Joplin Globe columnist Anson Burlingame weighed in a few moments ago on Common Core Standards
I admit that I do not read this blog very often as I already know what its intent has become. Mr. Turner believes no one knows how to run an education system other than himself and some teachers that support him. Anyone else with thoughts on the matter are not appreciated.
I only make a simple point on this subject, CCS and anyone's ability to accept or reject, in whole or in part such standards. There are plenty of people that can do so, change the standards, but Mr. Turner is not one of them, thankfully.
I even wonder if Mr. Turner and his supporters have any read the standards. If yes, I then ask him to pick just one standard to show where it is a wrong standard, a goal to be achieved by students in Missouri. Show us how you would rewrite the standard or the reason to just toss it out with nothing in its place.
I have read the standards. They are readily available online. I see nothing wrong in that reading. They are each and everyone of them a good standard to seek to be achieved by all K12 students in MO.
Frankly I believe it is great fear on the part of people such as Mr. Turner and his supporters that they, as teachers, would be unable to teach kids as needed to achieve the stated standards.
Certainly writing pornography and calling it political satire has been deemed very ineffective ways to teach good standards of how to read and write, using critical thinking and analytical skills, skills need by every adult in America today in a fast paced and modern society.
4 comments:
Has this man ever been in a. Lass rom as a teacher? He wouldn't survive one month in R8 land!
Mr. Burlingame misses the point entirely about Common Core.
Regardless of if they are good standards or not, the issue is this: why did a group of private individuals with little to no educational experience write standards for American public students? Mr. Burlingame also should research how this public/private partnership of education violates three federal statutes and several Missouri state statutes.
Mr. Burlingame may not know this about the standards: the standards are copyrighted, untested, unfunded and cannot be accepted and rejected so easily. You may read the MOUs signed by the Governor, Commissioner of Education and State Board of Education at Missouri Coalition Against Common Core. The standards cannot be modified by districts or the states, to exit the consortia requires 2/3 approval of the other states AND the approval of the US Department of Education.
Is Mr. Burlingame a content expert in ELA and Math to determine if they are good standards? Does he know that the ELA and Math experts refused to sign off on the standards because they would not make students STEM ready and ready to enter 4 year universities?
"Poppycock"....I can hear him say. Not so fast. Michael Petrelli, in a recent MO House Interim Committee, testified to what Stotsky (ELA expert) and Milgram (Math expert)said years ago...the standards are only "the floor" and they will not make students ready for universities such as Rolla. If Mr. Burlingame is not familiar with Mr. Petrelli, he was appearing at Commissioner Nicastro's invitation to defend the CCSS. He is with Fordham Institute, proponent of CCSS, which has been paid millions by the Gates Foundation to promote the standards.
Regardless of Mr. Burlingame he thinks the standards are good, we have it from the content experts and Petrelli himself (and DESE supporter) that the standards will not make kids STEM ready and prepared for 4 year college.
Is Mr. Burlingame so keen on them now?
I'm all for high standards and that responsibility has been constitutionally given to the state, not to out of state private companies with no voter accountability. If MO needed better standards, the commissioner ALWAYS had the authority to set high standards. There was no need to join a consortia that takes away local control and creates a system that is anything but a PUBLIC directed education. Perhaps MO deserves a commissioner who can do her/his job as written in the Missouri Constitution?
It is not fear that drives my opposition to Common Core and to label this as the reason for opposition is nonsense. CCSS is based on theory and special interests. How can the proponents get the those who oppose CCSS believe otherwise?
Show the data, research, best practices on why CCSS is successful and should be implemented. Show how it increases local control. Show how it will create critical thinking and analytical skills. Show something other than talking points, theories, wishes and promises and we can have a conversation based on reality.
If Mr. Burlingame (or others) can't provide the above, then they are using the talking points from the highly paid special organizations receiving Gates money.
Since when did the voters give the authority to Bill Gates, a private individual and two private companies, the CCSSO and the NGA to direct/develop public education?
Mr. Burlingame misses the point entirely about Common Core.
Regardless of if they are good standards or not, the issue is this: why did a group of private individuals with little to no educational experience write standards for American public students? Mr. Burlingame also should research how this public/private partnership of education violates three federal statutes and several Missouri state statutes.
Mr. Burlingame may not know this about the standards: the standards are copyrighted, untested, unfunded and cannot be accepted and rejected so easily. You may read the MOUs signed by the Governor, Commissioner of Education and State Board of Education at Missouri Coalition Against Common Core. The standards cannot be modified by districts or the states, to exit the consortia requires 2/3 approval of the other states AND the approval of the US Department of Education.
Is Mr. Burlingame a content expert in ELA and Math to determine if they are good standards? Does he know that the ELA and Math experts refused to sign off on the standards because they would not make students STEM ready and ready to enter 4 year universities?
"Poppycock"....I can hear him say. Not so fast. Michael Petrelli, in a recent MO House Interim Committee, testified to what Stotsky (ELA expert) and Milgram (Math expert)said years ago...the standards are only "the floor" and they will not make students ready for universities such as Rolla. If Mr. Burlingame is not familiar with Mr. Petrelli, he was appearing at Commissioner Nicastro's invitation to defend the CCSS. He is with Fordham Institute, proponent of CCSS, which has been paid millions by the Gates Foundation to promote the standards.
Regardless of Mr. Burlingame he thinks the standards are good, we have it from the content experts and Petrelli himself (and DESE supporter) that the standards will not make kids STEM ready and prepared for 4 year college.
Is Mr. Burlingame so keen on them now?
I'm all for high standards and that responsibility has been constitutionally given to the state, not to out of state private companies with no voter accountability. If MO needed better standards, the commissioner ALWAYS had the authority to set high standards. There was no need to join a consortia that takes away local control and creates a system that is anything but a PUBLIC directed education. Perhaps MO deserves a commissioner who can do her/his job as written in the Missouri Constitution?
It is not fear that drives my opposition to Common Core and to label this as the reason for opposition is nonsense. CCSS is based on theory and special interests. How can the proponents get the those who oppose CCSS believe otherwise?
Show the data, research, best practices on why CCSS is successful and should be implemented. Show how it increases local control. Show how it will create critical thinking and analytical skills. Show something other than talking points, theories, wishes and promises and we can have a conversation based on reality.
If Mr. Burlingame (or others) can't provide the above, then they are using the talking points from the highly paid special organizations receiving Gates money.
Since when did the voters give the authority to Bill Gates, a private individual and two private companies, the CCSSO and the NGA to direct/develop public education?
Thanks to Greechen Logue for a reasonable response to my points. It is a good basis for discussion.
Part of the problem in education today is the "language" of educators. STEM, ELA, etc., etc. I admit that I have no idea what all those "things" involve and claim no expertise is such matters.
BUT, based on very long professional experience I do know how to read, write and perform aritmetic calculations. And I have "taught" people how to do so to my own standards for some 40 years as a professional in both the military and executive levels in business.
Have you ever sat in a briefing on a complex matter, listening to "gobble-de-gook"? I have for sure. Where in the hell did that "guy or gal" learn to read, write or use math to make points became the ultimate question.
Now take those learned professional experiences into a modern high school classroom and see what you get. TRASH is what I saw for over 8 years, substitue teaching in Missouri schools, in many cases.
Try this as a parent or observer of modern High School students. Ask the student to read a newspaper article, a "news article", not an opinion column. Then ask the student to write a one page essay on the content of the article and show reason to agree or disagree with the facts presented therein. As well ask him to draw his own conclusions from reading such materials.
Well over 50% of such attempts will show terrible comprehension and ability to "think" about what is written. I don't care how a student "feels" about an article. I want to see if the student "undertands" what was written and can constructively form an opinion sbout it.
Simple test. Now go try it and see what you get back from a very large percentage of high school students, today. Pure trash is my own observation in today's world.
One other example, used several times as a substitute teacher in high school math classes.
Buy a carton of candy bars, one containing 10 boxes of candy and 15 bars of candy per box. You as a business owner pay $25 for the carton.
How much must you sell each candy bar in order to make a 20% profit on such sales?
I have observed senior high school students, many of them as well as younger ones, that had no idea how to even approach much less solve such a problem, in simple math in high school.
Most students pick up a calculator and then have no idea which button to push first. Few if any get a piece of paper and pencil to "figure it out"!!
Anson Burlingame
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