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Uploaded: Thursday, November 29, 2012, 2:53 PM
Common Core: Myths versus facts
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Myth: The standards bring all states down to the lowest common denominator.
Fact: The standards build upon the most advanced current thinking about preparing all students for success in college and career. They will move even the best state standards to the next level. There's been an explicit agreement that no state will lower its standards.
Myth: The standards are not internationally benchmarked.
Fact: International benchmarking played a significant role in both math and English standards.
Myth: The standards include only skills and do not address the importance of content knowledge.
Fact: The standards recognize that both content and skills are important.
In English, they require certain critical content for all students including classic myths and stories from around the world, America's founding documents, foundational American literature and Shakespeare. Remaining decisions about what content should be taught are left to state and local decision-makers.
In math, the standards lay a foundation in whole numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and decimals. The middle school and high school standards call on students to practice applying mathematical ways of thinking to real-world issues and challenges, preparing students to think and reason mathematically.
Myth: The standards suggest teaching "Grapes of Wrath" to second-graders.
Fact: The standards suggest "Grapes of Wrath" as a text appropriate for ninth-and 10th-graders. Evidence shows that the complexity of texts students are reading today does not match what is demanded in college and the workplace. The standards create a staircase of increasing text complexity.
Myth: The standards are just vague descriptions of skills; they don't include a reading list or any other reference to content.
Fact: The standards include sample texts that demonstrate the level of complexity appropriate for various grade levels. The exemplars provide a set of possibilities and have been well-received. This gives teachers flexibility to make their own decisions about what texts to use.
Myth: The standards do not prepare or require students to learn algebra in the eighth grade as many states' current standards do.
Fact: The standards do accommodate and prepare students for Algebra 1 in eighth grade by including the prerequisites for this course in grades K-7. Students who master the K-7 material will be able to take Algebra 1 in eighth grade.Source: Condensed from the "Myths vs. Facts" page of the Common Core State Standards Initiative website. Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Wayne Martin, a resident of the Fairmeadow neighborhood, on Nov 30, 2012 at 12:18 pm Will there be any continuity between the STAR test results (meaning the API) and these new tests, or will there be a discontinuity in the results so that the last fifteen years of test results become "detached" from the new tests results.
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Posted by Parent, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Nov 30, 2012 at 2:57 pm If these tests are taking over from the STAR tests then are these tests actually testing the students, the teachers, or the schools?
Many students put no effort whatsoever in the STAR tests because they know that it makes no difference to them and who can blame them? Why should they try hard on a test when they make no difference to the classes they take or the colleges they get into. This applies at elementary levels just as much as at high school.
To make a test more meaningful it has to be something that the students see a benefit from. Otherwise, it is just a waste of time as far as they are concerned.
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Posted by VoxPop, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 30, 2012 at 5:25 pm Here is a link to the Common Core website: Web Link
Common Core is a set of educational standards that may be adopted by each state. It does not involve tests, yet. Once a state adopts the curriculum, it may develop tests to find out if the students have mastered the material.
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Posted by doug liser, a resident of another community, on Apr 22, 2013 at 11:25 pm I'm in Marin and after our 4th grade experience with CC and our third parent meeting with the district, I can say that we need to find a way to return local control before our kid's academic career is damaged beyond repair. The parent group meetings turned from interested participants in the fall to the proverbial angry mom this evening. I'm writing this comment in Palo Alto because I know that our districts are similar and that as parents have high expectations of our children, especially in math. I'm beginning to see that the way out is through our state legislators and not our school districts that are unfortunately bound by law to implement national standards.
Please help by contacting your state rep in Sacramento and discussing CC and what we see happening to some of the highest achievement public school districts in the country.
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