Gates Foundation admits Common Core Mistake. What now?

[Aepervius]

If those results are typical, then Common Core will be a smashing success. Let's just say that I'm a little suspicious of the claims, but would be quite happy to be proven wrong.

It is not a claim, it is a documented data gathered by normal mean which is done yearly or semi yearly.

 

[jimbob]

IMO, in the U.S., there is a fairly widespread phobia regarding math. Just watch what this woman does to herself.

Patricia Heaton on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtrZ4Dec6eo

I don't understand it.

That happens in the UK too. I do have some issues with the way that maths is taught in primary school, as the traditional approach is often quicker for more able children as well as being less error-prone for more complicated sums.

A lot of primary teachers seem uncomfortable with the maths needed for eleven year olds. The two cultures are still alive in Britain.

 

[Minoosh]

A lot of primary teachers seem uncomfortable with the maths needed for eleven year olds. The two cultures are still alive in Britain.

I know! I think having to learn middle school math might have been the bit that made my mom give up on completing teacher certification. She's 91 and has almost zero short-term memory but the other day I asked her: "What's 8 times 7?" She answered "56" immediately.

Common Core sounded fancier than it really was. IMO reform always seems to swing between extremes, when in fact you need *both* "math fact" drills and inquiry-based conceptual understanding. I see kids putting 10 times -1 in a calculator. That's obviously a serious structural deficit. For a lot of arithmetic, sure, use a calculator. But in cases like that, it slows down the process so much that the student is going to lose the thread of the problem.

Sometime parents see their kids' homework and freak out because fashions have changed and they don't immediately know how to help. I think that can stir up a lot of feelings, including hostility. I'm not normally a CT type, but IMO some much-ballyhooed reforms really are egged on by textbook publishers (software too). My state's old math standards were covered perfectly well in 2 inexpensive worksheet books, lightweight, black-and-white. Meanwhile the actual textbooks for the material probably weigh 10-15 pounds, crammed with pictures and "fun facts" and pages and pages of educators congratulating themselves for creating such exciting and relevant materials. The kids know better. Show them the "trick," get them to work on problems like how many meatballs they can add to sauce before the pot overflows. This models several math topics. Parents can do quite a bit to tweak their child's math skills. Even if the parents are busy and not totally confident, a trip to the grocery store can be a learning experience. Have siblings keep running tallies in their heads and see who can make the best guess about the total bill. Reinforce to kids that thinking is a kind of play. They know it anyway.

Here's a fun one - math with no numbers:

Panamath test
http://panamath.org/test/consent.php

Sorry to ramble, but I love to read and learn about math education.

 

[Brainster]

It is not a claim, it is a documented data gathered by normal mean which is done yearly or semi yearly.

Here's some more data from Jefferson County, Kentucky's largest county in population. As you can see, the percentage of blacks meeting the benchmarks declined from 2012-2015 in English, Math, Reading and Science, from already dismal levels. Whites declined in both Math and Reading, from levels that were also pretty poor.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

...

tl;dr

Well, I tried to read it, but gave up half way through. Was there an argument in it somewhere?

it shifts math from rote memorization to hands-on applications, I'm not sure why people don't like that.

Common Core bad because Bill Gates.

 

[benbradley]

There's a lot about math and basic arithmetic that is NOT explicitly taught, such as approximation: having an idea of what the answer should be before you even do the calculation, as a way to help double-check the answer. As a simple example, if you are multiplying a two-digit and a three digit number, you should already know that the answer is going to be at least 1,000 (ten times a hundred) and less than 100,000 (a hundred times a thousand). If it's a practical problem, there are usually other ways to check if the answer is reasonable or makes sense, as in the swimming pool quote below.

I've always thought of the sliderule as a good teaching tool because you have to figure out the magnitude yourself, as well as be able to read the scales accurately to get a good answer.

I just read this blogpost on a calculator that you have to give a good approximation to the answer before it gives you the precise answer:

http://mathforlove.com/2016/06/qama-the-calculator-that-wont-make-you-lazy/

As the following quote below as well as the previous post indicates (with virtually the same calculation), using calculators for trivial calculations (and blindly accepting any result) is legion.

I've often bought Subway "Fresh Value" meals, and sometimes the cashiers ... I usually pay with exact change, or back when it was $4 (plus tax), a dollar over. When the total is $4.23 I'd pay with a $5 bill, two dimes and three pennies, and almost every cashier immediately knows what to do and gives back a dollar. One poor teen used a calculator to figure out he owed me a dollar (the CASH REGISTER already does this!), taking about a minute to do it. I saw him do this twice in one week, then didn't see him any more. Another guy haughtily said "It's FOUR twenty three," pushed back the change, took the five and then gave me three quarters and two pennies. I didn't say anything, especially as his supervisor (who clearly knew better) was standing right there. I never saw him again, but I hope he got an earful, just so he'd know he wasn't doing the right thing and it would be easier to just take the change and give back a dollar bill.

I’ve seen eighth graders reach for a calculator to solve 100 – 98. I’ve seen college students accept total gibberish from their calculator after mis-keying, without considering whether the answer makes sense on a gut level. (“The swimming pool costs… 53 billion dollars.”)

I could rant about this for as long as the OP (about this CC thing, when you're learning numbers, addition and subtraction and multiplication tables, you don't need to learn the theory behind arithmetic - leave that for at least the fifth grade or so, as a prerequisite to algebra), but I'm resisting...

 

[Corsair 115]

It's a national curriculum for school children. Clearly, although the rest of the world generally have successful common curricula, it would be ridiculous to expect the USA to do the same, despite lagging behind the world on so many measurable educational outcomes.

The problem isn't the concept, it's the execution.

 

[madurobob]

There's a lot about math and basic arithmetic that is NOT explicitly taught, such as approximation...

Actually, both of my kids covered approximation pretty heavily in grade school. It was tough for my youngest, being the perfectionist he is. The estimation problems always had enough information to arrive at an exact answer. But, the assignment was to show how you would arrive at a quick estimation of the answer. He had a difficult time understanding why he was marked down on homework & tests when he provided the exact answer.

 

[gypsyjackson]

Actually, both of my kids covered approximation pretty heavily in grade school. It was tough for my youngest, being the perfectionist he is. The estimation problems always had enough information to arrive at an exact answer. But, the assignment was to show how you would arrive at a quick estimation of the answer. He had a difficult time understanding why he was marked down on homework & tests when he provided the exact answer.

I'm no genius, but it frustrated the hell out of me when for some reason I had to do something involving 16 cubed and didn't write down my working - I was marked down because I just knew that it was 4096. GCSE dicks.

 

[Minoosh]

The math portion of Common Core seems quite ridiculous, almost as if it were designed to befuddle parents and kids alike. Learning the times table is a lot easier than this nonsense.

Bufuddlment can be an important part of the learning process

Are you lightest in the morning?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL2e0rWvjKI

Research indicates that working through confusion helps lessons stick. But that's used judiciously. Confusing students inadvertently isn't usually considered good.

 

[stevea]

...
Common Core bad because Bill Gates.

Common core bad b/c common

It's another one-size-fits-all solution that might work with a more homogenous population, but is unlikely to work well in the US.

It's a national curriculum for school children. Clearly, although the rest of the world more homogenous smaller OECD nations generally have successful common curricula, it would be ridiculous to expect the USA to do the same, despite lagging behind the world on so many measurable educational outcomes.

Your sarcasm isn't justified. Consider this ....
https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportca...mposition_and_the_bw_achievement_gap_2015.pdf
and particularly this
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2012/pisa2012highlights_6b.asp
https://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/PISA-2012-results-US.pdf

US White & Asian students don't lag behind - in fact their averages are quite good. Hispanic Americans lag behind a good bit and Black Americans by a lot, bringing the averages down quite noticeably.

I have absolutely no clue what the cause for this difference is. There are lots of plausible explanations from parenting, culture, educational tradition to racial IQ. What is clear as day to anyone with their heads above sand is that any one-size-fits-all plan cannot address these differences, and we should all want to address them quite sincerely.

Sadly the language police prevent those in power from even recognizing the elephant in the room.

 

[solfe]

The problem isn't the concept, it's the execution.

Yes. This.

I'm a teaching assistant in multiple grades in NY state. What I see as the issue was the data dump style of presentation. NY has a whole website dedicated to core requirements, modules and activities for teachers and students. I have poured over it as a coping mechanism for what I need to know in half a dozen classrooms at various grade levels. Teachers, parents and students don't have this luxury, because they also have new textbooks and activities they need to know too. In many cases, teachers don't receive their class assignments (which students to which teacher or class) and textbooks until two days before school starts. This is not helpful.

There was a push to get Common Core to be a standard to which teachers are held... and as a consequence, a standard against children would be measured. Those are kind of at odds with each other.

I don't dislike the math common core, I hate the presentation for a very simply reason. If you look at the engageny dot org website, you'll notice a very specific format to the materials: Premise, examples, execution, exit ticket and every couple of modules a speed test (sometimes called "patterns"). What bothers me about this is, no one appears to have looked at a classroom. To do the first three items requires every second of time available. The speed test or pattern sheets are actually reliant on rote memorization, the "old skills". And now there little or no time to actually drill students on the basic "old skills" necessary to succeed. Sure, the child can do this at home, but... then we aren't taking about a common core of skills. That is independent study.

It's not a bad suggestion, but Common Core should have been only a suggestion not so all consuming body of work that it must be the curriculum. Additionally, trying to tie it to teacher performance is crap. I'm hearing teachers that are getting average evaluations - "effective" for scoring 57 or so out of 61 points. Really? What is "highly effective"? One additional concern that I have is that schools and districts can reassign teachers from one grade level to another, how does that give them the tools they need to be "effective"?

As a parent, I simply feel left out in the cold. I have a 9th grader with an IEP, a 12 year old in 12th grade and a 5th grader who is just average. I have given up talking to the school. They clearly don't have a clue as to what is needed on a day to day basis. I leave the chit-chat and planning to my wife, who doesn't seem to be rankled by this. My kids are passing due to the hard work of the teacher and school staff, plus whatever happens when we help at home. I don't want to sour that with my own personal agenda. But clearly the teacher and staff are working from a playbook that hasn't been written yet. Some aspects of that makes me mad and other parts of it make me very grateful.

 

[fuelair]

Some stuff re: Common Core mistake re: Gates.


http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/s...&fpid=27&q=Gates++Common+Core+was+mistake&ql=

 

[fuelair]

Many of the newer systems for teacher evaluation are essentially developed and utilized to get older teachers to retire earlier (being told to change completely from the methodologies and temporary "new stuff" that they had pushed on them !!! And, on the other end, to keep new teachers nervous and overworking because they had not been taught the newest stuff in their college/uni classes as it had no college level textbooks (being new) and had not been tested on (being new). For the pros, There are overall three basic ways of teaching (with associated tools and activities and methods of using them) and they each last app. seven years in each area of the US - BUT because of the size of the US, they begin in states with more money so the companies are getting paid for remembering how things were being taught 27 to 30 years earlier and have app. a 2 to 3 year start there then spread to other not as well off states and in the next 2-3 years to the rest of the country. And after the appropriate years another old is new again comes back etc. ad. inf. ( Comments in education classes from my wife and texts (not saying that, but very much supporting it)and later reading of a number of articles primarily in a magazine (many issues, not just one) for principles and other school system admins made it quite clear.).

 

[Minoosh]

I'm a teaching assistant in multiple grades in NY state.

Regents exam website is a go-to for me on math topics. I don't think that needs fixing. A girlfriend who will be teaching HS chemistry after a long time out of the classroom is getting a lot of use out it.

ETA: Congrats on being an assistant. The most enjoyable job in education, IMO. Lead classroom teachers seem to have an infinite workload.

 

[fuelair]

Regents exam website is a go-to for me on math topics. I don't think that needs fixing. A girlfriend who will be teaching HS chemistry after a long time out of the classroom is getting a lot of use out it.

ETA: Congrats on being an assistant. The most enjoyable job in education, IMO. Lead classroom teachers seem to have an infinite workload.

I found that site hunting materials for ESOL students and copied bundles of it for our school. Neat study guides for test prep and such in a number of languages!!! That was before the dread butt pirate Marzano - as in the "always gets a laugh even now!!!" quote/warning : "Don't step in the marzano!!"

That rectum is loathed in Orange County (and, according to input, the rest of Florida and most states I have heard from that also used him)!!!

 

[AdamSK]

Common Core standards were released on June 2, 2010. Perhaps you can tell us which states you claim adopted it before that date, since you claim it was almost universally adopted "before it was written."

 

[fuelair]

For homers and people in ESOL situations : the stuff I noted, after Minoosh reminded me of it is here: and used to be easy to pull up and copy (still is as best I can see!!!!!_: http://www.nysedregents.org/regents_sci.html (that is science, but I am pretty sure anyone can see to get to other subjects and in other languages). The number of languages seems to have dropped some though!

 

[Minoosh]

That rectum is loathed in Orange County (and, according to input, the rest of Florida and most states I have heard from that also used him)!!!

I can usually appreciate a few paragraphs from education authors - but then they keep saying the same thing over and over again.

Meanwhile college does not teach you the stuff you really need to know but in fairness maybe it can't. The best preparation program IMO would be to get a fingerprint card and begin an apprenticeship, with a few fundamentals taught as regular college classes.

 

[Donal]

The math portion of Common Core seems quite ridiculous, almost as if it were designed to befuddle parents and kids alike.

Actually, from what I've seen, it is fairly intuitive. I was actually using a method similar to what we have been shown growing up.

Learning the times table is a lot easier than this nonsense.

Do you mean memorizing or learning? There is a huge difference.