Common Core Disconnect with the Exemplary Corps

I am perhaps too angry to write this piece today.  My goal of addressing these important issues is best achieved by a rational, professional approach to a discussion of teaching and learning.  A rant may not be appropriate.  But damn it, I am sick and tired of non-educators prescribing ways to fix public education when in fact those folks do not have a clue.  They have pieced together a rational that on the surface sounds logical and coherent but in fact is poppycock and balderdash.  They drink the same spiked Kool-Aid and declare themselves sober.  They are not.  They are not professional educators and seem to take pride in that fact.  I would argue that they are clearly a de facto private sector interest group bent on convincing the American public that public schools are failing kids, that educators do not know how to fix it, and that it will take the insight and expertise of non-educators and billionaires to fix us.  B.S.

The person who set me off is Kathleen Porter-Magee of the Fordham Institute and an opinion piece she wrote for CNN entitled, “Common Core is a Game Changer.”  I think she is correct, but in no way is she correct in the ways she believes she is. You may want to read her piece:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/25/opinion/porter-magee-common-core/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

The smoke, mirrors and double-talk embedded in this piece are equivalent to the Emperor’s New Clothes and Plato’s analogy of the cave.  Ms. Porter-Magee does not begin to understand teaching, learning, curriculum development, school culture, professional preparation and experience.  She is the product of a K-12 private school education and degree from College of the Holy Cross.  She is not a certified teacher.  She has never taught.  She has never principaled or superintended.  She is a fellow at an institute that helps drive school reform from the likes of Bill Gates, the Broad Foundation and other private sector interests disconnected from public education.  On the board of the Fordham Institute is only one educator, and that is Rod Paige, former Houston Independent School District Superintendent and former Secretary of Education.  A clear opportunist, Rod Paige like Arne Duncan are no longer qualified to call themselves professional educators in my humble opinion as they have totally sold out to private sector interests.

Ms. Porter-Magee simply claims that the Common Core curriculum represents an increase in national expectations for student success and that as long as we keep testing to verify that it is working such standards represent a game changer in public education.  No.  I am serious.  That is what she is saying.  I would be very hard pressed to find another example of circular reasoning or circular logic that is clearer than this and by definition is inherently false.  If a curriculum is written and standardized tests are developed to assess student mastery of the curriculum then all we know as scores improve is that students are performing better using this measure with this curriculum.  If we use the test based on the curriculum we have proved nothing.  We surely have not proved the curriculum is any good.  We surely have not proved the test is any good.  We have simply demonstrated that if anyone, say Pearson or the College Board, makes a test based on a certain prescribed body of specific knowledge, and scores go up then we have demonstrated that teachers can elevate the measures of student success any time we tell teachers what those measures are.  In other words, all we have done is demonstrate the power of teachers, not the curriculum and not the test! 

That is like saying a teacher of Spanish is handed a written curriculum of French and is told the students must pass the French exam to get credit in Spanish.  The Spanish teacher teaches French, the kids pass the test, and the teacher is lauded for implementing a “game changer” in the instruction of Spanish and we have the evidence to prove it!  Again I say poppycock and balderdash.  There are so many false assumptions inherent in this kind of double talk that it is difficult to wade through them.  Only a teacher looking at the Common Core and the tests that purport to measure the Common Core can see the fallacy of the argument.

For now I shall let pass her consistent use of the words “expectations” and “standards” as synonyms.  They are not.  In the classroom those two words are very different.  Any fool can raise standards.  Only teachers demonstrate consistently high expectations.

My concern is not only with the inherent fallacy in the argument; it is that the Common Core was not written by teachers.  A list of the Work Group for the common core in English Language tests include: 

·         Sara Clough, Director, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.

·         David Coleman, Founder, Student Achievement Partners

·         Sally Hampton, Senior Fellow for Literacy, America's Choice

·         Joel Harris, Director, English Language Arts Curriculum and Standards, Research and Development, The College Board

·         Beth Hart, Senior Assessment Specialist, Research and Development, The College Board

·         John Kraman, Associate Director, Research, Achieve

·         Laura McGiffert Slover, Vice President, Content and Policy Research, Achieve

·         Nina Metzner, Senior Test Development Associate—Language Arts, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.

·         Sherri Miller, Assistant Vice President, Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.

·         Sandy Murphy, Professor Emeritus, University of California – Davis

·         Jim Patterson, Senior Program Development Associate—Language Arts, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.

·         Sue Pimentel, Co-Founder, StandardsWork; English Language Arts Consultant, Achieve

·         Natasha Vasavada, Senior Director, Standards and Curriculum Alignment Services, Research and Development, The College Board

·         Martha Vockley, Principal and Founder, VockleyLang, LLC

How many English and Language Arts teachers do you see on this list?  How many professors of English Language Arts instruction do you see on this list?  How many public school curriculum specialists in English Language Arts do you see on this list?  None!  How many on this list represent either a test developer (SAT or ACT or College Board) or a private sector entity as in Achieve, whose full organizational title is Achieving the Common Core.  Student Achievement Partners was founded by two of the writers above to help folks achieve the Common Core.  Can you spell vested interest?  Can you spell circular logic?  I write a curriculum then form a private company to help schools pass the tests developed by test developers on this same curriculum?  My blood boils.

Math is the same:

• Sara Clough, Director, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
• Phil Daro, Senior Fellow, America's Choice
• Susan K. Eddins, Educational Consultant, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (Retired)
• Kaye Forgione, Senior Associate and Team Leader for Mathematics, Achieve
• John Kraman, Associate Director, Research, Achieve
• Marci Ladd, Mathematics Consultant, The College Board & Senior Manager and Mathematics Content Lead, Academic Benchmarks
• William McCallum, University Distinguished Professor and Head, Department of Mathematics, The University of Arizona &Mathematics Consultant, Achieve
• Sherri Miller, Assistant Vice President, Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
• Ken Mullen, Senior Program Development Associate—Mathematics, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
• Robin O'Callaghan, Senior Director, Mathematics, Research and Development, The College Board
• Andrew Schwartz, Assessment Manager, Research and Development, The College Board
• Laura McGiffert Slover, Vice President, Content and Policy Research, Achieve
• Douglas Sovde, Senior Associate, Mathematics, Achieve
• Natasha Vasavada, Senior Director, Standards and Curriculum Alignment Services, Research and Development, The College Board
• Jason Zimba, Faculty Member, Physics, Mathematics, and the Center for the Advancement of Public Action, Bennington College and Cofounder, Student Achievement Partners

Duh. 

This ostentatious group oversees the writing of the Common Core.  They thereby influence the test developed to measure the Common Core.  To ensure everyone’s wealth they must convince us this is in the best interest of kids.  They attempt to do so by saying “the curriculum I wrote and the test I wrote to measure the curriculum I wrote continue to show improvement in student performance on the curriculum.”  Well, of course it does.

What the Common Core does not do is involve our exemplary teacher corps.  Where are they in the dialog?  Nor is our exceptional teacher corps engaged in the test development and verification necessary to make the claims of the Common Core folks.  The entire loop, Common Core to testing the Common Core, is void of the teacher corps and therefore, I would argue, is void of validity.

There may be some good stuff in the Common Core.  But if we are to believe Ms. Porter-Magee such an implementation improves outcomes for kids.  Her argument is based on false and self-serving logic.  If we are to believe her, we cannot be too well educated.  The clear assumption is that those of us who are professional educators are not appropriate folks to write curriculum or develop assessment instruments.  That must be done by others, and then teachers must be leveraged into teaching that curriculum by threatening them with the test outcomes via a high stakes test.  The entire process is anti-professional educator and pro-private sector wealth generation.  I am sick of it.

She asks if it is reasonable to have a clearly defined curriculum across the state or nation.  I think so.  I disagree with her about who should define such a curriculum.  She would not be chosen by me.  She asks if we should collect data to determine the success students demonstrate in mastering that curriculum.  I think so.  I disagree about who should develop such tests and whether they should be high stakes tests or not.  She builds the trap well.  If you agree with her logic and her questions we must accept the common core and the high stakes tests.  Say it with me:  poppycock and balderdash.

Her article begins in this way:

“As the drumbeat to roll back the Common Core State Standards gets louder, some people are starting to question the value and purpose of academic standards in the first place. Do states really need to set expectations for what all students should learn? Are state standardized tests necessary?”

Wonder why the drumbeat grows louder.  We need our exemplary corps of teachers to influence the common core curriculum and to develop and monitor the tests based on that curriculum. 

We must connect the common core with the teacher corps by some means other than perceived threat and leverage.  A professional approach would be nice.

Thanks.  I feel better.