Gone, But Not Forgotten...

I have been absent from blogging for quite a while as I have tried to get acclimated to a new classroom, in a new school, in a new district! I am in the process of creating modules that use a modified version of PARCC's 4th Grade ELA Model Content Framework. Wish me luck!

One of the themes I am using is Nature's Fury (Extreme Weather). To support this theme, I will be using Eye of the Storm: Chasing Storms with Warren Faidley by Stephen Kramer. I have checked out the eBook from Open Library. I am embedding the mini-book player here and hopefully it will work (just in case the website is blocked by this district's strict web filters).

Goldilocks and the Three? Bears

I really like the promise of the Common Core. When the standards were released in 2010, I was head over heels in love with the idea of common standards across the states. Most important to me was the idea that teachers would be given the opportunity to narrow the focus to fewer standards per year and teach those deeply, to mastery. 

It had been my long-held belief that it is ridiculous to attempt to teach a multitude of skills shallowly - which were usually repeated as students matriculated. I mean, how many years does it really take to know what nouns are and how to use them? Under this model, teaching standards was nothing more than briefly introducing and objective and repeatedly assessing all "covered" standards. There were too many standards to effectively teach to mastery in an academic year that is shortened by the frequency and number of assessments.

Consider my formula for instructional days from the 180-day/36-week school year based on the last year I taught.

  5 - # of days spent pre-testing

18 - # of weekly or bi-weekly common Teacher-made assessments (Mandated)

18 - # of review days for aforementioned Teacher-made assessments

15 - # of testing days required for 3 week-long DWAs (District-Wide Assessments)

15 - # of review days for aforementioned DWAs

15 - # of days for MAP testing

10 - # of review days for MCT2 (state-wide, end-of-year assessment)

+5 - # of days for MCT2, including make-up testing

101 assessment days

 180 days of compulsory attendance

-101 days of assessment

   79 instructional days

Keep in mind that instructional days were also impacted by assemblies, field trips, PBIS parties, field day, inclement weather days, fire/tornado/lockdown drills, actual lockdowns, widespread absenteeism due to H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu), professional development days, early-release days, parent-teacher conference days, and any other number of things.

Many have suggested that the solution is a longer school year. I wholeheartedly disagree. The answer is less assessment. Oddly, the answer has been more, not less. Since leaving the classroom, additions to the assessment calendar include STAR testing for AR placement; Code of Conduct testing (student handbook); and pre-testing at the beginning of every term rather than just the beginning of the school year. I'm sure there are some other things I'm forgetting.

Am I the only one that thinks education reform itself should be reformed?

So, now to the bears... 

I fear that the promise of the Common Core State Standards will prove to be a failed promise because of a narrowing curriculum unintended by the standards themselves. 

The CCSS are equivalent to Papa Bear's oversized chair. A booster seat in the form of a little more specificity would make this chair a better fit. 

PARCC's Model Content Framework is Baby Bear's chair that doesn't support the weight of teacher autonomy. Local educational agencies (state education agencies, district-level curriculum personnel, and building-level administrators) may be enticed to strongly encourage (read: mandate) teachers to focus narrowly on what PARCC considers important and has specified as a "model" (read: will be tested). Now we're back to teaching to the test, the very thing that the high, clear, and few CCSS were to deliver us from.

Where is Mama Bear's just-right chair? 

I hope Pathways to the Common Core can help me figure it out. Chapter 3 gave me more questions than answers. What are your thoughts?

~TF

Snowed under...

No, it's not snowing in Alabama in September, although I am being crushed under the avalanche of research I'm conducting on the Common Core State Standards and PARCC assessments. 

I have been out of the classroom for over two years doing technology professional development for teachers. As a result, I'm little behind with the CCSS and PARCC. So, now I am feverishly trying to familiarize myself with the standards, shifts, assessments, and more for an upcoming adventure - more on that later.