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K12 Core Standards

Common-Core Academic Standards

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CORE STANDARDS:
The Common Core State Standards focus on core conceptual understandings and procedures starting in the early grades, thus enabling teachers to take the time needed to teach core concepts and procedures well and to give students the opportunity to master them. http://www.corestandards.org/

What Does "Proficiency" Mean?
It is time to ask whether NAEP proficient is the right “cut score” (passing mark).

I think it is not.The new Common Core tests funded by the federal government agreed to adopt the standard of “proficiency” used by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Students who are not “proficient” are deemed to have “failed” to meet the standards. They are described as “not proficient,” which is a very bad thing indeed. But what does NAEP proficiency mean? Fewer than 4 in 10 children reached the “proficient” level on the 2013 NAEP in reading and math.” They will fail them every year. Will the test results be used for promotion and/or graduation? If so, we can expect a majority of the current generation of students not to be promoted or graduate from high school. What will we do with them?

2016 - 6 yrs after 45 states adopted CommonCore standards, only 20 plan to administer tests from aligned consortia BECAUSE when they don't like the test results they don't want their schools / teachers / students punished for it.

CCSS REPORT CARD BUILDER

FREE on-line tool will assist in creating a K12 Common Core State Standards aligned report card template

 

K12 Common Core Standards Bankrupt Education

In 1892, the National Educational Association (NEA) organized a committee charged with determining what should be taught in high school so students from different schools would have a more uniform preparation for college. This is the main report of the Committee of Ten, according to Richard Mitchell 1893

Eight Problems With Common Core Standards
E.D. Hirsch, Jr.'s book, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, was published March 1, 1987.
So it was probably in March of that year when, sitting at a dining room table in an apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side, my host-a publishing executive, friend, and fellow West Virginian-said he'd just bought the book. He hadn't read it yet, but wondered how Hirsch's list of 5,000 things he thought every American should know differed from a list we Appalachian hillbillies might write.
I don't remember what I said, but it was probably some version of what I've long taken for granted: Most people think that whatever they and the people they like happen to know, everybody else should be required to know.
In education, of course, what it's assumed that everybody should be required to know is called "the core." Responsibility for teaching the core is divvied up between teachers of math, science, language arts, and social studies.
Variously motivated corporate interests, arguing that the core was being sloppily taught, organized a behind-the-scenes campaign to super-standardize it... washingtonpost.com/blogs

ELL English Language Learning
While a group of 28 states forges ahead to develop a new generation of English-language proficiency tests, important questions have arisen about how the language needs of millions more English-learners living in the rest of the country will be met under the common-core academic standards.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/
2011/11/16/12ell_ep.h31.html?tkn=USUFLxz1dXKkvip32FyPa3EpVVtVWtsf5Bnq&cmp=clp-edweek

The Common Core Curriculum does not differentiate between native-born American students and English language learners. Prior to the Common Core, the ELA standard in his state has been the New York English Regents exam. Anyone who doesn't pass this doesn't graduate. So when his supervisor asks him to train kids to pass it, he complies. He teaches them to write tightly structured, highly formulaic four-paragraph essays in a style he would never use. Many of them pass. The only skill they acquire is passing the Regents, and he knows when his students go to college, they will take writing tests that will label them ESL and place them in remedial classes. What would make his students more college-ready would be a strong background in English structure and usage. The language skills they have in their first languages will almost inevitably transfer into English. Depriving them of the time and instruction for this is not to their benefit. Of course, Goldstein says, his kids can be assessed. But expecting the same thing from them as from those who have been speaking English all their lives is ludicrous. There can be no true differentiation unless assessments are differentiated as well.
nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/02/17/students-learn-differently-so-why-test-them-all-the-same

 

IN CHINA

Chinese children have a lot of pressure on them from their parents to live up to a certain standard-getting a good job, getting married to a good man or woman, and being successful.

In China The education method is based largely on memorization and test-taking. Chinese education destroys independent thinking therefore creativity.

Competition for acceptance into top schools in China is intense. Entrance to high school is determined by the “(中考), the high school entrance exam, a precursor to the “(高考) college entrance exam students take at the end of their senior year. However, like most things in China, there is a way around regulations. Many of the parents use their relationships, or “guanxi ” (关系), to get their kids into a better school than they qualified for. Test rankings are publicly printed, showing every students' zhong kao score, and they estimated that about 200 of the 1,000 students in Dali's high school got in with lower scores because of guanxi.

“The poorer the area, the harder they study.”
Students in Chinese high school study hard.

On weekdays, they are in class from 7 a.m. until 10:30 p.m., with breaks from 12- p.m. and 6 - 7 p.m.
On Saturdays, they have class from 7 - 8 a.m., and on Sundays, they have class from 6:30 - 10:30 p.m.
With a study schedule like this, it's no wonder that China topped the PISA international education test scores in 2010, an event that some American education analysts called a “Sputnik moment” signaling the rise of China.

The Chinese restrictive education style is deep-seated in Chinese Confucian culture. Chinese culture is very respectful of authority, so the education system is based on a top-down approach, following mandated guidelines, discouraging questioning authority.

The American System underscores the American Dream where you are allowed to follow your own path, do your own thinking, take risks and strike it rich! We overthrew the English and decided to allow the enlightened age to effect the notion of "We The People" and "Freedom of Speech".

The educRATS in American System of dictate a culture of commerce using the jargon of "school reform". They would love to have obedient, subservient workers willing to do as they are told, under their command, willing to take what ever little minimum wage offered, in the same way the Chinese are willing to accept.

Are your kids smart enough to take China's toughest Test?
The SATs are child's play compared to the gaokao. If the SATs are the academic equivalent of, say, a brisk footrace, the gaokao is an Iron Man triathlon. Across a minefield and through a piranha-infested river that ends in a waterfall. With people throwing ninja stars at you the whole time! Freaking ninja stars. Taken across three consecutive days at the beginning of June, the gaokao covers three mandatory subjects — Chinese, Mathematics, and a foreign language, usually English—and three other topics drawn from a pool of electives: Physics, Chemistry and Biology for science track students, and History, Geography and Political Education for those on the humanities track.

The Answer is No! But who cares when CREATIVITY is more important. And it is clear that both systems are exactly alike. Chinese business and education leaders think they are stifling the kind of creativity necessary to create innovation and grow the economy. Kai-fu Lee, former president of google who got his masters in the U.S. stole COPIED google and brought it to China then named it BAIDU. He after Steve Jobs' death that China would never have its own Jobs, because Chinese education puts too much focus on memorization. Remember Steve Jobs, was adopted, became a hippy, and took LSD.

But if you think your kids are only fighting against other americans for their place in college - forget that.

China boom sparks shortage fears: Lack of unit places is driving students overseas

An estimated 400 million Chinese, about a third of the country, are now studying English, fueled by rapid growth in global trade and a recent boom in tourism. According to China Education Daily parents in Beijing are now willing to pay 300 renminbi (£28) for a six-hour English course in schools that use native speaker teachers.
China Daily newspaper estimates the country's EFL market at £1.8 billion - still a long way behind Korea's £15bn - taking into account English language teaching units at universities, training institutes set up by foreign companies and ‘countless' private language schools. But the EFL boom has led to concerns about quality and a shortage of adequate EFL teachers, native speakers in particular. EFL school chains have recently opened branches for the first time in remote regions.
Beijing-based American EFL teacher Mikala Reasback told China Daily, ‘It's usually upper middle class and elite families sending their children to private lessons and taking adult lessons.' Reasback added that pay for EFL teachers varies considerably. ‘Legitimate companies' pay between $1,200 (£720) and $1,800 (£1,090) (gross) for a week of about forty hours, which makes it a ‘popular although not particularly lucrative' occupation. Visa fees, paid public holidays and a ‘repatriation bonus' on completion of the contract are the norm. Housing allowances are more common outside Beijing, where wages are lower.
As well as a boom in EFL within China, there's also a record number of Chinese students studying abroad, according to government figures released in April which put the number of Chinese studying abroad at 1.27 million as of the end of 2010, more than any other nationality.
Of this huge number, around 285,000 were new enrolments on overseas courses, up almost a quarter from the number of students from China who were starting new courses abroad last year.
Students from China study in over 100 countries, but nine tenths of Chinese students going abroad are bound for the top ten destinations - the US, Australia, Japan, the UK, South Korea, Canada, Singapore, France, Germany and Russia. Low tuition fees for foreign university students partly explain the popularity of France and Germany, but France's non-EU student fees rose sharply recently, and much of continental Europe is expected to follow suit.
Given the shortage of university places, more mainland Chinese students are going abroad for courses. Some 40,000 Chinese nationals are currently studying in US universities, which are reporting a continued surge in applicants by students from China. The New York Times reported earlier this year that Grinnel College of Iowa State, in the Midwest, was dealing with applications for the class of 2011, and almost one in ten of these was from China.
With so many students from China aspiring to enter US universities, the market for SAT preparation courses - for mainland Chinese students in international schools abroad or for high school students in China - is also booming. Many Chinese students now see admission to a top US university as easier than entry via the highly competitive gao kao entrance exam to universities in China (see page 2  ).
SAT preparation classes delivered in China are generally in smaller ‘international classes' at state high schools, where students aim for universities abroad, or via private professional training agencies such as the New Oriental Education and Technology Group chain and Ziming Education, which ran SAT preparation classes for 2,000 students in Beijing last year.
Ziming's founder, Hou Shijun, estimated that enrolments for SAT preparation courses are rising by 30 per cent each year, and he put the total number of students taking SAT nationally at about 25,000. Interviewed in China Daily, Hou said there was a severe shortage of SAT preparation instructors, with one such class - in Jinling High School in Nanjing - possibly having to close as it can't find the specialist staff who can teach to the SAT exam.

 

 

Do the K12 Education Core Standards prepare students for College

Failing Grades on Core Subjects September 4, 2011 Michael Poliakoff

Michael Poliakoff is vice president of policy at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.
http://www.goacta.org/

For way too many college students, their diploma could be a "ticket to nowhere." At Vanderbilt University, a course called "Country Music" can serve as the only collegiate history course a student takes. At Vassar College, a class that studies Sex and the City, The Devil Wears Prada, and Gossip Girls can count as a student's foundation in English composition. According to this year's freshman handbook, the course will spark "sophisticated conversations" and introduce students to "critical reading and persuasive writing."
Solid core requirements are increasingly falling to the wayside as the "do as you please" model chips away at the basics. When 18-year-old first-year students are left to construct their own curriculum, they are often left with a haphazard smattering of unrelated classes, leading to an education with gaping holes in it. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni has been sounding this warning for the last two years with its "What Will They Learn?" college ratings, and our 2011-12 edition, covering 1,007 colleges and universities, is grim:

  • Even as our economy jolts and sputters, only 5 percent of schools have an economics requirement.
  • Barely 15 percent require an intermediate-level foreign language, even in today's globalized society.
  • Less than one-fifth of colleges and universities require a basic course in U.S. government or history.
  • Little more than one-third require a literature survey.
  • More than a third do not require a college-level math course, and 16 percent lack a rigorous writing course.

The damage shows. Forty-five percent of students failed to show significant improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills in their first two years at college, according to a study released by New York University professor Richard Arum. After four years of college, 36 percent didn't show any significant improvement.
Businesses are noticing. An overwhelming majority of employers believe that institutions need to improve student achievement for America to remain competitive in the global market, according to a study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills survey found that fewer than a quarter of employers deemed the entry-level skills of four-year college graduates excellent, and more than a quarter called their writing skills deficient.
A diploma should be more than a receipt for tens of thousands of dollars of supposed education. A diploma should tell employers that the bearer is knowledgeable in basic math and science, has a sophisticated grasp of writing, and knows what makes our free society tick. Federal and state governments spend tens of billions of dollars on education every year, and higher-education costs are rising rapidly. If Americans are paying billions of dollars for education, shouldn't one return on their investment be well-educated graduates?
The "What Will They Learn?" study grades schools by how many fundamental subjects they require of all students. Nearly 30 percent of the schools get a D or an F, meaning they require two or fewer of the seven core-curriculum subjects examined in the study. Another third get a C for requiring three courses. The findings correlate with trends we see among graduates: diplomas built on a faulty curriculum and that lead nowhere.
Of the 68 Pennsylvania institutions in the study, not one earns an A for requiring at least six of the core courses. Fine schools otherwise, perhaps, but on average they require fewer than three of the crucial seven subjects.
Perhaps saddest and most dangerous of all is the absence of interest in a basic understanding of America. When Roper surveyed seniors at elite universities a decade ago, it found that only 22 percent knew the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people" was from the Gettysburg Address. Only 34 percent could identify George Washington as the American general at the Battle of Yorktown.
The father of the Constitution, James Madison, wrote: "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." But don't ask college seniors who the father of the Constitution is - 77% don't know much about what happened right here in Philadelphia. The full results of the ACTA ratings are available at www.whatwilltheylearn.com