For the Core — with doubts
“I think the Common Core State Standards are our best shot at creating an education system that meets the challenges of the 21st century,” writes Dylan Wiliam, an emeritus professor of educational...
View ArticleMath reform on steroids
Common Core standards aren’t supposed to tell teachers how to teach, writes Barry Garelick in Education News. However, Common Core math is “a massive dose of steroids” for the math reform movement....
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Why do teachers hate Common Core?
What is it teachers truly hate about the Common Core? asks Shawna on The Picture Book Teacher’s Edition. In Why I Want to Give Up Teaching Elizabeth A. Natalie complains that, “In English, emphasis on...
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Have unions flipped on Common Core?
Have the teachers’ unions joined the anti-Core pushback? asks Alexander Russo. The “unions’ rhetoric and tone have changed,” he writes. But it’s not clear that it matters in “concrete substantive...
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How Core literacy could fail
Common Core’s literacy standards could fail because teachers aren’t being given enough time to make them work, says a lead standards writer, Sue Pimentel. Teachers need time to develop materials and...
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NYC’s would-be teachers flunk literacy test
Teacher trainees have to pass a new literacy exam to teach in New York: One third failed statewide and a majority of would-be teachers failed the literacy test at New York City colleges, reports the...
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The man behind Common Core math
Hechinger’s Sarah Garland profiles Jason Zimba, The Man Behind Common Core Math for NPR. Every Saturday morning at 10 a.m., Jason Zimba begins a math tutoring session for his two young daughters with...
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2015 will be ‘brutal’ for Common Core
2015 will be a “brutal” year for Common Core standards, predicts Andy Smarick on Ahead of the Heard. While some think the backlash has peaked, Core defenders have not addressed “conservatives...
View ArticleKindergarten reading: Is it bad for kids?
Teaching reading in kindergarten could be harmful to kids who aren’t ready, argues a new report by Defending the Early Years and Alliance for Childhood. Furthermore, there’s no advantage in learning...
View ArticleTeachers of the year on Core teaching
The National Network of State Teachers of the Year has released 12 videos of “teachers of the year” discussing how Common Core standards have affected their classrooms. Here’s Jane Schmidt, Iowa...
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20 states raise proficiency standards
Twenty states strengthened their student proficiency standards from 2011 to 2013, while eight states weakened standards, according to a study in Education Next. All the states showing strong...
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Why Johnny can’t read, write or calculate
U.S. education has been dumbed down, writes Marc Tucker in Ed Week. High school textbooks for 12th graders are written at the 7th- or 8th-grade level, while community colleges have labeled basic...
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Defining ‘college readiness’ down
Naesea Price teaches a lesson on sentence and paragraph structure in a remedial English course at Baltimore City Community College. “College readiness” has been redefined as ready to take...
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Instead of the Core, ‘competitive federalism’
Common Core standards violate three laws barring federal direction, supervision or control over curricula or instruction, concludes Bill Evers in Federal Overreach and Common Core, a new Pioneer...
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Sir Ken’s well-meant twaddle
Sir Ken Robinson, known for a 2006 TED talk, Do Schools Kill Creativity?, has a new book out called Creative Schools about “transforming” education. “Think of it as a jukebox cranking out all of the...
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What doesn’t work
John Hattie’s What Doesn’t Work In Education, published by Pearson Education, attacks “popular and oft-prescribed remedies,” such as small classes, high standards and more money, reports NPR. A...
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‘Thinking like a scientist’— without facts
Memorizing is out, thinking like a scientist is in, thanks to Michigan’s proposed new science standards, reports Lori Higgins in the Detroit Free Press. Instead of “memorizing the ins and outs of life...
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Core aligned? Not so much
In Checking In, Education Trust asks whether classroom assignments reflect higher Common Core standards. The answer is: “Not so much.” Analysts looked at more than 1,500 assignments given by 92...
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Core support erodes, right and left
Common Core support is eroding on the left and the right, according to two new polls, writes Rick Hess in National Review. Depending on how the questions are phrased, “it’s possible to argue that the...
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