The Common Core makes for strange bedfellows. I found myself resonating with Mark Rice who wrote about the Common Core at The Huffington Post; a publication where I rarely agree with commentary provided. Rice is a professor and chair of the Department of American Studies at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY. Rice wrote […]
Sandra Stotsky Offers ELA Standards for States to Adopt
Dr. Sandra Stotsky, professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas, offered to any state or school district a set of model standards that they can use as a English Language Arts curriculum framework as option if they would rather not use the Common Core State Standards. Dr. Stotsky is known for her involvement […]
Where’s Math Content and Skills?
One of our partners emailed this following poster to us that was hung up in a Middle School classroom where he substitute taught. In this particular district one of the school principals told the math teachers that these are the Common Core State Standards for math. He noted that these standards of mathematical practice are […]
Algebraic Thinking for Those Who Don’t Know Algebra?
Barry Garelick’s article yesterday in Education News tackled the issue of teaching kids the “habits of the mind” that make up algebraic thinking before that student has learned algebra. He said what happens instead is that particular thinking skills are taught without content to support it. In essence you get math problems without math. That […]
Common Core Science Standards Up for Public Comment
CNN reported last month that the Common Core Science Standards or “Next Generation Science Standards” were going to be coming out. If you step into a high school chemistry class late next year, the students might be learning the same thing. But they could be manipulating foam or paper mache models to show how bonds […]
Who Is Writing The Common Core Social Studies Standards?
They’re coming. Right now we have math and ELA standards, but we’re told that they will expand. J.R. Wilson asks in a recent article for Education News – who’s writing the social studies standards for the Common Core? He notes that the Council of Chief State School Officers has said they were not writing the […]
The Common Core and Gingerbread Curriculum
Students in New York are treated to the New York Common Core Gingerbread Curriculum. It may be delicious, but how much are kids learning?
Kids Experience Testing Success When They Grasp Basic Math
Brain science now tells us that kids who grasp basic math experience testing success. Does the Common Core Math Standards help or hurt?
Stotsky: Common Core Writing Standards Not Linked to Appropriate Reading Standards
Dr. Sandra Stotsky, professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas, wrote a piece for the Indiana Policy Review that critiques the Common Core ELA Standards and called Indiana to re-adopt the standards they had before that were superior to the Common Core. She also pointed out a problem with the Common Core’s writing […]
No Room for Fiction
I had to share this cartoon from Me & Folly Cartoons about the Common Core ELA standards treatment of fiction: Used with permission. Be sure to check out their website and Facebook page.