Guest Post: Sunlight as Disinfectant – Why the Common Core Deserves a Loud and Untidy Debate
The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet affiliated with Teachers College, Columbia University, sent reporters across the country to take a closer look at the new Common Core State Standards.
You can find out more about the project (carried out with support from EWA) at EdMedia Commons. Today’s guest post comes from Liz Willen, editor of THR and director of The Hechinger Institute.
It isn’t always easy to hear complaints and misunderstandings
about the Common Core, new standards meant to increase critical
thinking and problem-solving skills in the nation’s 100,000
public elementary and secondary schools.
Changing the way teachers teach and test students has been
anything but smooth in the 46 states that have initially adopted
the standards.
It should come as no surprise for a major sea change in education
to meet both criticism and cheers.
The Common Core has already seen its share of both at the local
and national levels. And parents, teachers and students will
continue to need more information and reassurance about new
expectations, curricula and tests.
That’s why it was so disturbing when New York State Education
Commissioner John King,
Jr. abruptly canceled four town-hall style meetings about the
new standards earlier this month after being heckled by angry
parents in Poughkeepsie.
The decision did not go over well. Parent groups and politicians
alike called for King to resign.
King’s explanation—that the meeting had been “co-opted
by special interests”—rang hollow to many, and was seen as
undermining the democratic process of debating new initiatives,
particularly one as complex as the Common Core.
Last week, King’s office backed down, agreeing to hold new forums
throughout the state with Board of Regents members, moderated by
state legislators and held in school auditoriums. The
announcement came after Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch
said she wanted “to hit the reset button” and called for
“cooled-down rhetoric” over the Common Core.
That may be difficult. History and experience suggest there will
still be plenty of rhetoric that approaches the hysterical—some
of which will be rooted in fear and ignorance.
But now is the time to listen.
Over the last eight months, reporters for The Hechinger
Report—in
partnership with the Education Writers Association—have been
listening. We’ve traveled across the United States to see how
the Common Core is playing out. We’ve done so impartially,
gathering information, asking questions and reporting what we see
and hear and learn.
We’ve visited classrooms in Kentucky, where teachers are pushing
for more critical thinking and a deeper understanding of math
concepts in their lessons.
We’ve watched
English lessons in Florida that encourage depth over breadth,
and that draw out examples from a variety of texts.
We’ve observed a
California teacher encourage high-school juniors to back up
their thesis statements with evidence, and we’ve listened to a
carefully constructed lesson on
how the Gettysburg Address might be taught under the Common
Core.
High-quality journalism that explores and explains such issues is
critical to the public dialogue about education. Yet so too are
the public forums we’ve attended and will continue to
monitor.
Of course, they get loud and out of control at times. We’ve heard
the Common Core referred to as “the Commie Core” in Louisiana,
where State Superintendent of Education John White defends the
new standards as essential to improving the quality of education
in a state that ranks near the bottom nationally in students’
math and literacy skills.
In Mississippi, where test scores are among the country’s worst,
participants in one particularly vituperative public meeting
complained that the Common Core is akin to “a Muslim takeover” of
schools.
That complaint was not based on a shred of evidence, but the
person’s view entered into the public dialogue nonetheless.
Sometimes, uninformed opinions highlight exactly why better
education is needed. They won’t always be polite and measured.
That’s democracy.
There are plenty of differing views on the Common Core, and it’s
been fascinating to hear the wide variety of critics and
supporters, not all of whom follow strict party or ideological
lines.
While Tea Partyers are pushing hard against the new standards,
seeing in them a federal takeover of schools, mainstream support
for the Common Core is bipartisan.
Democratic President Barack Obama believes in them, as does
former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.
On the one hand, education historian and author Diane Ravitch—once a strong
supporter of national standards—dislikes how the Common Core
standards were created and introduced, and believes they should
have been field-tested first.
On the other hand, American Federation of Teachers President
Randi
Weingarten supports the new standards, but has called for a
moratorium on high-stakes testing based on them.
Journalists at The
Hechinger Report are not taking a stand one way or another,
but are committed to reporting this important story and
showcasing a variety of views.
That brings us to New York, where many teachers
welcome the new standards, even though students who were
tested on them last spring—before many schools had connected
their lessons to the Common Core—didn’t fare too well.
Predictably, scores
dropped, and reactions to the Common Core were—and remain—
highly charged.
That’s why
it’s more important than ever to continue holding public
hearings and forums about the Common Core in New York state and
throughout the nation.
There may be shouting. Let it in.
Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter?
Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org.
Follow her on Twitter: @EWAEmily.