May 4, 2015 2:38 pm / Leave a comment
The Common Core standards are successful in classrooms all over the country, not just here in New Hampshire. Here a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter conveys telling quotes from Kentucky teachers. (more…)
September 3, 2014 2:16 pm / Leave a comment
Whatever you might think about the Common Core, you owe it to yourself to listen to this 53 minute American RadioWorks documentary on the standards (or read the transcript). American RadioWorks has proved in over 100 education essays and documentaries to be a balanced and reliable searcher of the truth about American public education and this new documentary is true to that spirit.
The piece contrasts an enthusiastic and successful Nevada rollout of the new standards with the poisonous atmosphere New York created with its premature and poorly developed Common Core testing. (more…)
July 17, 2014 9:16 am / Leave a comment
Here is the most useful kind of Common Core discussion - direct classroom experience. Jessica Pointer, a 9th grade English teacher in Tennessee, talks in a Fordham Institute post about the benefits of developing her own curriculum for the new standards.
This local hands-on approach is the practice in the many New Hampshire schools I have visited, from Manchester to the North Country. That’s probably why there is such wide support for the standards here. (more…)
July 9, 2014 8:50 am / 12 Comments on NEA delegates love Common Core Math - EdWeek
EdWeek reporter Liana Heitin, wandering the floor at the NEA convention, heard the same thing we hear from New Hampshire teachers about the Common Core math standards: (more…)
June 8, 2014 3:22 pm / 10 Comments on Yes, Gates funded the Common Core….but struggle is a still natural part of learning
Today’s Washington Post has a couple of interesting Common Core pieces.
This one is about the role Bill Gates has played in funding the creation and promotion of the Common Core. It looks pretty factual to me and you get as a bonus an unedited video of the half hour interview the reporter did with Gates. Although the education reform policies he funds are a disaster for public education, you can see from this report that the idea for the Common Core originally came from an entirely different direction and the fact that Gates has funding the standards has little to do with the quality of the standards themselves.
And to that point, here’s an oped in the Post by math teacher Austen Kassinger who, like most teachers I’ve met who have actually used the standards in their classrooms, says they’re great:
(more…)
April 13, 2014 1:48 pm / Leave a comment
This Tennessee math teacher writes in a letter to his legislators about the improvement in this new generation of Common Core assessments that have the potential to get beyond testing strategies and give teachers useful insights into what their students have actually learned. We’ll see these same benefits in NH.
(more…)
April 12, 2014 10:23 am / Leave a comment
Why read an article in a Rochester, NY student newspaper? Because it’s a model of thoughtful, balanced reporting on the Common Core and the educators quoted make a thoughtful contribution to the debate.
It’s also interesting because, although to comes from New York, with possibly the most disastrous Common Core implementation in the country, the teachers’ observations are much like those of teachers in New Hampshire, which had done one of the best implementations of the new standards.
(more…)
March 31, 2014 5:52 am / Leave a comment
You hear a lot in Common Core schools about the teacher as coach or facilitator, a concept that is probably worrisome to some who are skeptical of the new standards. This report from Florida is a good snapshot of the noisy, interactive approach to teaching: (more…)
February 24, 2014 7:56 pm / Leave a comment
Here’s another useful radio story about how well the Common Core works when it’s allowed to:
…In Defuniak Springs in Florida’s panhandle, the third graders at West Defuniak Elementary are learning division. Specifically, 72 divided by six. Their teacher, Casi Adkinson draws circles onto the board.
Casi Adkinson, a third grade teacher at West Defuniak Elementary, listens to a student explain her work during a small group session. Adkinson says the Common Core standards emphasize that students explain their thinking in math and English language arts.
(more…)
February 11, 2014 12:22 pm / Leave a comment
Testimony from all over the country…
When the Common Core State Standards were introduced in Louisiana, they represented an opportunity for me to grow as an instructor and impact student learning in a way that few may have anticipated. As a high school choir director, I have sat through my share of staff development meetings on topics ranging from “how to incorporate math into an English lesson” to “how to write a multiple choice question.” None of these developments have applied to me.
Now, with Common Core, we have, professional development opportunities that are applicable to all classes, not only the core classes (or as I like to refer to them, the “non-elective” classes). In Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), teachers focus on student data and literacy-based instruction for all classes. This allows differentiated professional development to support teachers as they implement the new standards in the most fitting way for their subject matter and individual students.
Implementing the CCSS in my choir room has allowed me to influence my students’ overall academic achievement more than I ever anticipated. You may not recognize the connection between choir and an English essay or a math problem, but I assure you, it’s there.
via Common Core in the Choir Room | Voices from the Classroom.
Advancing New Hampshire Public Education 