Wednesday, December 2, 2015

How About the Common Core?

Driving home from a trip to Mason City the other day, on the radio I heard a commentator lamenting the move by the designers of the SAT to better align it to the Common Core. He decried this "dumbing down" of the SAT test and urged his listeners to contact their legislators to help renounce this move. In the interest of full disclosure, I confess that in nearly all areas of my life I am a conservative person. But as I listened to this commentator I could only shake my head in disbelief. Too many people appear to be latching onto bits and pieces of news reports showing examples of poorly designed test questions and ridiculous classroom activities and linking them to the Common Core, which (in their minds) somehow proves that this set of guidelines is dragging our schools into a downward spiral from which we may never recover. That's just not true. The Core is not a mandated curriculum, it is not a pre-packaged set of textbooks and worksheets, and it certainly does not reduce the rigorous expectations we hold for our students. As a matter of fact, N-K's achievement data not only remains as high as it was before The Core existed, but in mathematics (the subject which receives the most criticism from those who disagree with The Core) our achievement has steadily increased year after year. ​The Iowa State Department of Education maintains a website for parents containing information about the Iowa Core, which is a blend of the Common Core standards and our own state standards. On that website, parents, you can see the expectations the state holds for each grade level. If you take a look at these expectations, I think you'll find they're really a "sheep in wolf's clothing" when it comes to the manner in which the standards are sometimes portrayed in the media. Find out for yourself, and then let's have a conversation one-on-one if you're curious to learn more about our standards for educational excellence at the level that matters most to our students: those occurring right here at N-K. ​

1 comment: