skills are necessary to help students succeed in their future. The Council of Chief State School Officers identified necessary skills students are required to be secure with to be successful when compared on an international scale. They then worked backwards to develop benchmarks from grade level to grade level. Instructional strategies and curriculum are not outlined in the standards. Every school district has autonomy in deciding how standards are to be met. Teachers use their expertise in identifying effective resources and materials to teach conceptually. They select the best from many sources and determine a scope and sequence for when topics should be taught over the course of the school year. We are continuously impressed by the deep understanding our students demonstrate when asked to. For example, when visiting a third grade classroom, the students were working on a multiplication word problem. I asked a student how she solved the problem and she readily explained that she made an array with five columns and four rows because in the context of the word problem Anne made five necklaces with four beads on each. In a fourth grade classroom, students were reading Trumpet of the Swan. They came across the word malodorous. They acutely dissected the word and noticed the root word odor and the prefix mal. Without being told its meaning by the teacher, the students determined that the event in the book was something that smelled bad.
Unfortunately, New York State Assessments have added to the negative perceptions about the CCLS. In New York State, all students in grades 3-8 are required to take NYS assessments in the areas of math and English. This has been an expectation since 2005. However, the NYS Department of Education was overly zealous in its rollout of NYS assessments aligned to the CCLS. NYS was the first state in the nation to administer its own Common Core aligned assessments. The pushback has been significant and understandably so. Studetns were being assessed before teachers were familiar with the new standards or had identified good curriculum to help students meet those standards. Additionally, the lengths of the assessments were developmentally inappropriate for our younger learners. With the bar raised, scores have plummeted with only 31% of the state meeting the standards. Our children haven’t become less intelligent nor our teachers less talented. An unrealistic goal had been set and set too early in the process of shifting to the new more rigorous set of standards.
So why was the state in such a hurry? When reviewing the data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) administered in 2011, students in the USA in grades 4 and 8 were compared to students in 57 other countries around the world. They felt our students could and should do better.
At grade 4, The United States was among the top 15 education systems. Eight education systems had higher averages; Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong-China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Northern Ireland, North Carolina, and Flemish Belgium. Only 13 percent of U.S. fourth graders performed at the advanced international benchmark.
At grade 8, the U.S. was among the top 24 education systems in mathematics eleven education systems had higher averages; Korea, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong-China, Japan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, the Russian Federation, North Carolina, Quebec-Canada, and Indiana. Only seven percent of U.S. eighth-graders reached the advanced international benchmark.
The Common Core Learning Standards are nationally consistent, research –based, educationally sound and hold students to a higher level of achievement. Unfortunately, the NYS CCLS rollout and curriculum resources along with the aligned NYS testing program has been far from well executed. Let’s not reject the CCLS because of the state’s poor rollout. Higher expectations will better prepare students for college and career and to compete in a global society.
Susan Folkson, Rushmore Avenue School Principal, Carle Place.
Contributions were made by Mrs. Lauren McGovern, Teacher
