If the CCSS Had Been Around When I Was In School...

My friend and fellow Alabama educator, Jenny Moon, posted this on her Facebook wall yesterday, and I asked if I could repost it on my blog.  Very powerful message, one many need to hear.

If Common Core Standards Had Been Adopted When I Was in Elementary School…..

written by Jenny Moon,  Alabama Educator

I started thinking about what my parents would have done if Common Core Standards had been adopted when I was in Elementary School. I know my dad would have said, “You do what your teacher says.” You see I was raised in a time when teachers were respected by parents and the community. I was raised by hard working, middle class parents. My dad worked at Republic Steel and my mother worked with my grandmother at West Gadsden Cafe. My dad would have never questioned the integrity of the teachers or the school system.

I can remember a time when my dad worked second shift at the Steel Plant and helped paint (the outside) Elliott Elementary School in the mornings before he went to work. Could you see parents doing that now? I can’t.

When I was in Fourth Grade, guess what happened to education? NEW MATH! How many of you remember that. I can remember my dad saying he wasn’t sure he could help me, but he did. He supported the school and the school system. West Gadsden Cafe had many customers that were educators. My dad knew them and he knew they gave their all to the students in this community.

When did the teachers and school system lose the respect of the community? I guess it as a slow process. But whenever it happened, it was a sad day for children everywhere.

I would like to challenge everyone in this community to rally behind your teachers and school system. Let’s all work to make education in Gadsden and Alabama the best this nation has to offer! You have heard the saying, IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD? Well it takes a community to education the children in this community. I am challenging the citizens of Gadsden to rally behind teachers and the school system to educate our children, ALL OF OUR CHILDREN.

Will you join me?

Reaction to Beason's "Common Core " Bill - Larry Lee

Education Matters

By Larry Lee

In the 1985 movie classic, Back to the Future, Marty McFly was inadvertently sent back in time by Doc Brown’s time machine.

It now appears that State Senator Scott Beason has his own time machine and is hoping to send Alabama public school students and teachers back to 1999.  Beason has introduced SB 380 which calls for the repeal of the new Alabama College & Career Ready standards and replace them with standards adopted in 1999.

It’s all about some of the hysteria whipped up by those who want us to believe that the new standards are somehow part of a master national plan to subvert young minds.  And it once again shows that some elected officials are far more interested in politics than they are in education.

As best I can determine from visiting schools, talking to teachers and principals and school superintendents; the standards are largely hailed as what our kids need to compete in today’s world.

A Baldwin County teacher told me, “In the past, we’ve been teaching a mile wide and an inch deep.  At the end of the year you knew you really had not given your students mastery of certain concepts, nor helped them to think deeply.  But now we’ve narrowed the focus and are going much more in depth.  This is allowing our kids to really understand what we’re trying to teach them.”

To get to this point school systems have invested tremendous amounts of time and effort into professional development for teachers.  They’ve invested substantial revenue into getting ready to implement the new standards.

But what do educators know when it comes to education?  Why should we be concerned about wasting money or telling teachers to forget about the two years of work they’ve just spent learning how to be better instructors when a few votes are involved?

So let’s roll back the clock 15 years for our school kids.  Let’s go back to 1999 when gas was $1.22 a gallon.  A few weeks ago the Talladega County school system was nationally featured in a meeting at the Library of Congress where they spoke about their computer-based teaching programs.

Let’s tell Talladega County to toss out the classroom computers in use now since they were not around in 1999.  Let’s pass a law outlawing all text messages since “texting” was virtually unknown in 1999.  And don’t forget to tell all the school systems that have invested in various one-on-one computer projects to take those devices to the dumpster.

I’m sure Governor Bentley is looking forward to holding a press conference to announce that we are looking backwards in Alabama, rather than forward.  I’m sure Airbus will be delighted to get this news.

No doubt Greg Canfield with the Commerce Department will soon send letters to companies considering locating in Alabama explaining that if they want a work force prepared to compete in today’s global economy they should look elsewhere.

Who knows we may even want to send a letter to Mercedes telling them that from now on they should only use their 1999 training methods to prepare employees to work on cars being built in 2014.

Remington has just announced that they will put a major manufacturing facility in Huntsville.  How excited will the managers who move to Alabama be when they learn their kids will go to schools that use outdated standards?

Maybe we can redo the welcome to Alabama billboards to say, “Welcome to Alabama where the future is 15 years ago.”

The teachers I know have every confidence in the ability of our students to compete with other students across this country.  All they want is the chance to give them this opportunity.  That’s why so many of them have invested so much time and effort into preparation for the last few years.

They don’t want to go back to 1999.  They know that if we do we are putting our kids at a huge disadvantage.  But hey, why should it matter that students in Georgia or North Carolina or Ohio are being better prepared as long as you can round up a few more votes?

What difference does it make that we’re sending the wrong message to the world when it might help me get re-elected?

Larry Lee led the study, Lessons Learned from Rural Schools, and is a long-time advocate for public education and frequently writes about education issues.  larrylee33@knology.net

Scratching My Head about Common Core by Larry Lee

Education Matters

By Larry Lee

Pardon me while I scratch my head, but I’m still confused as to what all the “common core” talk is about.

And if the truth be known I suspect the vast majority of Alabamians don’t know common core from apple core.  Still, this doesn’t stop the mention of it from stirring passion in some, especially the well-meaning folks who call themselves Tea Party types.

One reason I’m confused is because I don’t know which Republican to believe.

John Legg is a Republican state senator who chairs the Florida Senate Education committee, a former teacher and lives near Tampa.  A few months ago he wrote an article Why Conservatives Support Common Core State Standards.

He said, “The movement to Common Core asserts higher-order thinking across the disciplines and concepts, which will yield a higher quality of comprehension for students, ensuring they are prepared for college, the workforce or to become a business owner/job creator.  Common Core is a set of academic standards and does not pose an identity or security risk to students.”

On the other hand our own Republican state senator Scott Beason spoke a few days ago to an anti-Common Core rally in Montgomery.  He read his fifth-grade daughter’s reading assignment about the benefits of hybrid cars and called it an example of socialist indoctrination since the implication was that hybrid cars do not cause as much pollution as ones with internal combustion engines.

(Wow, my sister has a hybrid vehicle.  Did not know she was a socialist.  She may be the only one to ever graduate from Auburn University.)

Two Republican state senators.  One supports Common Core, one doesn’t.  Which one should I believe?

At this point, trying to sort through my confusion I did what I usually do when it comes to education issues—I went to the experts.  In this case, school superintendents, principals and teachers who are largely being ignored in this debate.  I doubt that, unlike Senator

Beason, they are experts on hybrid cars and socialism, but I do think they know a lot about education.

They quickly got me to understand that Common Core refers to standards—not curriculum.  I also learned that Alabama used the Common Core, adjusted them to fit Alabama students and adopted the Alabama College & Career Ready standards.

As one teacher explained, “These standards encourage teachers to help students think, apply, and create, instead of ‘sit and get’ instruction.  Students make relevant and real-world connections across the disciplines.”

What do the experts think about what Alabama is doing?

Of the 50+ I talked to, not a single one disagrees with the move.

“I have seen teachers re-energized.  One first-grade teacher came to me with tears in her eyes and said that she had been in a rut and what she is now doing has brought joy back to her classroom,” said one longtime principal.

“We just had a school that exceeded national benchmarks in all content areas.  I asked why this happened. The principal said that her teachers are finally able to teach again,” said a central office specialist.

“The standards are about doing what is right for the children, their future and their success.  I don’t understand why adults in today’s society try to use children as a bargaining chip to promote their own agenda,” commented a Torchbearer school principal.

“We are spending time teaching teachers how to stop surface teaching and start expecting deeper use of and knowledge connected to writing and reading…developing a love of learning,” explained a superintendent.

“I love the college and career ready standards.  It enables us to see how we measure up.  I believe that Alabama schools are as good as those in other states,” said a principal.

“These standards are stronger than any we’ve ever had, no question.  As long as we can teach and assess how we want, I’ll stand behind them 100%,” stated a principal of 20 years.

From a teacher of two decades, “Our new standards are one of the best things we’ve done in Alabama.  We’re all finally saying that ‘sage on the stage’ teaching is ineffective and teachers must get students invested in their own learning. Less rote memorization and more thinking and application.”

“The legislature needs to pause, take a breath and consider the repercussions of their decisions.  Teachers, children and parents are simply in the boat without a paddle and the legislature is the wind shifting directions without knowing why, when, or where,” summed up a superintendent.

After going through these comments—and many more—I’ll throw out a suggestion.  Perhaps some elected officials should visit a few schools rather than speaking at rallies.  I’ll even give them a ride in my car, which is not a hybrid.

Larry Lee led the study, Lessons Learned from Rural Schools, and is a long-time advocate for public education and frequently writes about education issues.  larrylee33@knology.net