Common Core....

     Marion Brady states in her article, "Eight problems with the Common Core", that "standards shouldn't be attached to school subjects, but to the qualities of mind it's hoped the study of school subjects promotes."  Wouldn't that be wonderful, if only it could be true?! I look at the standards of the core and see that it doesn't matter what subject I teach, many of the standards for literacy would apply to any of the subjects, even including math when students must read a word problem or statistics problem. But in reality with my fellow teachers, they were stumped by the design of the core and my Social Studies men were very frustrated that there were 'no standards for them'.  Well, if you consider that you need to read, write, decipher, analyze and determine the credibility of sources in all areas, particularly Social Studies topics... then don't the standards written for literacy in the CCSS apply to them? One of the biggest hurdles for some subject teachers - especially at the high school level- is that they have to begin to see themselves of teachers of readers and writers of that particular area, not specific subject teachers. This is one reason I like some of the push of the CCSS. I guess, being a literacy trained teacher first, makes me a bit bias in that direction, but if I can't read or write, then how good a historian or scientist or technician or mathematician can I be? At some point, those basic skills will come into play and slow down the progress of a child who might very well have an affinity or love for science or history.
     As with most things in education, the CCSS might have come from good intentions, but unfortunately, how they will be implemented and/ or held over the heads of teachers and schools will most likely not have the best outcome. I believe most teachers want a guideline to know where to start and for what to aim, but these standards seem very daunting at this time. There are still so many unanswered questions about them too that I am curious to see how it will all unfold. Will Science teachers be held to these standards as well as the Next Gen Science Standards? What if I meet the standard in English but not in Science? Does this mean for me as a student that I cannot graduate until I raise my proficiency in all areas? (I do recognize that I am combining two initiatives here- CCSS and Standards based performance standards- but so far, except for a few schools, they have been combined.) How do we intend to deal with the even wider achievement gap that will result from these raised standards from grade 2 on and from the new assessments yet to come?
    My hope is that schools will look at these to guide themselves forward, but not lose what is already working positively within their schools. One of the later articles noted that the CCSS will kill innovation and creativity, which I have heard many times. I hope that the openness of them as well as the lack of connectivity to specific subjects will encourage teachers to be creative and innovative in how students can demonstrate proficiency on these standards. My fear, of course, is that they- or rather the assessments- may box us in even more. The school district I will be starting with in the fall has chosen to go with canned curricula for English and Math for grades 7-12. I will be curious to see how tight we all must keep to this and whether it truly 'works' just because it is 'aligned to the Common core'.  I am hoping it will allow us as teachers to still consider the students in front of us and our own personal expertise to enhance the learning experiences for all students.