LA Politics Jindal and Common Core

anyone care to explain the happenings?

 

There are 9 states that have withdrawn with some 7 or more in the process. It was foisted on public schools with absolutely no proven results and with backdoor deals for equipment i.e. laptops with Microsoft programs.

My personal experience with Common Core is that it's not working and it isn't effective. My daughter had a school provided Chromebook and it was slow, ineffective, and a colossal waste of time. The actual Common Core teaching process and problem solving process is convoluted and confusing. I have yet to talk to a parent who has found success or value in it. There is no aspect of CC that prepares students for any STEM field or occupation. Bad move in the current global job market. That said, the STAR testing methods weren't any better.

States should have their own systems and the feds should stay out of public education. Charter schools, homeschooling, vouchers are all IMO better options than common core.

 

I really don't know for sure what Common Core is or what it does or whether it is good or bad. They talk about it a lot in the news but nobody explains what it is. Maybe I can be like John Kerry and say I was for it before I was against it or I was against it before I was for it.

 

well thats kinda what Jindal did, no?

 

Aren't charter AND homeschools adapting to CC? My kid goes to a charter that has one day of homeschooling. For that 1 day the parent is the official teacher and must deliver on the work provided to the students. My kids school is going CC this year as mandated by the state. My question to the academy was how are they going to bring the parents up to date with CC as it is the 1 day responsibility to teach the kids. I have yet to receive an answer. i do agree with your perspective on the CC curriculum. It is no more practical in teaching as it is to a 16 year old learning the fry station for the first time.

As for Jindal, I don't know what he is doing but it was my understanding that Louisiana adopted CC a few years ago. Is it only now that it is becoming mandatory?

 

"In May 2011, Stanford professor emeritus of mathematics James Milgram described the Common Core standards as “in large measure a political document that, in spite of a number of real strengths, is written at a very low level and does not adequately reflect our current understanding of why the math programs in the high achieving countries give dramatically better results.”


Milgram — who sat on the Common Core mathematics validation committee and was the only mathematics content expert — refused to sign off on the standards. Porter-Magee and Stern claimed on NRO last week that Common Core gives “essential math skills” a “high priority” and that its “math standards . . . coherently build on one another over time.” Milgram clearly disagrees.

University of Arkansas professor Sandra Stotsky developed Massachusetts’s widely praised English Language Arts standards. “The fatal flaws in the Common Core English Language Arts (ELA) standards went unnoticed because over 45 state boards of education and/or their governors hastily adopted the standards in 2010, in some cases long before they were written or finalized,” she wrote in an issue brief for the Heritage Foundation.

Like Milgram, Stotsky was a member of the Common Core validation committee. She likewise refused to sign off on the English Language Arts standards. “By reducing literary study,” she said, “Common Core decreases students’ opportunity to develop the analytical thinking once developed in just an elite group by the vocabulary, structure, style, ambiguity, point of view, figurative language, and irony in classic literary texts.”

The Common Core standards “simply delineate what children should know at each grade level and describe the skills that they must acquire to stay on course toward college and career,” Porter-Magee and Stern wrote.

 

This topic came up once before. The feds are most certainly involved and parents across the country see the same issues regardless of curriculum.

The Feds have tied money to adopting states via The Race to the Top program which is a $4.35 billion fund created under the economic stimulus package (ARRA). It's a competitive grant program where states compete for federal funds by implementing education reforms......In his budget request for fiscal 2011, President Obama asked for a $1.35 billion expansion of the program." The feds also monitor (data mining included) results so they are involved completely.

As for curriculum....this was a letter from a parent....

"Dear Jack,

Don’t feel bad. I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronics Engineering which included extensive study in differential equations and other higher math applications. Even I cannot explain the Common Core Mathematics approach, nor get the answer correct. In the real world, simplification is valued over complication. Therefore:

427 – 316 = 111

The answer is solved in under 5 seconds: 111. The process used is ridiculous and would result in termination if used.

Sincerely, Frustrated Parent"