Oklahoma educator and school board member takes issue with certain aspects of Common Core

 


A hot-button American issue that transcends politics, bringing parents from both sides of the aisle together, is their children's education. And rightly so, given education not only shapes the minds of our children but also the direction of our country -- as they are the future thinkers, legislators, entrepreneurs and moral leaders.

That said, what and how our children are learning is pretty darn important, which brings me to the topic of this blog post: the Common Core State Standards Initiative, the standardized teaching curriculum that was adopted in 2009 and an extension of the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001."

According to former award-winning educator and current board member of the Woodward School Board in Woodward, Okla., Linda Harrison, education funding in the Sooner State has been cut by $24 million since 2009.

"Testing is one of the reasons our funding has disappeared," said Harrison. "It is expensive and time-consuming. Oklahoma's Department of Education is in love with testing -- all kinds of testing -- and the money is pouring out to testing companies."

For instance, Oklahoma has invested millions in a third grade reading test. This year, Linda said, all third graders must pass this test and be able to read at the third grade level. If they fail, students fail the entire year and are forced to retake the third grade.

"Their parents will have nothing to say about it," she said. "High-stakes testing for a third grader is absurd and cruel. Reading is a developmental skill and sometimes it doesn't fully kick in in the third grade."

"High-stakes testing is the easiest way for politicians to get some level of accountability from teachers, but it's not a fair way. One test on one day can in no way give an accurate picture of what a child has learned. It's absurd

Although Harrison approves of some aspects of Common Core, she disagrees with the constant testing as well as with how the curriculum was implemented -- with little to no input from teachers, administrators or parents.

"Did our legislators listen to educators before they passed the law . . . No!" she said. "What other profession doesn't get to participate in the laws that govern how it does business? Would doctors or lawyers allow legislators to regulate them? Why do Oklahomans accept that politicians know more about educating kids than do their teachers or parents?"

To express her grievances, Linda joined 25,000 other concerned parents, teachers and administrators at an education rally at the Oklahoma State Capitol on Monday, March 31. The rally was labeled the largest in two decades.

"CATASTROPHIC" TEACHER SHORTAGE

In addition to Common Core, another big focus of the rally centered around teachers' pay and how it is spawning a teacher shortage in the state -- a shortage that Linda described as "catastrophic."

Harrison, who taught in the Woodward School system for 32 years, said the district started the 2013-2014 school year with three teacher vacancies.

"We would have hired anyone with a teaching certificate but there were no applicants, and there are many other Oklahoma communities just like us," she explained. "Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, who always provides us with lots of new teacher candidates, graduated 25 new teachers this year . . . 25. Just a few years ago there were over a hundred teacher graduates."

Linda believes the reason young people are not obtaining education degrees is because they can't make a living wage at the profession. She went on to say that teachers are also easy targets when it comes to the "blame game" by legislators.

"They are being evaluated now on the basis of their students' test scores, and that adds so much pressure, especially for inexperienced teachers," she said. "The few that we can get to pursue the profession usually leave within five years."

In fact, Linda said, one of her good friend's daughter left the profession after only nine years for a job as a secretary at an oil company, where her starting salary vastly exceeded what she made as a teacher, plus a full benefits package.

"Our legislators in Oklahoma are so short-sighted," she stated. "They pass mandate after mandate that supposedly raise the level of teacher accountability and learning standards, but don't offer teachers a dime more in pay."

"What profession does that besides teaching?" Harrison continued, "In the corporate world, if a professional is asked to do more work, compensation typically follows. Oklahoma is truly going to get what it pays for in education, and that makes me so sad."

THE FUTURE FOR COMMON CORE IN OKLAHOMA AND WHY PARENTS ARE SO CONCERNED

Linda said Oklahoma is not adopting Common Core, but rather "similar academic standards that promote development of critical and creative thinking skills, instead of memorization of rote knowledge".

But this may not go over well either with parents, whose trust have been badly violated by an overreaching government that believes it knows best when it comes to their children's education. Parents already suspect similar standards are being adopted, but under a different name, and are gearing up to fight those standards, as well.

It may seem fastidious, but these concerned parents believe the goal of Common Core and No Child Left Behind is to globalize education. Since the majority of world societies and governments are socialist in nature, parents fear that adopting a globalized curriculum could work against American ideals such as free market capitalism, national sovereignty, individual thought and conscience as well as free speech.

According to a report in The Constitutional Coalition's March 28th issue of FRONT LINE, observers noted a parallel between Common Core and the United Nation's World Core Curriculum. The article said:
The purpose of the World Core Curriculum is to, "Assist the child in becoming an integrated individual who can deal with personal experience while seeing himself as part of 'the greater whole.'" In other words, promote collectivism, so that the good of the group will "replace all limited, self-centered objectives, leading to a group consciousness."
Obviously a one-size-fits-all curriculum undermines everything America stands for including individual responsibility, entrepreneurial vigor and freedom of expression and thought. That's because America's laws and constitution recognizes the uniqueness of each human being, creating a natural awareness that what works for one person, district or state may not work for another.

This is where Harrison sees things differently, however.

 "Common Core is a set of learning standards that communicate goals and expectations for the knowledge and skills students should acquire at every grade level," she said. "Learning standards are different from curriculum or lesson plans. Designed to teach the standards, the curriculum is then generated by teachers through their day-to-day lesson plans. With the Common Core, teachers will still create lesson plans and use this instruction to meet the students' individual needs in their classrooms."

Harrison continued, "While CC sets high expectations for what students should know, it does not set  a lesson plan or tell teachers how to teach."

This may very well be the case in Oklahoma, but it has been reported in other states that teachers are being told what to teach and how to teach it and are even being evaluated on how closely they follow the Common Core curriculum in their respective states.

Additionally, teachers have spoken of egregious distortions of America's history as well as its constitution within the Common Core curriculum. The most recent distortion occurred in Illinois concerning the second amendment:

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Now if this isn't an egregious distortion -- I don't know what is.

Here is how the actual 2nd amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Another complaint is that Common Core does not fairly represent Christianity and Judaism. For example, a Michigan school district last year took students on field trips to a Muslim mosque and a Hindu temple, but not to a church or synagogue. Christian students and parents were not amused and questioned the school district's decision. The school district's response was that their schedule did not allow them to visit the latter two religious institutions.

In Florida, students were asked to recant the five prayers familiar to the religion of Islam, while bowing on Muslim prayer rugs. When a Christian student refused to participate citing a violation of his conscience and religion, he was threatened with a failing grade. Thanks to media backlash, the student was excused from the assignment.

"CAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES"

Linda said one of the primary complaints by businesses is that, increasingly, high school graduates do not have the necessary skill-sets to be good employees.

"Businesses are begging for students with better communications skills, the ability to work effectively in groups, critical and creative problem solving skills and a work ethic," said Harrison. "The CC standards are not easily administered through memorization; they require communication and problem solving skills . . . students don't just read a passage and regurgitate it from memory. They have to reason it out and then communicate their findings, verbally or in some written form."

Most can agree that educational standards need to be reformed to meet 21st century demands. The argument lies in how to accomplish this goal. A major concern among parents is that the learning models being used in Common Core are too complex, rendering them both irrelevant and ineffective.

According to the FRONT LINE article:
No one denies that models can help everyone understand complex relationships. Pictorial or simplified models are very important in lower grade levels where cognitive skills have not yet developed. However, when those models become complex mathematical constructs as is required at the "Next Generation Science Standards" [NGSS] high school level, the students will be so involved with the math and model intricacies that they will not, indeed cannot, see larger relationships. It is the old adage of not being able to see the forest for the trees.
Very few high school students will have the cogitative ability to understand, let alone do what these standards require. Most of us remember subjects that made no sense and we felt helpless, desperately looking for some way of at least getting a passing grade without knowing a thing about the subject. That is especially true for these new standards. 
For instance, TheBlaze recently reported on a picture that went viral posted to Facebook by a fed-up father:

A fed-up father’s alleged response to his child’s common core math assignment. (Image source: Facebook)

Arguably, Common Core models are so complex that students are struggling to answer relatively easy questions. It is also worth noting that if a student arrives at the correct answer by using a different model (or maybe common sense?), the student misses the question -- just as he or she would have for providing an incorrect answer altogether.

(This may not be the case everywhere, as some  districts and/or states offer teachers more freedom and flexibility than others.)

Anti-Common Core parents believe this is training children to "comply" to a certain way of thinking and punishing them for "thinking outside of the box."

DATA-MINING

Another huge concern with Common Core is data-mining. It has been reported that students are being asked about their parents' religious and political views, information that is then recorded into a database.

This is quite disconcerting, especially for conservative parents who find themselves as potential political targets in light of the breaking IRS Scandal, one that compelled top IRS official, Lois Lerner, to plead the Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination  . . . twice.

Harrison doesn't take this lightly and recognizes the potential for abuse in this regard.

"I think local districts must be very aware of that and train teachers/administrators on what is appropriate and what is not in terms of data analysis," said Harrison. "The only data we need to worry about is the data that improves student learning."

For instance, Lind said, "Our data in Woodward shows us that most students on free and reduced lunches have trouble in reading, so we are considering whether or not we should put some kind of learning intervention in place in order to try and give these students extra help with reading as early as we can."

"I approve of data-mining as it relates to developing a more targeted approach to learning," she added.

HOW DO CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES FARE IN THE WORLD OF COMMON CORE

Linda said Oklahoma's Common Core standards do not govern the methods and strategies used by teachers in an effort to teach their students.

"The IEPs and learning modifications for students with special needs will still be what the teacher uses to design appropriate curriculum," she explained. "The hands-on design of the CC could drive the learning process for these students, and that's a good thing. All students need hands-on learning."

OPTING OUT

"Opt-out is a personal choice, and we have allowed parents to opt their students out if they so choose," said Linda.

IN CONCLUSION

When asked about parent grievances regarding Common Core, Linda said, "There is much misunderstanding when it comes to Common Core, so we have to move slowly and take time to educate others as we make this transition into 21st century curriculum. As a school board member, we are listening to every one's concerns, educators and parents."

"We will find a way to make this work for our community," she added. "Our transition will be based on trust, communication and collaboration. That is not how the Common Core was presented to us when it all came about, and in that lies the major problem."








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