Core Curriculum

[Rickomatic]

I may have had my head in the sand, but I just heard of a new federal core curriculum a few weeks ago fro all public education. I have a neighbor that is very respected at the junior high school they teach at. They have taught for 22 years and told me that they will not return to teach next year. They feel that this core curriculum is going to be a major step towards a Socialist nation. I asked what it was and how it would change the way they taught. They said it would take all of there personality out of teaching. They feel anyone who can read out of a book will be able to teach this curriculum and all of the critical thinking from the students will be removed. Like I said at the first, I have not heard about this new curriculum before and I really can't say I know enough about it to have an opinion. What about those of you who have a stake in or understanding of public education, does this scare you like it does my neighbor? Or is it just a bunch of hyperbole?

[BYUMizzou]

My opinion is that not much is going to change other than curriculum becoming more rigorous. Up until now (in Missouri) we've been operating using state determined Grade Level Expectations (GLE's). For example, the GLE's for Kindergarten for Language Arts say that by the end of the year, among other things, a kindergartener should understand that you read left to right, understand the difference between letters and words, understand the concept that the words on the page create the story, They should be able to read simple words and sound out words from the letters. There's a whole matrix for every core subject that outlines what students are expected to know.

The common core standards are the same thing. So far I've only seen them for Language Arts and Math. For example, they say that a kindergardener should be able to count to 100 by 1's and 10's, write the numbers from 1 to 20, understand the concept of greater than and less than.

There's no difference in the concept of what most schools have been operating under for the past several decades and the new common core standards. The only difference is that the standards are common across the United States. They represent a baseline for what a school should minimally be teaching and having their students achieve.

The complaints from some states are that they are higher standards than what their individual state standards have been and that it will take them time to get the students ramped to to meet the levels expected. For example, if you're teaching in Mississippi, and your 8th grade students are at a level that the common core standards say a 6th grader should be at, there's the fear of the school being penalized because it will be difficult to achieve 3 years of growth when those 8th graders become freshmen.

Missouri is dealing with that problem by using a model that uses the common core standards as the measuring stick for accrediting the schools, but allows points to the schools that show growth in the under-performing students. 2013-3014 is going to be a trial run in Missouri, and then in 2014-2015 the common core standards (with allowances for growth where underperforming) will be used to accredit school districts.

[Rickomatic]

Is this going to include more that the math and language curriculum?

[Y84it]

My wife is a teacher in Las Vegas. Teaches Geometry. She hates Core Curriculim with a passion and for the first time has talked about home teaching are kids. (Never thought she would go there) She says it is the worst thing she has ever seen in Education and will be getting out of teaching unless things change. The kids are lost because the teachers have no direction. They have to come up with their own lesson plans, quizes and Tests from scratch. Which has created chaos where no calss is on the same page. It's a mess.

[Y84it]

My opinion is that not much is going to change other than curriculum becoming more rigorous. Up until now (in Missouri) we've been operating using state determined Grade Level Expectations (GLE's). For example, the GLE's for Kindergarten for Language Arts say that by the end of the year, among other things, a kindergartener should understand that you read left to right, understand the difference between letters and words, understand the concept that the words on the page create the story, They should be able to read simple words and sound out words from the letters. There's a whole matrix for every core subject that outlines what students are expected to know.

The common core standards are the same thing. So far I've only seen them for Language Arts and Math. For example, they say that a kindergardener should be able to count to 100 by 1's and 10's, write the numbers from 1 to 20, understand the concept of greater than and less than.

There's no difference in the concept of what most schools have been operating under for the past several decades and the new common core standards. The only difference is that the standards are common across the United States. They represent a baseline for what a school should minimally be teaching and having their students achieve.

The complaints from some states are that they are higher standards than what their individual state standards have been and that it will take them time to get the students ramped to to meet the levels expected. For example, if you're teaching in Mississippi, and your 8th grade students are at a level that the common core standards say a 6th grader should be at, there's the fear of the school being penalized because it will be difficult to achieve 3 years of growth when those 8th graders become freshmen.

Missouri is dealing with that problem by using a model that uses the common core standards as the measuring stick for accrediting the schools, but allows points to the schools that show growth in the under-performing students. 2013-3014 is going to be a trial run in Missouri, and then in 2014-2015 the common core standards (with allowances for growth where underperforming) will be used to accredit school districts.

Sounds like you district is more Organized! it's not nearly what you describe here in Vegas.

[wuapinmon]

Pedagogues are the Sith Lords of our educational system.

[BigPiney]

My wife is a teacher in Las Vegas. Teaches Geometry. She hates Core Curriculim with a passion and for the first time has talked about home teaching are kids. (Never thought she would go there) She says it is the worst thing she has ever seen in Education and will be getting out of teaching unless things change. The kids are lost because the teachers have no direction. They have to come up with their own lesson plans, quizes and Tests from scratch. Which has created chaos where no calss is on the same page. It's a mess.

Worst class I took in High School. Not sure why I hated it so much, but it was bad. My wife feels the same way about her geometry experience.

[thesaint258]

The geometry teacher in our school wasn't half bad. He was in the naval reserves, and it was easy to get him off topic. We'd just ask him about his ship or some bit if naval minutiae, and just like that, half of the class time would be gone.