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Originally Posted by Bard
a questions for our wonderful educators New York state has adopted the common core curriculum. Many may elementary school children are struggling with it especially in the math. homework every night and it is hard, my daughter is doing well very well but she always excelled but even she is frustrated and worried about her friends who are having a hard time. We also just got the test scores for the start of the year and she was very high in math and also in the english language arts but rated as meets standards this child who in the 4th grade reads at a 10th grade level and is currently on the second book of the hunger games. many parents are up in arms about this new common core kids not wanting or having stress over homework and kids hating school so what are your thoughts
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Testing students to determine their instructional needs is one thing. Testing students to determine how a school is doing is another. As a parent I extremely dislike standardized testing that students do. If I could opt my kid out I would. I don't like the data mining, waste of instructional time and the money that is being spent on a sadistic way to torture children just so we know those schools are doing a good job. NCLB and Race to the top, and the Common Core have successfully brought about a more nationalized curriculum and helped testing and curriculum corporations make a lot of money.
Maybe it is time for a more nationalized curriculum. Less local control and such may be fine in the global world we live in now. However, the common core standards do emphasize deep understanding of concepts in math and language that may not be entirely appropriate developmentally.
As a teacher I am thrilled to work harder to teach deeper understanding to students. I see the kids I work with as very capable. However I think that can be done while remembering they are children. That their minds need to breath as well as learn. And the number of standardized tests required are too freaking much! There are ways of knowing the students needs without all the worry.
I agree with Martina.... an engaged student is less distracting to the learning environment. Keeping everyone engaged at their level and then more for a challenge is an art for sure.
And it is good for kids to be challenged. I think we just need to get better at acknowledging them for rising to the challenge with out trivializing their successes.