Common Core

My bi-monthly edition of Educational Leadership just arrived and the entire magazine is devoted to the Common Core State Standards, adopted by 37 states.  This is a framework for instruction K-12.  It focuses on high level capacities that describe what students should know in the 21^st century.  It is the national version of our TEKS.  And in Texas, we do not have a clue what the CCSS is.  I believe that is myopic on our part.

A few basic assumptions behind why I think we need to move to the CCSS and away from the TEKS as quickly as possible:

First, we must admit to ourselves as educators that we no longer are in control of our curriculum.  We do not decide what we teach.  The SBOE decides that.

Secondly, we must recognize that whatever the state decides we should teach is likely to be on the test they choose to administer to our kids to see how well we are teaching.  If we teach what they prescribe we teach, then our kids should do well on the test they prescribe to measure that.  (In other words, yes, we teach to the test.  What else would we teach to?)

Thirdly, the whole notion is flawed of course and I hate it, but that is the name of the game these days and if we are to have a snowball’s chance of winning the game we must play by the rules, even if we know the rules were developed by a naked emperor.  (And yes, I continue the struggle to dismantle our ridiculous high stakes accountability system.  But until that day arrives, we must plan to do well in that system.)

So, here sits almighty Texas, proud of our TEKS and proud of our TAKS and soon to be proud of our STAAR.  So proud, that we refuse to adopt the Core Standards.  And in that we are very dumb.  By 2014 there will be a national standardized test based on the CCSS that will be used to measure the quality of instruction from state to state.  We have little chance of doing well if we are not even teaching from the same framework other states are teaching.  In fact, that to me is like teaching Spanish and giving a test in French.

We won’t budge though.  That is why we could not get a waiver for AYP this year because we refused to adopt the CCSS.  That is why the state did not apply for “Race to the Top” funds because we refused to adopt the CCSS.  We will continue to get hammered by the feds for doing our own thing; much like any individual school or teacher would get hammered by Texas for doing their own thing and not following the TEKS.  What Texas has done to our own public schools was carried to Washington by a Bush and became the law of the land and is what the feds are doing to the states.  Texas hates it as much as school districts hate it in Texas.  I think that is a hoot and hypocritical as all get out, but that’s the way it is.  Every argument the state proffers against the feds is an argument local districts can use against the state, but they can’t see it.

One of my all time favorite children’s’ books is Zoom, by Istvan Banyai.  If you are not familiar with this book, the youtube link below will take you to it (There are only pictures, you do not have to read it, and yes, for all of us, there is a test at the end.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhYblhdhQ1M

We have lost perspective.  We have concluded that our view of the world is the world.  We have lost sight that our view is simply our view and that there are many views, many ways to interpret any given reality.  I believe that is the core problem in most human relationships, in most political stalemates, in most religious confrontations, etc.  One group believes they are right, absolutely right, and sets out to make sure their view happens.  It is the result of the ultimately closed mind.  Texas is big, but we are not bigger than the US of A, nor are we bigger than the world, the solar system and the universe.

It is time Texans looked at the Common Core.  It’s here.  And while we wrestle with the mystery of the STAARs and the accuracy of our CSCOPE we are missing the bigger picture.  Educators should argue that we do not need a high stakes accountability system that is inherently punitive, but if we have to have one, let’s level the playing field nationally and adopt the CCSS.  That would be an educated position to take, I think.  The Common Core is common sense.