About Common Core

It might not be totally rotten to the ‘Core’!

If you are involved in education these days, one of the terms that has become a regular part of your vocabulary is Common Core, which is shorthand for Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  While there are parts of Common Core that I have several concerns and reservations about, I would not consider myself entirely against Common Core; I would not consider myself a fan of Common Core either.  So it makes it interesting that lately I have been in the position of defending Common Core.  I have been defending Common Core from those who misunderstand what it is, where it came from, and who is behind its adoption.

Florida’s State Board of Education for the Department of Education adopted the CCSS in 2010.  Since then approximately 45 states have now adopted CCSS or parts of it.  The purpose behind Common Core is that students in any state  should be measured by  similar, rigorous standards  resulting in students going on to be  successful in post-secondary schooling or a career.

One of the first myths about Common Core is that it is a curriculum; it is not.  Common Core are standards, just as the current Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS) and before that the Sunshine State Standards where were  all standards. Each state and local school board has autonomy in adopting and/or developing their own curriculum, teaching practices, and supportive resources that are aligned to those standards.

Another myth is that Common Core is a mandate, not so different from “ObamaCore;” a federal program that is being forced by the federal government; again, is not the case.  The Nation Review, in an April 3, 2013, article entitled, The Truth about Common Core explained, “They (CCSS) simply delineate what children should know at each grade level and describe the skills that they must acquire to stay on course toward college or career readiness.”  The conservative Fordham Institute’s Michael J. Petrilli wrote in The RNC on the CCSSI, OMG! “The Common Core standards are worth supporting because they’re educationally solid. They are rigorous, they are traditional—one might even say they are ‘conservative.’ They expect students to know their math facts, to read the nation’s founding documents, and to evaluate evidence and come to independent judgments.”

It is for the reasons above that I support Common Core.  Common Core infuses the daily technology tools that are a critical and necessary part of being successful in college and the work place. It was the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers who worked together to develop CCSS in 2007.

I greatly encourage you to look at the CCSS for yourself by visiting the FL DOE Common Core standards search page at: www.cpalms.org/Standards/FLStandardSearch.aspx There you will find all the adopted CCSS for K-12 such as this one for 6^th grade ELA (Reading/Writing):

• [LACC.6.W.1.3] “Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.”
• [LACC.6.W.2.6] “Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.”

The concerns that I have with Common Core start with Florida’s CCSS implementation timeline. It says that by 2013-2014 Kindergarten through 2^nd grade will be fully implemented in CCSS and that by 2014-2015 Kindergarten through 12^th grade will be fully implemented in CCSS.  In the above example of two 6^th grade ELA standards you can see that the use of individual student technology will be necessary for teaching the Common Core standards. With a 2015 deadline– which I might add also includes standardized testing of the CCSS– our schools and more importantly, our teachers and students, will not have the time to transition to these standards and will not have all the necessary tools in place.

The CCSS in Florida will not be measured by the FCAT but rather by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC).  The PARCC will be taken entirely on computers from 3^rd grade through 12^th. Education Weekly reports in Common-Core Tests to Take Up to 10 Hours published on March 12, 2013, that the PAARCC test requires  nearly 8 hours for 3^rd grade students to take and more time for the other grade levels: “The amount of time students will have to complete both the performance-based and end-of-year components in math and English/language arts: Grade 3^rd: 8 hours, Grades 4^th-5^th: 9 hours, 20 minutes, Grades 6^th-8^th: 9 hours, 25 minutes, Grades 9^th-10^th: 9 hours, 45 minutes, and Grades 11^th-12^th: 9 hours, 55 minutes”.  Keep in mind this is in addition to the multitude of standardized test students are also required to take such as Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), American College Testing (ACT), Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), Florida’s Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT), and Florida End-of-Courses (EOC).  Many of these tests are being updated to include CCSS assessments as well.

In order to accomplish this major shift in standards and assist teachers in developing their curriculum to meet CCSS standards, a tremendous amount of time, funding and resources are required. At the same time, teachers must also continue teaching to the current NGSSS as their students are still being assessed on these and teacher evaluations are still affected by students’ FCAT test scores.  Citrus through a multitude of professional developments and initiatives has been doing a phenomenal job preparing for Common Core; the iPad/one-to-one students devices that are being introduced into classrooms is just one example of how that is being accomplished. However, there is just not enough time let alone funding resources to properly implement CCSS.  The expectation is that by 2015 our students will be formally assessed on CCSS and their future academic success defined by the CCSS assessments; in turn, teachers’ evaluations and incomes will be determined by those students’ CCSS assessments.

My hope and efforts are to help the state legislators provide a statutory balance before 2015 by providing flexibility for school districts in order to not remove “common sense” when implementing Common Core.

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