Ibanez wrote:JoltinJoe wrote:This is from the my third grader's common core homework.
I guess the common core drafters have never read anything from D1B.
Seriously, though, here are some questions from his math homework last night.
I've just now heard of Common Core. Isn't there some controversy surrounding this?
A lot of controversy.
First, many parents do not like that the Common Core standards are geared to provide "answers" to standardized testing. They believe (and not incorrectly) that there is a difference between "test preparation" and real learning, and that the whole educational process has been transformed into test preparation.
Second, many parents do not like that the Common Core standards have become the entirety of public school curricula throughout the states. They believe Common Core should be one aspect of a more rounded curriculum.
Third, many parents are upset that the Common Core standards are uniform to an extreme, so that they do not allow teachers to deviate for the benefit of any one of their students. (Although the guidance counselor at our middle school told me, somewhat confidentially, that they do not intend to place weight on the standardized test scores in assessing a student's eligibility for advanced placement classes, which would really violate Common Core policy. They will assess eligibility by their own observations of a student's preparedness for advanced classes).
Fourth, the math common core standard methods are ridiculous. When I learned math, we were taught to define and express our answer in the most precise and efficient terms. Common core demands, however, that a student's answer demonstrates their mental process in reaching an answer; therefore, the "correct" answer is the only answer which shows they understand the underlying concepts.
This requires longer and more inefficient expressions of an answer. By way of an example, my third grader essentially had a word problem which asked him (in a roundabout way) to determine the product of "9" and "7." So he wrote his answer as "9x7=63"). He was marked wrong.
The correct answer: "9+9+9+9+9+9+9=63," because his answer needed to show that he understood that the product of 9x7 represents the sum of adding "9" seven times.
Now, in my day, the teacher would have told you that your answer was needlessly complex, and the correct answer was more efficiently represented by the expression "9x7=63." But Common Core fears you might have guessed at this answer -- you MUST show mastery of the concepts in your answer, or it is deemed wrong, even if you are right. In my day, a teacher would have accepted that the answer "9x7=63" most likely shows understanding of the concepts and, if the student guessed, well, that's the way the world works some times!
Parents fear, thus, there is a disconnect between Common Core standards and real world standards. If you were in a job which required, among other things, expression of a mathematical equations, your boss would fire you for expressing "9x7" as "9+9+9+9+9+9+9."
Fifth, the language arts questions are often vague, or unclear, or include incorrect information. A recent reading assignment for my third grader stated that Neil Armstrong flew on Apollo 13, and another said that "John" Monroe was the fifth president of the United States.
So, in my estimation, that's the CC controversy in a nutshell.
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