Unless you are in the homes of these parents and kids on a daily basis, you aren't going to hear or see what they go through. You hear from the parents because they are advocating for their kids.....that's what happens to segments of society that don't typically have a voice or a channel to vent their frustration. You are hearing from parents because they are the ones who are now largely incapable of assisting their children with homework. If the kids were sailing through, easy peasy, you wouldn't be hearing a damn thing from parents. This is such a multi-layered fuck up, it's not funny. If I had a nickel for everytime I heard a teacher say they didn't know how to teach it, I'd be rich. Teachers are still "old school" in many instances. They weren't given the time nor the tools to implement this effectively. And now at the end of the chain, parents are left to deal with the fallout, while they watch their kids in full meltdown. Here's one from your home state. http://truthinamericaneducation.com...andards/common-core-math-anxiety-personified/ It looks familiar though. You think kids are doing just fine. The early test results in several states suggest otherwise. Why? Piaget identified the cognitive processes that adolescents go through and Common Core flies in the face of his results. " Piaget carefully and systematically studied the cognitive development of children. Before him, it was assumed that when it came to thinking, kids were not as adept as adults, but their thought processes were essentially the same. Piaget disagreed. He discovered that the development of thinking is far more complex. He identified distinct stages of cognitive development that children go through as they mature, including, the ‘Concrete Operational’ stage (ages 7-11). Students in this stage can engage in some inductive logic, but deductive logic, which is needed to solve problems such as the one described above, is beyond them. " https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...ng-kids-are-struggling-with-common-core-math/ That Post article is spot on. And why is it such a fail so far? IMO, it's because, "of the committees that wrote and reviewed the Common Core Standards. In all, there were 135 people on those panels. Not a single one of them was a K-3 classroom teacher or early childhood professional. It appears that early childhood teachers and child development experts were excluded from the K-3 standards-writing process." https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...-of-common-core-on-early-childhood-education/ Add to that, the politicization of the process and it's the kids who get left behind (ironically) and parents who have no voice. Look at what's happened in Ohio. Oh, the test scores sucked, so let's lower the standards to make it look better, but we'll continue to claim we have truth in education. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...-test-scores-so-it-changed-the-passing-grade/ I am lucky enough to be in what has always been a high performing school district. Our CC test scores showed that less than 25% of students were considered to have exceeded standards in both Math and English. That isn't parents. That's kids. The whole point of CC was to reduce "unfairness" across districts and states and economic strata. But what has happened is nothing different than before. Minority students and those in lower socioeconomic areas had the worst results. Of course they may not have access to computers which is what the new testing is delivered on and why Gates was so "happy" to provide computers and operating systems for everyone. We should never have allowed a single vendor company to wield as much influence. The opposite end of that stick is that tutoring companies are seeing a huge boom in their business.....good for them "Photos of wrinkled worksheets fill the CommonCoreCA Facebook page. “Please help, I know none of this is right,” one caption reads. “I don’t get why they are doing the math this way,” says another. A third is more succinct: “Um … What???” The community group’s 121 parents are confused by their children’s homework, and they’re not alone.Common Core standards have thrown some politicians, teachers and – most of all -- parents and students in 43 states for a loop. They can’t figure out the new methods for reading and doing math, and time is running out: Both subjects appear on standardized tests scheduled to be given this month. In a last-ditch effort to prepare their kids, more and more parents are turning to tutoring, boosting private education companies across the country. “Our number of calls coming in to enrollment counselors has gone up more than 50 percent this school year,” said Norman Drexel, president of REACH Professional In-Home Tutoring in Chino Hills, California. “We’re hearing just about every call, ‘Common Core.’ ‘Common Core.’ ‘Common Core" http://www.ibtimes.com/common-core-...m-ahead-spring-tests-parents-students-1834784 But the students who need the most help are the least likely to afford it. You have said that the kids are fine but it's clear they are not fine. That is precisely why you are hearing from the parents. Is it so hard to admit that perhaps the parents are right? One last point.....anecdotal but perhaps you might see the reality for what it can be like for a parent. I gave up a really great career to stay home and raise my kids which includes helping with their homework. My son has ADD....and not just a little bit. I don't expect the standards to be changed or lowered for him in any way. But when some people talk about analytical thinking and multitudes of options for correct answers, it's a facking nightmare for him. And consequently for me too. It's goddamn hard to watch him struggle every single day over things that don't need to be that difficult. The only positive is his personality. He's extremely happy and well behaved. His teachers have always loved him so he gets by.....but the minute he sits down for homework, he's tortured.
Why are you so defensive? I didn't say parents were wrong. I said that the complaints I hear are from parents not understanding the math, not from the kids. And look, the math started changing long before Common Core. And you assume I don't hear from kids at all. Well, wrong. I talk to neighbor's kids, friend's kids, relatives who happen to be kids, and I work with the Boy Scouts. And I have been curious about the new math instruction and especially their geography knowledge since they are reportedly so ignorant about geography. I have reached my own conclusions, that is all. I haven't challenged yours. It's a big world darlin'. There is room for other opinions. I think there have always been children that are challenged by math. I was once one. There still are and that will never change. But education changes, as it must. If this mode of instruction fails to improve scores, it will be replaced by a better one. But education is not going back to the 19th century. Sorry. I understand and sympathize. Believe me this time. A former girlfriend of mine had a son with ADD. This kid couldn't keep his mind on what he was doing but he was not hyperactive or a troublemaker. But I taught him chess, which he loved, and he was able to keep his mind focused on it. These kids need both medical help and understanding teachers and parents. I don't think his problem was medical but mental, he'd had a traumatic relationship with his father. He did not require medication, but he did have difficulty with homework and counseling helped him. Still, he was a smart kid who finished Community College and now has a responsible job at one of the chemical plants in the machine shop making $85K. There will always be kids with special needs and God bless them. I doesn't mean that standards and goals are a bad thing or that courses of instruction can't evolve.
A few months ago my 23 year old nephew who is about to graduate with great grades and who has always been very enterprising about making extra money and will probably (I hope) do very well asked me whether Washington D.C. was in the state of Washington. I couldn't believe he hadn't been taught that in grade school
You see it as defensive, I see it as assertive and frustrated. You hear the complaints from parents because they are advocating for their kids! What and where are kids going to go to get their voices heard? I don't assume anything....I'm sure that unless you are a hermit that you have some contact with kids. But just like I wouldn't challenge your point of view in terms of teaching on a college campus just because I know a few college kids, you can't possibly understand the reality of what goes on every day and the amount of investment required to really have to deal with it. It's not just Math, but English too.....so far. This isn't about education changing for the right reasons. This is about politics and lies and manipulation. The end game is that the US is not more poised or capable of global competition or innovation. Other countries laugh at the stupid soft crap we teach and the way we go about it. I'm sure that in a way you can understand and sympathize. But unless it's your own child, you can't really walk in my shoes....and I'm not talking about stilettos. Of course they aren't a bad thing. I never suggested that methods shouldn't evolve. But this idiom is always true.....if you want it bad, you're going to get it...bad.
Yet the US is more powerful, rich, educated, and influential than at any time in history. Our technology is light years ahead of other countries. Our universities are the best. The U.S. is more dominant on the global economic landscape than at any point since WWII. Annual growth now is almost twice that of Europe and four times that of Japan. Europeans have serious concerns about American dominance and power in all matters since the end of the Cold War. The Russian and Chinese are absolutely paranoid about it. Especially in technology but also in culture, media, higher education, the internet, and in finance (all the big banks in the world are now American). We have come out of the 2008 crisis better than any country in the world. We have a global economy and a global military that is unmatched. Nobody is laughing. We are the most capable and innovative country on the planet. And we are far from uneducated. I do not suggest that we have no problems in education or in politics, but we are a long, long way from an international laughing stock. I was once a child. I can walk in their shoes.
"The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has measured the performance of 15-year-old students in mathematics, science, and reading literacy every 3 years since 2000. In 2012, PISA was administered in 65 countries and education systems, including all 34 member countries of the OECD..... In 2012, average scores in mathematics literacy ranged from 368 in Peru to 613 in Shanghai-CHN. The U.S. average mathematics score (481) was lower than the average for all OECD countries (494). Twenty-nine education systems and two U.S. states had higher average mathematics scores than the U.S. average score and nine had scores not measurably different from the U.S. score. The 29 education systems with scores higher than the U.S. average score were Shanghai-CHN, Singapore, Hong Kong-CHN, Chinese Taipei-CHN, the Republic of Korea, Macao-CHN, Japan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Estonia, Finland, Canada, Poland, Belgium, Germany, Vietnam, Austria, Australia, Ireland, Slovenia, Denmark, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, France, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Latvia, and Luxembourg. Within the United States, Massachusetts (514) and Connecticut (506) had scores higher than the U.S. average. In science literacy, average scores ranged from 373 in Peru to 580 in Shanghai-CHN. The U.S. average science score (497) was not measurably different from the OECD average (501). Twenty-two education systems and 2 U.S. states had higher average science scores than the United States, and 13 systems and 1 U.S. state had scores that were not measurably different. The 22 education systems with higher scores than the U.S. average score were Shanghai-CHN, Hong Kong-CHN, Singapore, Japan, Finland, Estonia, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Poland, Canada, Liechtenstein, Germany, Chinese Taipei-CHN, the Netherlands, Ireland, Australia, Macao-CHN, New Zealand, Switzerland, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic. In reading literacy, average scores ranged from 384 in Peru to 570 in Shanghai-CHN. The U.S. average score (498) was not measurably different from the OECD average (496). Nineteen education systems and 2 U.S. states had higher average reading scores and 11 education systems and 1 U.S. state had scores that were not measurably different. The 19 education systems with higher average scores than the United States in reading literacy were Shanghai-CHN, Hong Kong-CHN, Singapore, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Finland, Ireland, Chinese Taipei-CHN, Canada, Poland, Estonia, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Macao-CHN, Belgium, and Germany. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1 "Scientists and the general public have markedly different views on any number of topics, from evolution to climate change to genetically modified foods. But one thing both groups agree on is that science and math education in the U.S. leaves much to be desired. In a new Pew Research Center report, only 29% of Americans rated their country’s K-12 education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (known as STEM) as above average or the best in the world. Scientists were even more critical: A companion survey of members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science found that just 16% called U.S. K-12 STEM education the best or above average; 46%, in contrast, said K-12 STEM in the U.S. was below average. Standardized test results appear to largely bear out those perceptions. While U.S. students are scoring higher on national math assessments than they did two decades ago (data from science tests are sketchier), they still rank around the middle of the pack in international comparisons, and behind many other advanced industrial nations." http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...nd-science-but-still-lagging-internationally/ So for all that power, influence, and education, we are......average. Look, no disrespect meant here but there is so much going on today that kids did not deal with when you or even I were kids. And no matter how many kids you spend time around, it is not the same as having one.
Not by a long shot. For someone dead set against Common Core, you sure like to post a lot of standardized test scores. If you want us to do better in such tests then you'd better get used to a more rigorous curriculum and testing standards! The fact is that the US takes a back seat to nobody in real world accomplishments in education, science, technology, or practically anything. We deny education to nobody unlike many countries. Some of those Asian countries weed out underperformers to trade schools every few years and test only the high-achievers, too. Tiny countries with no poor minority underclass like Lichtenstein and Estonia can have high student scores. What exactly has Estonia been able to do with that? Every one of them would trade places with us in a heartbeat. Geez, nobody is trying to wear your stilettos! I believe you! I'm not speaking as a parent. There just may be other valid viewpoints beside your own, you know. If you imagine that having no children means that I can have no opinion about children, you are way off base. My opinions on American education are as valid as anybody's.
I'm not completely dead set against it. I do think the way it was foisted on everyone makes it far worse and completely useless in so many ways. I posted a statistical educational measure comparing the US and other countries to point out the fallacy of your America is the best argument. I want America to be more competitive globally with regard to the STEM job segment and innovation. CC in addition to all the soft subjects are making us weaker. Interesting story.....I was leaving Target today and went to the snack bar to get a smoothie. They've had a sign out for weeks now saying no pizza or breadsticks. I asked why so long. The clerk says, "I'm German. In Germany, we never wait so long for such things, yeah? But here in America, not so easy to get something fixed." The US moved to the backseat. We are not nearly as fast or flexible as we used to be. If I imagined that, I would have said it. I have been very clear in acknowledging your opinion. However, when it comes to how today's K-12 education impacts children and their parents, those children and their parents have a more valid opinion.
America is the best at almost everything as I already pointed out. The notion that new math makes America uncompetitive, weak, and a laughing stock is ridiculous. So Finland and Macao have better test 8th grade test scores. Big deal. What have they done with it? How? America dominates science and technology as I have already pointed out. We are in no danger of Liechtenstein passing us by. Relax. Seriously? A clerk told you that Germany was soooo much better? Why is he here, then? Clerking in Target. Damn that German math must be good! Well, perhaps others have an equally valid opinion on how it affects American science, technology and international geopolitics.
We are pretty good at kicking peoples asses, when it comes to science, math and the like I'm pretty sure we get our asses kicked. I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers, this has been the norm for years now.
