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Common Core...Am I wrong that it won't affect me?


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We visited family over the weekend and they were talking about the horrors of Common Core and their PS child. Up to date, I haven't been all that concerned as to how it would affect ME. But they are saying it will affect the SATs and college and that it will seriously affect me if I don't teach Common Core.

 

What do you think?

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I don't know what teaching CC looks like. There is a ton of curricula aligned with CC, including some homeschool favorites like MM, yet they still look closer to their non-CC predecessors than to each other. In math I would just make sure you are teaching all the topics covered under CC. So if you weren't planning on teaching statistics, maybe you should consider going over some statistics topics included under CC. That's it. 

 

For English, I simply don't see what you would do different. CC has a stronger emphasis on grammar and latin roots, something we homeschoolers on this board value greatly. I am sure we are going well beyond what CC asks. CC also asks kids to work with primary source materials in history. Anybody following TWTM already does that. 

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I made myself attend a session on Common Core by Martin Cothran this year in Cinci.  It was interesting and informative.  I am not worried about it at all now.  

This is an old dragon with a new name.  

 

I think John Gatto's book on Dumbing Down is on target for PS.  

 

My state, KY, made drastic changes and when it came time to pay the piper they shoved it under the rug.  It is still horrible.  

 

I also recommend the documentary, Waiting for SuperMan.  

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We visited family over the weekend and they were talking about the horrors of Common Core and their PS child. Up to date, I haven't been all that concerned as to how it would affect ME. But they are saying it will affect the SATs and college and that it will seriously affect me if I don't teach Common Core.

 

What do you think?

 

As far as the SAT being geared for Common Core… The SAT gets revamped about every 8-10 years anyways; then new prep books and resources are published, and you just use the new resources to prepare for the new "slant" on the test.

 

While it's still a bit early to tell for sure, I personally doubt colleges are going to care about Common Core more than they care about GPA, test scores, and student passion/extracurriculars (which show interest, abilities and if they are a match with the school). Colleges are businesses and bottom line for them is $$, not Common Core or other public primary / secondary educational checklists.

 

Teach your children so they are solid with reading, writing and math. Help them develop strong thinking and reasoning skills -- and then, when they're ready for high school testing, you can fill in any "content" details to match up with whatever is the "standard du jour" (Common Core, or something else in 10 years). They'll do great. :)

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They are saying how Common Core will give 5 explanations as to how a question can be answered and you have to find the fallacy in each (except for the correct one.) So while we are teaching for accuracy, we are not teaching them how to do it in convoluted methods so that they can find the error. 

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What Lori D. said.

 

It will not affect any homeschoolers directly until possible when it comes time for the SAT, but even that is constantly being updated so I wouldn't think about it until you get there.  It will absolutely not take a decade of schooling to prepare for the SAT, no matter what they do to it.  Instead, you get to use that time to teach the skills to mastery, to have authentic experiences, to become real critical thinkers, etc.  You know, the stuff colleges like in their students.  And then, you get to spend a year or so prepping for that test, whatever it looks like when you get there.

 

The only other way I see it affecting homeschoolers is that many curricula commonly used by homeschoolers, such as Math Mammoth, IEW, and several others, have been slightly reworked so they can stamp that "Common Core aligned!" stamp on the cover.  Some people have chosen to go a little crazy and refuse to buy products they like as a result.  To me, that's a choice they're making for it to affect them when it does not have to.

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They are saying how Common Core will give 5 explanations as to how a question can be answered and you have to find the fallacy in each (except for the correct one.) So while we are teaching for accuracy, we are not teaching them how to do it in convoluted methods so that they can find the error. 

 

Who are they?

 

Link to the information?

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This particular example came from my college daughter who nannies a child in school. This was her homework assignment. She was appalled at the assignment. She mentioned over and over again how stupid the assigment was until the girl asked why then did she have to do it. So she stopped ranting (in front of her.) lol

 

My SIL's example had to do with the way that they do fractions. There are check boxes that you mark off and then you turn the paper on its side and check boxes the other way. I have no idea what this was nor do I want to learn. 

 

I have no plans to change what works. Out of my 4 high school graduates, 2 have their Master's, one graduates next year with a 3.9xx GPA, my recent grad has 42 credits of college, again with a 3.9xx GPA. 

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They are saying how Common Core will give 5 explanations as to how a question can be answered and you have to find the fallacy in each (except for the correct one.) So while we are teaching for accuracy, we are not teaching them how to do it in convoluted methods so that they can find the error. 

 

1. Teach Logic and critical thinking as a school subject in your homeschool. (Automatically teaches you not only how to see fallacies and inconsistencies in erroneous methods, but also encourages analysis, making connections, and coming up with new solutions and out-of-the-box thinking.)

2. Buy the test prep book which gives test-taking tips and practice for learning how to answer those types of questions.

 

Again, teach solid core skills in your home, and when testing rolls around, buy the test prep book for the tips and practice.

 

Your DC will do MUCH better on the tests through solid consistent teaching of core subjects and developing strong logic and critical thinking skills, than public school children who will have had a different teacher each year who struggled to implement fuzzy, confusing Common Core standards in yet a different way (thus leaving gaping holes). JMO. :)

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I have no plans to change what works. Out of my 4 high school graduates, 2 have their Master's, one graduates next year with a 3.9xx GPA, my recent grad has 42 credits of college, again with a 3.9xx GPA. 

 

Well, there you go, then. You already have the proof that focusing on building a solid foundation, rather than focusing on the ever-changing surface is what is very successful, not only for schooling, but for college and for life. :)

 

Go forth, free from "Common Core" fear. ;)

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As far as the SAT being geared for Common Core… The SAT gets revamped about every 8-10 years anyways; then new prep books and resources are published, and you just use the new resources to prepare for the new "slant" on the test.

 

While it's still a bit early to tell for sure, I personally doubt colleges are going to care about Common Core more than they care about GPA, test scores, and student passion/extracurriculars (which show interest, abilities and if they are a match with the school). Colleges are businesses and bottom line for them is $$, not Common Core or other public primary / secondary educational checklists.

 

Teach your children so they are solid with reading, writing and math. Help them develop strong thinking and reasoning skills -- and then, when they're ready for high school testing, you can fill in any "content" details to match up with whatever is the "standard du jour" (Common Core, or something else in 10 years). They'll do great. :)

 

:hurray: Look, everybody! Lori D. is here! I've missed you, Lori. Glad to see you here and thanks for this post. ITA, but then, I usually do totally agree w/ ALL of your posts!

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As far as the SAT being geared for Common Core… The SAT gets revamped about every 8-10 years anyways; then new prep books and resources are published, and you just use the new resources to prepare for the new "slant" on the test.

 

While it's still a bit early to tell for sure, I personally doubt colleges are going to care about Common Core more than they care about GPA, test scores, and student passion/extracurriculars (which show interest, abilities and if they are a match with the school). Colleges are businesses and bottom line for them is $$, not Common Core or other public primary / secondary educational checklists.

 

Teach your children so they are solid with reading, writing and math. Help them develop strong thinking and reasoning skills -- and then, when they're ready for high school testing, you can fill in any "content" details to match up with whatever is the "standard du jour" (Common Core, or something else in 10 years). They'll do great. :)

 

After asking a similar question a few months back, "How Will the Common Core affect me?" I came to the same conclusion as Lori D. As I understand it, the CC was a means to get all states to follow the same set of standards rather than different states following different standards. It is an attempt at a uniform standard so 5th grade in Florida closely resembles 5th grade in Montana. I do not think any college will care about CC scores. It is just a yard stick for public schools to measure their progress. 

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They are saying how Common Core will give 5 explanations as to how a question can be answered and you have to find the fallacy in each (except for the correct one.) So while we are teaching for accuracy, we are not teaching them how to do it in convoluted methods so that they can find the error.

 

Sounds to me like that's a curriculum issue. Some "common core aligned" curricula are great, and some are crap, but people have this habit of attributing all the ones they hate to "common core".

 

The younger kid went through three schools in three years (long, kinda boring story) which means three math curricula which were all approved by the city to meet the standards. And boy, did they run the gamut! They weren't terribly similar to each other, but even today, I can go on their individual websites and find they're "common core aligned". One was awful, one was middling, one was pretty good. *shrugs*

 

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Have schools ever actually aligned what they teach to prepare one for the SAT?  I didn't feel prepared for it, and I did all my assigned work and got good grades!

I was not prepared either.  After hearing Martin Cothran, it is no wonder!  KY was going through some major changes and requiring portfolios for every class.  Writing in every class was a little overboard.  Still, many ps students were passed on and graduated functionally illiterate.  I found school absolutely boring. A few classes were inspiring as the teachers were inspiring!

I don't know if any schools are actually preparing students for the SAT or ACT.

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Well, to be clear...  since the CC tests are written by the makers of *certain* curricula, the only way to really excel on them en masse is to have those particular curricula.  Some of those are good, some are bad.  The "CC aligned" sticker doesn't really mean much in the end.

 

From The Atlantic:

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/07/why-poor-schools-can-t-win-at-standardized-testing/374287/

 

"Unfortunately, introducing children to classic works of literature won’t raise their abysmal test scores. This is because standardized tests are not based on general knowledge. As I learned in the course of my investigation, they are based on specific knowledge contained in specific sets of books: the textbooks created by the test makers."

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Yeah I'm thankful we have a choice of tests.  We do not have to take the NY tests.  And actually the district offers a test (if we want) and it isn't even the NY test!  If it came to that though, I'd just have to get over it.  I'm confident my kids could achieve the low requirements even without preparation.  I refuse to just teach to a test that I don't believe in.

 

Right.  I think pretty much all homeschoolers have a choice to tests and that some of those tests are much less based on specific texts like these new ones and that is unlikely to change.  Thus, yeah, no really effect.  The one test we may all have to take is the SAT or the ACT, but, again, we could just buy the materials for that one test.  Or just wait it out.  Who knows what it will be like in six years when my kids take the SAT.  Or what it will be like for college admissions, where I can only assume that things like community college courses, advanced placement courses, etc. will still hold heavy weight for homeschoolers and that the SAT will continue to just be one metric among many.

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I don't think it will. The more I have learned about what Common Core it, which is separate from how it is being implemented, the less it bothers me. And the less I even think about it. I don't take it into account when I teach or chose materials.

 

And I have liked one aspect of CC. I took a chance and switched from SM to BA, but because I know they are both CC aligned I was much less anxious about trying a new math curriculum. If BA didn't work out for us I knew I could step back into SM and we wouldn't have lost any ground. Or if we run out of BA before all the books are published, I can again step back into another CC aligned math and my kid will still be on track to finish elementary math. 

 

Now, getting off track of trying a new sequence might not bother some people at all, but it did worry me. I was much more willing to take a chance on what ended up being a better math curriculum for my kid.

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And if someone is telling you that if you don't use CC then your kid won't know how to do XYZ, they are talking about a particular curriculum or the use of particular materials in School District A. A kid in school district B might be learning the same content but using totally different materials.

 

CC is just a set of minimum benchmarks that everyone is expected to meet.

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What Lori D. said.

 

It will not affect any homeschoolers directly until possible when it comes time for the SAT, but even that is constantly being updated so I wouldn't think about it until you get there. It will absolutely not take a decade of schooling to prepare for the SAT, no matter what they do to it. Instead, you get to use that time to teach the skills to mastery, to have authentic experiences, to become real critical thinkers, etc. You know, the stuff colleges like in their students. And then, you get to spend a year or so prepping for that test, whatever it looks like when you get there.

 

The only other way I see it affecting homeschoolers is that many curricula commonly used by homeschoolers, such as Math Mammoth, IEW, and several others, have been slightly reworked so they can stamp that "Common Core aligned!" stamp on the cover. Some people have chosen to go a little crazy and refuse to buy products they like as a result. To me, that's a choice they're making for it to affect them when it does not have to.

Andrew Pudewa of IEW has spoken against CC to the Oklahoma legislature. I believe IEW's website addresses the issue of CC by stating that they already exceed the very vague CC composition standards. Many curricula already just so happen to meet or exceed CC and have not made any changes.
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And if someone is telling you that if you don't use CC then your kid won't know how to do XYZ, they are talking about a particular curriculum or the use of particular materials in School District A. A kid in school district B might be learning the same content but using totally different materials.

 

CC is just a set of minimum benchmarks that everyone is expected to meet.

Exactly. A lot of what gets passed around on Facebook as "Common Core" is really just horrible textbooks that were already horrible before CC. I am opposed to CC, but a lot of the fear has been blown out of proportion. It is the textbook companies who are choosing ridiculous methods to teach the CC that are what terrify some people the most. I taught in a UMS school that had some CC-aligned math books, but our teacher were not teaching any wacky methods like some of the examples that float around.

 

ETA: Colleges won't be impressed with the results of some of these curricula. DH and I used to teach in a small Baptist college. The math department had to implement a math placement test for every single freshman because there were so many students who could place into advanced classes but didn't know their arithmetic facts and, therefore, made computational errors. If they scored poorly on the entrance exam, they had to take a remedial class along with their regular more conceptual course, all because they'd been allowed to use calculators instead of memorizing. Similarly, we required the freshmen to take an English placement exam as well, regardless of transcript or SAT score. Through all the proposals to "fix" education, the homeschoolers and private-schoolers who never strayed from traditional and/or classical methods have continued to outperform their ps counterparts. It will be the same with CC.

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Be careful about people's stories of "the terrible homework my kids brought home!"

 

I had two friends rant on and on about this "new" way that the schools were teaching math and how it didn't make any sense and it was confusing the kids and blah, blah, blah.

 

I looked it over. Basically the "new" math was showing some addition techniques that they use in MUS and my kids have used for years. I told them how I use the same technique in teaching my kids from my MUS stuff. They kind of stared at me and some of the air went out of them.

 

So, not everything bad you hear is "common core." Sometimes it's just new to the parents and has nothing to do with common core, but common core gets blamed for everything.

 

If you're really concerned you could start buying stuff that your local school uses. Or find workbooks that align and see what's in them.

 

P.S. I think that teaching kids how to think of why something is wrong is pretty awesome actually. Maybe the problem that your friends had with it was that it wasn't age appropriate? But at a certain age, yes the child should be able to explain what makes something right and what makes something wrong mathmatically.

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If the SAT was suddenly aligned to what schools are doing that would be a first.  They have never been aligned to what schools generally do.

It's my understanding that David Coleman, who's described as the "architect" of the Common Core Initiative for K through 12 (and wrote a lot of the English Language Arts standards), is now the president of the College Board -- and is behind the push for major changes to the SAT.  

 

I think that is a first.   What it means, I'm not sure.  But given that the same person is in charge of both, it would be very surprising if they weren't closely aligned.  

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It will change the SATs, but I am not sure that that will have a huge effect on homeschoolers.  The SAT is a multiple choice test and there is limited things you can do with that format.  The bigger effect will be how CC impacts the math that is taught on the college level and I think that will result in remedial math being offered for credit at the college level.

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Be careful about people's stories of "the terrible homework my kids brought home!"

 

I had two friends rant on and on about this "new" way that the schools were teaching math and how it didn't make any sense and it was confusing the kids and blah, blah, blah.

 

I looked it over. Basically the "new" math was showing some addition techniques that they use in MUS and my kids have used for years. I told them how I use the same technique in teaching my kids from my MUS stuff. They kind of stared at me and some of the air went out of them.

 

So, not everything bad you hear is "common core." Sometimes it's just new to the parents and has nothing to do with common core, but common core gets blamed for everything.

 

Yeah. Frankly I approve of some of the worksheets I see posted as "This common core is sooo terrible". Some parents just want their kids taught the traditional algorithms and ONLY the traditional algorithms, because that's the way they learned math and by golly if it was good enough for me it's good enough for my kids.

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Be careful about people's stories of "the terrible homework my kids brought home!"

 

I had two friends rant on and on about this "new" way that the schools were teaching math and how it didn't make any sense and it was confusing the kids and blah, blah, blah.

 

I looked it over. Basically the "new" math was showing some addition techniques that they use in MUS and my kids have used for years. I told them how I use the same technique in teaching my kids from my MUS stuff. They kind of stared at me and some of the air went out of them.

 

So, not everything bad you hear is "common core." Sometimes it's just new to the parents and has nothing to do with common core, but common core gets blamed for everything.

 

If you're really concerned you could start buying stuff that your local school uses. Or find workbooks that align and see what's in them.

 

P.S. I think that teaching kids how to think of why something is wrong is pretty awesome actually. Maybe the problem that your friends had with it was that it wasn't age appropriate? But at a certain age, yes the child should be able to explain what makes something right and what makes something wrong mathmatically.

 

Yes, a FB friend kept complaining about how awful Common Core was and posted examples from her kid's homework and tests. The problem was the kid's teacher sucked and couldn't write a coherent sentence. It really had nothing to do with Common Core!

 

Most people who go on about the horrors of Common Core can't articulate why beyond the talking points they heard on TV. So they get mmhmm and a change of subject. ;)

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They are saying how Common Core will give 5 explanations as to how a question can be answered and you have to find the fallacy in each (except for the correct one.) So while we are teaching for accuracy, we are not teaching them how to do it in convoluted methods so that they can find the error. 

So this is their version of critical thinking. :) Sort of like a fallacy detective? 

I think you can write such a question well, or you can write it badly. 

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Sounds to me like that's a curriculum issue. Some "common core aligned" curricula are great, and some are crap, but people have this habit of attributing all the ones they hate to "common core".

 

 

I agree with this. 

 

Did anybody see Cobert Common Core episode? It's hilarious, but the math example he uses from the CC aligned textbook predates CC. 

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I would not consider that a bad thing.  Why have a test that isn't testing anything kids are being taught?  KWIM?

I think the SAT was originally supposed to be more of an IQ/aptitude sort of test, to identify students who might not have had great educational opportunities, but had the potential to do well in college.  (ETA link to PBS Frontline "Brief History of the SAT," which supports this.) 

 

From what I've read, Coleman is explicitly trying to take out the "aptitude" part, and make it a straight test of how well the students have done in learning the high school material.  Oddly enough, this is also being done in the name of leveling the playing field.  The idea seems to be that aptitude testing discriminates against less privileged students, but achievement testing will not.  I guess I'm a bear of little brain, because this makes no sense to me.   

 

Besides, there's already an established way of testing how well students have learned the high school material -- i.e., their high school grades.   If they think GPA is so unreliable, I'm not sure why they want to keep it in the mix.   Why don't they just advocate throwing it out and going to a straight exam system?

 

(Maybe they're planning to do that?  Who knows...)

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Andrew Pudewa of IEW has spoken against CC to the Oklahoma legislature. I believe IEW's website addresses the issue of CC by stating that they already exceed the very vague CC composition standards. Many curricula already just so happen to meet or exceed CC and have not made any changes.

 

Because they have labeled themselves as CC compliant, I have seen more than one person say that they now refuse to use it.  Which is pretty much my point...  that if you choose to make that an issue, feel free, but you really don't have to.

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DD just had her yearly evaluation from our friend who is a certified teacher.  She stayed and talked with us for 3 hours and brought up CC.  She and two other teachers have retired/quit over CC.

 

She advised me that all tests (ACT/SAT/etc.) will be enmeshed with CC, especially for 2018 graduates.  She also advised me to continually check our area's high school graduation requirements because they will be changing due to CC.  Eventually all AP courses will be phased out because there will no longer be a 4-level grading apparatus.  It will change to either "Meet Standards" or "Does Not Meet Standards".

 

She did tell me, thankfully, that if we continue doing what we normally do for school, and keep on the path we laid out for DD, we should be fine.

 

Additionally, just as an aside, she absolutely loved TOG, was very impressed at the depth of it, and thought it was an exemplary program.

 

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Because they have labeled themselves as CC compliant, I have seen more than one person say that they now refuse to use it. Which is pretty much my point... that if you choose to make that an issue, feel free, but you really don't have to.

As I recall, part of Pudewa's testimony to the OK legislature was that as a businessman, he was put in a tough spot: label his program as CC compliant and lose business, not label it and lose business from the other side. Either way, it's still the same old IEW. (It's used in a number of schools, so that's probably where the need to label it really matters.) I'd post a link to the transcript but my phone isn't smart enough to do that.

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As I recall, part of Pudewa's testimony to the OK legislature was that as a businessman, he was put in a tough spot: label his program as CC compliant and lose business, not label it and lose business from the other side. Either way, it's still the same old IEW. (It's used in a number of schools, so that's probably where the need to label it really matters.) I'd post a link to the transcript but my phone isn't smart enough to do that.

 

Which is why people who stop using it based on that are completely pigheaded.  I don't really care if he labeled it as compliant or not (it's not the right program for us at all and I am happy to use good materials that are labeled CC compliant).  My only point is that some people are letting CC mean something to them when they really don't have to.

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I think the SAT was originally supposed to be more of an IQ/aptitude sort of test, to identify students who might not have had great educational opportunities, but had the potential to do well in college.

 

The SAT has its roots in the Ivy League admissions test, and was intended to broaden the application pool beyond the New England prep schools that had historically been the feeders to the Ivies.

 

Given that the SAT has already lost much of its ability to discriminate between the top applicants and the fact that it's going to be dumbed-down even further by removing the challenging vocabulary words, I could very well see the Ivies and other elite universities bringing back their own admissions test. One that's more challenging than the SAT.

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Which is why people who stop using it based on that are completely pigheaded. I don't really care if he labeled it as compliant or not (it's not the right program for us at all and I am happy to use good materials that are labeled CC compliant). My only point is that some people are letting CC mean something to them when they really don't have to.

We are in agreement.

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They are saying how Common Core will give 5 explanations as to how a question can be answered and you have to find the fallacy in each (except for the correct one.) So while we are teaching for accuracy, we are not teaching them how to do it in convoluted methods so that they can find the error. 

 

I've heard this one before and I've hunted all through the standards and can NOT figure on where on earth this is coming from.  

Can you tell us which standard(s), in particular, this applies to?

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What bothered me the most was "New Math, no Classics in Elementary grades and no essay on the ACT.  

And teachers hate the fact that the entire year is spent learning to pass the test. It limits what they are able to teach.

  

Be careful about people's stories of "the terrible homework my kids brought home!"

I had two friends rant on and on about this "new" way that the schools were teaching math and how it didn't make any sense and it was confusing the kids and blah, blah, blah.

I looked it over. Basically the "new" math was showing some addition techniques that they use in MUS and my kids have used for years. I told them how I use the same technique in teaching my kids from my MUS stuff. They kind of stared at me and some of the air went out of them.

So, not everything bad you hear is "common core." Sometimes it's just new to the parents and has nothing to do with common core, but common core gets blamed for everything.

If you're really concerned you could start buying stuff that your local school uses. Or find workbooks that align and see what's in them.

P.S. I think that teaching kids how to think of why something is wrong is pretty awesome actually. Maybe the problem that your friends had with it was that it wasn't age appropriate? But at a certain age, yes the child should be able to explain what makes something right and what makes something wrong mathmatically.

 

Everytime I have seen one of those "horrors of common core" post all over Facebook and the web I realize how it is often just Singapore or MUS method revamped. This issue is that the parents had such an abysmal math education that they don't understand why the kids are doing what they are doing.

One example had a child drawn 70 little x inside 10 circles. It seemed odd until one realized it was just a pictorial method of teaching to divide; 70/10. I use the same method with my son using Cheerios and post it notes.

Some terms have changed. Things like "number sentence" is a relatively new term. But the thing is with the right teacher the child knows what a number sentence is. Often the kids aren't confused. They are more bewildered by their parents bafflement. Their parents tell them that they are doing it all wrong is just as damaging.

I am not saying there are poorly written curricula. There certainly are. But that is not what common core is. And the curriculum choice is at the discretion of the school district in most cases. So they should be the ones under fire.

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I can speak personally about this issue.  We use an umbrella charter so I drag my kids to take the test every spring.  My third grader took the test. She has autism so one of her allowances in test taking is having me with her as a support.  I do not help her with the actual test.  The test was appalling.  Seriously awful.   It is true that the test gives 3 to 5 different answers that are vague.  The student then supports their answer by answering additional questions.  I know that 3rd graders are not developmentally ready for this.  My third grader is 2E (twice exceptional) and extremely smart.  The test had her crying.  I was just really amazed at the weirdness of the test.  Critical thinking skills are developed past the grammar stage.  How are kids to build their confidence in test taking when a clear answer is not available?   Also the test for third graders asked for 2 paragraph essays about the vague answer. 

 

If only the common core was teaching about logical fallacies.  Sigh.  I bet the kids who took the practice cc test last year universally bombed it.  My 7th grader cried when I picked her up.  Honestly, if our kids are struggling so much why are we, as a nation, allowing our schools to further confuse our students?  I told my kids not to sweat it.  I know what they can and can't do and I find the standardized test scores to be useful as tissues to blow my nose with.  A good solid classical education will always have elements of logic and critical thinking.  My kids already do Singapore (which cc math is VERY loosely based on), they already read nonfiction.  There is a lot of hype about the cc but when I look at it I see nothing that we aren't already doing that either reaches or exceeds the common core.  I actually feel a little sorry for ps kids because they will have more catching up to do than the average classical homeschooler.

 

They are saying how Common Core will give 5 explanations as to how a question can be answered and you have to find the fallacy in each (except for the correct one.) So while we are teaching for accuracy, we are not teaching them how to do it in convoluted methods so that they can find the error. 

 

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Be careful about people's stories of "the terrible homework my kids brought home!"

 

I had two friends rant on and on about this "new" way that the schools were teaching math and how it didn't make any sense and it was confusing the kids and blah, blah, blah.

 

I looked it over. Basically the "new" math was showing some addition techniques that they use in MUS and my kids have used for years. I told them how I use the same technique in teaching my kids from my MUS stuff. They kind of stared at me and some of the air went out of them.

 

So, not everything bad you hear is "common core." Sometimes it's just new to the parents and has nothing to do with common core, but common core gets blamed for everything.

 

If you're really concerned you could start buying stuff that your local school uses. Or find workbooks that align and see what's in them.

 

P.S. I think that teaching kids how to think of why something is wrong is pretty awesome actually. Maybe the problem that your friends had with it was that it wasn't age appropriate? But at a certain age, yes the child should be able to explain what makes something right and what makes something wrong mathmatically.

 

This^^^!!!!  I have been telling all of the math cc haters that I have been teaching these "new" cc math techniques for years and now have the solid math understanding I lacked in my ps career.  Now I read math books for fun.  I used to hate math.  When the kids are crying at home it is because the parents can't figure out the kids homework and can't help them.  

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This^^^!!!!  I have been telling all of the math cc haters that I have been teaching these "new" cc math techniques for years and now have the solid math understanding I lacked in my ps career.  Now I read math books for fun.  I used to hate math.  When the kids are crying at home it is because the parents can't figure out the kids homework and can't help them.  

 

And in many cases are actively hostile -- In some cases telling the kids specifically not to do it that way and "do it the way I showed you".

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And in many cases are actively hostile -- In some cases telling the kids specifically not to do it that way and "do it the way I showed you".

 

Well, but the teachers are sometimes teaching it in ways that make no sense.  Or in overly rigid ways.  Or explicitly telling parents not to help because they'll never understand it.  So insulting.  I think it's just a mess all the way around.  Some parents get it.  Some teachers get it.  But many parents and many teachers are having trouble figuring out how to deal with things like bar diagrams or having to explain your answers or having to find alternate methods.  And then they all have this knee jerk "it's wrong!" reaction.  The parents complain and make annoying viral videos about it and the teachers don't bother to learn the materials well enough to teach them and just keep giving the "just because" sort of line, which undermines the whole purpose of teaching to a deeper conceptual understanding.

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I'm anxiously hoping it won't affect my test choices because the one we like isn't specifically aligned with the CC afaik. My local school district didn't give me any grief about it this year, but in two years, I'll have two kids needing tests, and I wonder if they will have changed the law then.

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Well, but the teachers are sometimes teaching it in ways that make no sense.  Or in overly rigid ways.  Or explicitly telling parents not to help because they'll never understand it.  So insulting.  I think it's just a mess all the way around.  Some parents get it.  Some teachers get it.  But many parents and many teachers are having trouble figuring out how to deal with things like bar diagrams or having to explain your answers or having to find alternate methods.  And then they all have this knee jerk "it's wrong!" reaction.  The parents complain and make annoying viral videos about it and the teachers don't bother to learn the materials well enough to teach them and just keep giving the "just because" sort of line, which undermines the whole purpose of teaching to a deeper conceptual understanding.

 

Totally, it is both.

 

Frankly I think the schools should have online parent workshops explaining what they're trying to do and why. Actually, the state should put them up for the curricula they're using. Ha. That'll never happen. But it should.

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Totally, it is both.

 

Frankly I think the schools should have online parent workshops explaining what they're trying to do and why. Actually, the state should put them up for the curricula they're using. Ha. That'll never happen. But it should.

 

Well, one of my conspiracy theories about CC is that some districts are implementing it poorly on purpose.  The teachers and administrators don't like it.  They implement it poorly.  Then when parents complain they cry that they're helpless, thus spurring the parents to write their representatives and work against CC, which hopefully results in its overturn down the line, since that's what they want.

 

(sorry about my tinfoil hat)

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Texas is not a Common Core state, so I assume that when DD is preparing for the PSAT, and then the SAT, that she is going to need to "wrap her head around" some very strange things involving Common Core. That is something we will expect and plan for her to need to do as she prepares for those examinations. 

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I agree that the CC math I see people complaining about resembles some curricula that homeschoolers have been using for years. The problem I think is that the texts used may be a bad imitation of some better programs. Add to that teachers who have always taught a certain way now being forced to teach in a new way they may not understand (when honestly there are multiple ways to get to math mastery). Then you add older students who have already learned math in one modality suddenly being presented another way, and parents who for the most part haven't touched math since college or maybe even high school at best. 

 

It's a recipe for everyone being frustrated.

 

Homeschoolers can typically take their leisurely time learning some different math methods and programs, drop it  without guilt or punitive policies if it doesn't work, and find some other way.

 

PS teachers, students, and parents are sort of stuck. 

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DD just had her yearly evaluation from our friend who is a certified teacher.  She stayed and talked with us for 3 hours and brought up CC.  She and two other teachers have retired/quit over CC.

 

She advised me that all tests (ACT/SAT/etc.) will be enmeshed with CC, especially for 2018 graduates.  She also advised me to continually check our area's high school graduation requirements because they will be changing due to CC.  Eventually all AP courses will be phased out because there will no longer be a 4-level grading apparatus.  It will change to either "Meet Standards" or "Does Not Meet Standards".

 

She did tell me, thankfully, that if we continue doing what we normally do for school, and keep on the path we laid out for DD, we should be fine.

 

Additionally, just as an aside, she absolutely loved TOG, was very impressed at the depth of it, and thought it was an exemplary program.

 

I don't understand the AP classes being phased out,.  That was something I hadn't heard.  Do you have an article on that?

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I have read some of the common core standards, and I have yet to find anything really wrong with them. so far my kids are meeting them without a problem. They are written in some fuzzy language at times, which I think makes it difficult to accurately demonstrate them on standardized tests. So the a lot of the implementation in schools is seriously messed up. Some classrooms are taking the problems like 70 divided by 10, and focus on drawing the x's in the circles, at the expense of the student understanding that 70 is 10 groups of 7. And, solving large number problems with elaborate pictorial representations can lead to confusion from minor counting errors. But this really isn't CC, it is a curriculum or state/school/teachers way of interpreting the implementation of CC, and trying to demonstrate it.

 

For example, I know my daughter knows several strategies for solving multi digit addition problems. But if she had to demonstrate that she knows multiple strategies on a standardized test with no guidance that would be a different story. She would solve problems the easiest way for her, and look like she only knows 1 or 2 strategies.

 

I think this is why so many teachers I know hate it. (Many of them are in NY state and I understand the implementation there has been a huge mess). The common core seems to have some emphasis on critical and conceptual thinking, but those things are almost impossible to assess in mass standardized testing. so for implementation and assessment teachers are having to turn conceptual thinking into memorization/regurgitation, which just doesn't work.

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