Why we need Common Core. I choose…

When I first watched this video by RN Guiterrez, an 8th grade ELA teacher from southern California. I had two thoughts, cool software and poor students.  Anyone who knows me, knows I am always up for a good laugh especially at the expense of others.  However, this video “triggered” one of my educational “issues.”

In 2001, when the No Child Left Behind Act was implemented, I was a 4th year teacher. Many changes were occurring across the state regarding instruction and accountability.  The main one being if our schools failed to meet academic yearly progress threats of administrators being fired or funding being pulled loomed over our heads.  I remember thinking some of the changes were great, such as, standards and common assessments. But when I saw the Arts being cut and students put into double blocks of Math and Language Arts, that didn’t seem right to me. It went against my educational training where I was taught about hetergenous groups, academic-developmental stages, learning styles, and most importantly-the use of multiple measures to assess student learning.

So, here we are in 2013 and we are sarcastically making comments how the “Standards” and the one size fits all teaching was a failure.  Funny? At whose expense?

We produced those multiple choice, pick “C”, lower lever thinkers.

The sad thing is, the joke is really on the student.  Hmm, I wonder why HS dropout rate was at an all time high.

As we move into the common core, let us not embrace it as it was a special gift given to us by the Greek Gods of Mount Olympus.  Let’s personalize to students, learning styles, teaching styles, and site needs.