March 31st is fast approaching and many people are starting to ask "Who, What, and Why about the rally at the capital. So borrowing from a Diane Ravitch blog here are ten reasons to rally.
1. 668,000 STUDENTS IN THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA JUST FLAT OUT DESERVE BETTER - What could be more important than the education of our children?
Q
2. You have realized that public education is being hijacked by testing companies and "for profit" organizations
3. You are tired of reading about how bad schools are and teachers are by those who know nothing about education. (except some did actually attend school at one time or another)
4. Class sizes are growing due to a SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS
5. You are a caring educator who wants the BEST education for your own kids as well as your students
6. Although you believe in high expectations and rigorous standards you feel CCSS needs to be vetted by Oklahoma educators not just national standards renamed OAS
7. You are tired of regurgitating ed reforms in Oklahoma that have already failed in Florida. Oklahoma continues to outscore Florida on ACT scores
8. A-F does not scare you but if you and your school is going to receive a grade its needs to be fair and accurate
9. Every initiative the "so called" reformers have implemented the last four years has landed squarely on the teacher's desk
10. Local control is eroding. Retention should be a decision made by the teacher, principal, and parent.
Number one is the most important but if we do not address number 4 we are not going to have the teachers to educate our students no matter how much money we add. Please add your own thoughts and reasons to rally at the capital on March 31st
Monday, February 17, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
What is Common Core?
Before asking someone “What is your Position on CCSS “maybe
you should ask “What is Common Core” How many people really know what
CCSS. It’s a test; it’s pedagogy, NO IT
IS STANDARDS, Common Core State Standards
Back in December of 2012 I attended a meeting in
Woodward. The speaker was Dr. Barresi,
for those of you living in a fishbowl Oklahoma’s State Superintendent of Public
Instruction. She was talking about CCSS
and stated “Common Core was going to be a new way of teaching” and followed
with the” CCSS tests are going to be difficult and our students will not
perform well on them at first.” So is CCSS a pedagogy or it a test or is it
standards and we have just made it like Superman.
Now that we know what CCSS are how do we feel about CCSS? No one would argue
with the assertion that “the only high-wage jobs, whether in manufacturing or
services, will be high-skilled ones, requiring more and better education.” The
need to prepare our children for college and 21st century careers should
be our state’s top priority. Local school districts, SDE and the state
legislature should be working together to meet this goal. Instead, CCSS is
dividing what should be a united front turning something as simple as teaching
“12 inches is a foot to all first graders statewide” into a political football.
I would
even go a step further: the CCSS is changing everything in education. The
standards are creating division and derision within the public education
community at precisely a time all sides should be coming together
On a local level, CCSS, while well
intentioned, forces education stakeholders to pick sides. I do not believe standards should be tied to
teacher autonomy student graduation or 3rd grade promotion. When CCSS was introduced as testing it was
doomed. The assessments in our high
stakes world drive instruction. Do we even
need standards when we have national assessments? Do we think CCSS will change the LSAT, MCAT,
bar exam or even teacher certification test?
Changing standards alone will not make an
ineffective teacher effective or a good teacher great. Changing standards will not make a struggling
student an honor roll student or insure that every IEP student meet his/her
goals. How we make these things happen
is a combination of improving teachers, students and even parents. Having common standards nationwide is a great
idea but as long as we have high stakes testing the test not the standards are
going to control the instruction.
In conclusion do we need Common Standards when
we have common assessments like the ACT and SAT? The answer lies somewhere in the why not
category. As long as we are talking just
standards we should try to be as COMMON as local boards will allow. We should
also design these standards to meet the needs of the 21st century
student. My final answer is “what we
really need is more COMMON SENSE by those in leadership.”
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