Common Core: Explained

We're so pleased that WVFDW member Grace Norton, of Ohio County, has agreed to help us out with information about educational concerns from time to time. She is a member of the Federation's Legislative Committee, a retired educator, and one smart woman. Her experience teaching college-level courses to students should, probably, hold more water than that of a state Senate and House of Delegates who want to take public money to create private schools and who are following the ALEC Playbook of Lawmaking. But oops. That's a whole 'nother issue.

Here's Grace's take on Common Core, which – of course – the current Republican-controlled West Virginia legislature, wants to unadopt for West Virginia's students.

West Virginia legislators have introduced HB 2486 to repeal West Virginia’s 2010 adoption of the Common Core standards for education. The impetus for this move lies in mis-information campaign led mostly by right-wing talking heads. Those of us who have dealt with incoming college freshman and entry-level workers  for many years understand why West Virginia needs what the Common Core was designed to achieve.

Many have been led by radical right propaganda to believe that Common Core is a federal takeover of education, but that is a myth. Common Core is an initiative of the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of  Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) who recognized that tens of thousands of high school graduates passed every standardized test required of them but needed to take remedial math, English, and/or reading in their first semester in college.

At the college where I taught for many years, about 70 percent of incoming freshmen required remedial math and over 20 percent needed remedial reading and writing skills. It is a fair bet that at least as many high school graduates who do not enroll in college have the same or greater levels of deficiency. In most courses I taught, I had to require weekly vocabulary tests to ensure that students understood meaning of the words well enough to comprehend the reading material I assigned, which had reading levels several grade levels below what was typically assigned when I was a college student.

Common Core is not a curriculum. It identifies performance standards, and, in English/Language Arts also identifies some content aimed at developing good citizenship and significant cultural literacy. Common Core emphasizes reading across the curriculum, not just reading what we think of as “literature.” It also emphasizes applying mathematical concepts and reasoning to solving real world problems. Illustrations and examples of how to meet objectives are offered.  

Decisions made about most of curriculum content, about text books and other materials, and about specific teaching strategies and methods are made at the local level.
Common Core is a research-based, grade-by-grade set of performance standards in the areas of math, English and Language Arts designed to teach skills in the sequence best matched to how research shows that students acquire and develop skills and to teach reading in a way that prepares students to read materials in a wide range of subject areas. The national government had no role in developing and has no role in implementing the Common Core, which remains under control of NGA and CCSSO.

A full discussion what Common Core really is, how it was developed, what the standards are, and what research those standards and their sequencing were based on is available by clicking here.

Some major  myths created by the radical right’s disinformation propaganda are also debunked. The site explains why Common Core was developed, what it is trying to accomplish, and why that is important. Forty-six states and U. S. territories have adopted Common Core standards. It is important for a West Virginia graduate to be able to compete successfully with students from everywhere for jobs, scholarships, and slots in top colleges.  Is that not what we all should want for our kids?                                

The bill to repeal Common Core will do significant harm to the life chances of present and future West Virginia students. The first rule of lawmakers, like that of doctors, should be: First, do no harm.