I think one of the big problems with common core is the
scope of it. We are going to totally change everything that we do and on a
little more than a whim. What if we spend billions of dollars and then five years
from now somebody says, oops, man we got that one wrong. Let’s face it Florida
hasn’t done well on reinventing education, charters, vouchers, A-F grading
scale, merit pay anyone?
I am also reminded of the recent Advanced Placement scandal.
For the last decade kids unprepared for them were thrown in those classes
because of some anecdotal evidence that said it would improve their lives. Well
after a decade we now know that wasn’t true and in many ways prevented kids
form getting the skills they needed.
I have other concerns, increased testing, the hit schools
will initially take will energize the privatization crowd and all the resources
siphoned out of the classroom, but mostly nobody really knows if this is the
best thing since sliced bread or if it is new coke.
Why don’t we slow down and get it right or make sure it is
right anyways. Carvalho in Miami seems to love it, why don’t we put it there
for three years and see if it works before we blow up what we have now.
Is it too much to ask that we get things right?
I remember the last AP conference I attended. We were told that Gaston Caperton was the new head of the college board. He was the former Governor of the West Virginia. I new then we were going down desolation road.
ReplyDeleteI remember the last IB conference I attended in FL. The appointed Sec of Ed came and addressed us. He told me he attended a conference of all Secretaries of Ed in the nation. He told us of with glee that he approached and gloated to the Secretary of Ed from Massachusetts that finally we had more students that were enrolled in the IB program. Did it occur to him that we have nearly three times the population of Massachusetts? Someone who can't read or know of congressional appointments or the electoral college would be duped. I wanted to ask him about per capita but he may not have understood. Or perhaps he thought educators were as ignorant as the electorate that he was trying to sell this poison.