Common Core flies in the face of best practices

There is an education term, best practices, which simply means you see what’s working some place and then do it some place else.  Well we know we have schools that are wildly successful, lots and lots of schools, so instead of blowing up the system and putting common core everywhere then why don’t we just emulate what those schools are doing.

Those schools often have extra resources because of involved parents and they don’t face poverty.  We can’t wave a magical wand and make these problems go away but we can put in place things that will help. Mentors, social workers and counselors can be put in place, we could make classes smaller for more individualized attention, the days or the year longer too to address deficits but you know what these things don’t do? They don’t pad the wallets of testing companies.

I don’t understand why these powers-that-be think things are going to change at our poorest schools if we put new standards in place. Won’t those schools still have the same problems? Absentee parents, a lack of a base and more pressing problems like violence in the streets and no food in the cupboards? How does common core address those issues?

Common core is an expensive role of the dice that doesn’t address our problems and furthermore it exacerbates testing which has ruined education for untold teachers and students alike.

The reason we don’t do best practices in our struggling schools is it will cost money not make money and that’s all you should have to know about common core.

To read more click the links: http://dianeravitch.net/2013/12/28/common-core-and-the-myth-of-neutrality/