Showing posts with label national standards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label national standards. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Texas, CCSS & Corporate Political Control
I'm so glad I live in Maine and not Texas. After doing a bit of research, I realize how much political control there is in determining how schooling is delivered in that state. And the sad part of it is that there seems to be increased collusion between corporate textbook publishers and politicians. There even seems to be an attempt to shut down any use of open source materials in teaching unless it has been approved at the State level. From my perspective, this is big government and corporations mandating what parents and teachers should think and say. How did this happen in a state known for the independence of thought and the self-reliance of its citizens?Sadly, what is happening in Texas seems to be happening to the rest of the country as well through the Common Core State Standards in which politicians and corporations are determining what is to be taught in our local schools in an attempt to commodify and standardize as though people were simply widgets and cogs in a machine rather than complicated, but warm human beings.
Oddly enough, some Texans are speaking of the CCSS as being a plot by progressives to indoctrinate children. The truth of the matter is that CCSS is being promoted by conservatives and liberals alike. It is being pushed by the Business Round Table, politicians, and many conservative think tanks and foundations, as well as huge textbook publishing companies.Who should control education in the United States? Local citizens, educators, and school boards . . . or rich and powerful state and national entities and interests?
What do you think?
Cartoon Credit
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
National Standards: Alfie Kohn Challenged - Part I
By Pam Kenney
A few years ago Time magazine described Alfie Kohn as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades [and] test scores." He has written extensively about the current push for national standards, and, for the most part, he doesn't like it. In fact, he labels the standards an "accountability fad." A link to one of his recent articles, "Debunking the Case for National Standards" appeared yesterday in a post on "Learning in Maine."
One of Kohn's concerns is that the adoption of national standards would signal a concomitant shift in the focus of learning from one where students develop and use high-level thinking skills to exchange ideas, grapple with complex viewpoints, and solve problems to a routinized one of memorization, drill, and objective tests. The dismal picture Kohn paints is typical of many critics of national standards, and it's not accurate. To refute Kohn's criticism, I will draw examples only from the mathematics area because I am currently reading math standards from individual U.S. states and five foreign countries.
Yes, all the documents I have studied have objective, measurable standards that require children to memorize addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts, and most mandate that students learn standard algorithms. In addition, however, they contain standards that delineate the understanding of concepts through the application of high-order thinking skills; they concentrate on problem-solving strategies that stress reasoning, demonstrating understanding using several methods, cooperating, and communicating ideas among peers. The national math standards being proposed today are not trying to re-capture the pre-Sputnik philosophies of rote learning and drill and test; they are an attempt to balance understanding and the acquisition of specific skills that are necessary to daily life.
My question is this: Why are the arguments against national standards by writers like Alfie Kohn so black and white? This isn't an "either/or" or "us versus them" debate. Of course, we want our children to have a deep understanding of math concepts. Certainly we want them to reason well mathematically and to solve complex problems. But when a sixth grader in Maine is still looking at a chart to solve 6*8, then perhaps a national standard will force his school district to realize it's just as important for him to learn his multiplication facts as it is for him to draw a picture to explain why the answer is 48.
Tomorrow: Part II: "Who Should Determine the Content of National Standards?"
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
National Standards
This is happening very fast. Questions need to be asked:
What should our schools' primary purpose be? Should it be to create a more efficient and docile workforce? Should it be to promote democratic citizenship with the ability to think critically, collaborate, and work as a team? Something else? All of the above?
Who is involved in creating the standards? Who should be?
See government site: Common Core State Standards Initiative
Check this article out in Education Week: "Expert Panels Named in Common Standards Push"
Other involved organizations: Achieve, Inc., ACT, College Board, NGA, CCSSO
Note that national educator associations such as NCTM, NCTE and ISTE don't seem to be included.
It is time to be vigilant and vocal.
Your thoughts?
What should our schools' primary purpose be? Should it be to create a more efficient and docile workforce? Should it be to promote democratic citizenship with the ability to think critically, collaborate, and work as a team? Something else? All of the above?
Who is involved in creating the standards? Who should be?
See government site: Common Core State Standards Initiative
Check this article out in Education Week: "Expert Panels Named in Common Standards Push"
Other involved organizations: Achieve, Inc., ACT, College Board, NGA, CCSSO
Note that national educator associations such as NCTM, NCTE and ISTE don't seem to be included.
It is time to be vigilant and vocal.
Your thoughts?
“It is the supreme art of the
teacher to awaken joy in creative
expressions and knowledge.”
“Teaching should be such that what
is offered is perceived as a valuable
gift and not as a hard duty.”
~ Albert Einstein
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
National Education Standards
"Forty-six states and the District of Columbia today will announce an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation, an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American schools." More . . .~Maria Glod, Washington Post, 6/1/09
Education World: U.S. Education Standards
Education World: National Standards
ISTE: National Technology Standards
"A distinguishing characteristic of our nation — and a great strength — is the development of our institutions within the concept of individual worth and dignity. Our schools are among the guardians of that principle. Consequently . . . and deliberately their control and support throughout our history have been — and are — a state and local responsibility. . . . Thus was established a fundamental element of the American public school system — local direction by boards of education responsible immediately to the parents of children. Diffusion of authority among tens of thousands of school districts is a safeguard against centralized control and abuse of the educational system that must be maintained. We believe that to take away the responsibility of communities and states in educating our children is to undermine not only a basic element of our freedoms but a basic right of our citizens. "
—President Dwight D. Eisenhower
What are your thoughts on national standards in education?
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