Tag Archive for ‘common core’ at The Core Knowledge Blog

Tag Archive for 'common core'

Thinking Outside the Bubble

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 3, 2008 in Assessment and Testing, Curriculum and Educational Policy. 1 Comment

Core Knowledge board member Diane Ravitch is advocating testing that goes well beyond simply bubbling in answers to multiple choice reading and math tests. Our pre-eminent education historian is worried about history education. “I also worry about the future of literature, the arts, and all the other subjects that are left out by today’s policymakers,” says Ravitch. “Is the answer to test them all? I would say not. With so many tests, there would be no time for instruction or reading or projects or discussion or activities.”

Writing for the History News Network, Ravitch notes the time available for history and other subjects “is being squeezed by legislative efforts to boost reading and math skills in grades 3-8, as well as the so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects in middle schools and high schools.” Hence Ravitch’s co-chairing Common Core, which debuted last week “to advocate on behalf of the subjects that are neglected by the federal No Child Left Behind legislation and by pending STEM legislation.”

“The board of CC is not opposed to testing. We view it as a necessary but not sufficient part of education,” Ravitch writes. “For myself, I would prefer to see development and implementation of more thoughtful kinds of testing than those that are now in general use; in particular, I would hope for new tests that call on students to describe, analyze, explain, and demonstrate what they know and can do, not just asking them to pick a bubble.”

“American education is in serious trouble today,” Ravitch concludes. “The people in the drivers’ seats mistakenly think they are running a business, with a bottom line. They have forgotten—or maybe they don’t know—that our schools are responsible for educating future citizens who will need and hopefully use far more than basic skills.”

Content With Not Knowing

Published by Robert Pondiscio on February 28, 2008 in Curriculum, Podcast and Video and Teaching. 1 Comment

The Common Core survey by Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, which shows a troubling lack of historical background knowledge among American 17-year-olds, is enjoying a nice run this week, with stories in USA Today, the New York Times, and lots of broadcast coverage. But alas, the coverage has been all cause and no effect. At best, it irritates people that students are ill-informed. At worst, it’s seen as irrelevant. There’s a lot of “tsk-tsk” reporting. How embarassing! It would be nice to see a few journalists take the next step and look at the impact of a content-free education on outcomes.

The CBS Evening News did a piece on the Common Core report which started out as a standard issue “tsk-tsk” piece. In the words of correspondent Ben Tracy, “A lot of educators say all this talk about the ‘dumbest generation’ is quite stupid…students don’t need to know a litany of dates because they can just Google them.” The problem here is twofold: the continued absurd association of content knowledge with rote memorization of dates (does any school do that?) and the idea that content and critical thinking are mutually exclusive. One high school teacher in the CBS piece says, “I know that this generation is the smartest that we’ve had.” Based on what empirical evidence, exactly?

“Students are expected to analyze concepts rather than memorize dates,” Tracy reports knowingly. I continue to await an example of a concept that can be analyzed in the absence of content knowledge. This kind of thinking by educators (and uncritical reporting by journalists) implies a content-free education that infantilizes the learner. Some years ago, I was marched off to a social studies professional development session. The theme of the session was “No More Trivial Pursuit.” “It doesn’t matter if your students don’t know when the War of 1812 happened,” the staff developer said. “It’s more important to grapple with ‘essential questions’ like ‘Is war ever justifiable?’” Clearly no meaningful response would be possible without a solid grasp of history to bolster one’s point of view.

Linda Bevilacqua, the President of the Core Knowledge Foundation, was a guest on G. Gordon Liddy’s Radio America show yesterday to weigh in on the Common Core study. A caller described how he was taught in school that Martin Luther and Martin Luther King were the same person. It’s not merely embarrassing to not know the difference between Martin Luther and Martin Luther King. Even those—especially those—who believe that critical thinking is the purpose of school should be alarmed. How much critical thinking about the Reformation and the Civil Rights movement is a student capable of who doesn’t know that Martin Luther and Martin Luther King are two different people separated by 500 years, language, culture and the Atlantic Ocean?

Until and unless we start to make a connection between content knowledge, reading comprehension, and critical thinking, I fear we’re not going to move the level of concern above the level of “tsk-tsk…these kids today!”

Radio America interview, with Linda Bevilacqua [53:31m]: Download (22)

A New Advocate for Core Curriculum

Published by Diane Ravitch on February 27, 2008 in Core Knowledge, Education Practice and Educational Policy. 1 Comment

Tuesday I went to the launch of a new organization called Common Core. Its primary goal is to advocate for a rich, coherent, content-based curriculum, one that includes the full range of liberal arts and sciences.Common Core will seek to fill the vacuum that was created by the demise several years ago of the Council for Basic Education. That organization, founded by giants like Clifton Fadiman, Arthur Bestor, and Jacques Barzun, was an eloquent voice for history, literature, mathematics, sciences, the arts, geography, and civics.

Common Core will seek to persuade states and school districts, as well as federal officials, that students will be better educated and perhaps even do better on tests if they have a broad education. We are betting that schools with curricula like Core Knowledge produce better educated students, and that they don’t need to spend a disproportionate amount of time preparing to take content-free standardized tests.

Toni Cortese, executive vice-president of the American Federation of Teachers, and I are co-chairs of Common Core. The board includes an outstanding array of practitioners and scholars (more about that later, as I want to be sure when I list their names that I didn’t leave anyone out). Our executive director is Lynne A. Munson, who has labored for over a year to bring the organization to life and get it off to a good start.

We hope to sponsor research, conduct conferences, publish reports, and do similar things to change the climate and to move our schools away from the current unhealthy obsession with testing. We are not opposed to testing, but don’t think that tests are the be-all and end-all of education.

I certainly hope that the efforts of Common Core will help to strengthen and promote Core Knowledge, as our goals are closely aligned. Core Knowledge, of course, differs from Common Core in that CK supports schools across the nation. Common Core won’t do that. Instead, it will advocate for the goals and mission that we all share: a richly educated student, a coherent and thoughtful content-based curriculum.

More about Common Core as it takes shape.