Monday, August 30, 2010

Review of Core Standards

I read through the core standards for fourth grade.  As far as I can tell there aren't any standards that are new compared to the NV State Power Standards.  My first thought was how much money will be spent by our state or district to adopt "new" set of standards that are very similar to what we already have in place?  I am sure that the switch from state standards to a "national" standard will cost a signifigant amount of money.  However, I can't completly disagree with the core standards.  Streamlining can be a good thing when done correctly.  I am just not sure how they are going to go about this, how it will affect standardized testing, and if this is going to play into the notion of perfomanced based pay for teachers. 
One of the complaints that educators have is that our current curriculum is "an inch deep and a mile wide".  I don't see how the new common core standards are going to alleviate this issue.  All the same material is required to be covered.  While I agree with this statement, I also see the benefits of a spiraling curriculum.  Students are exposed to algebraic and geometric concepts early therefore they form ideas about those subjects and can expand on them as they learn more each year.  HOwever, the spiraling curriculum seems to leave some students behind.  I see my resource students stuck in second grade math concepts because there is no time to master them.  They simply repeat addition and subtraction over and over and become completly lost in multiplication and division, not to mention geometric and algebraic concepts.  THat's not to say that it is fair to hold back students who do pick up the concepts easily. 
My overview of the common core standards was not as detailed as the people who put it together, I am sure.  However, I did not see anything new.

Test Run

Just figuring out how this works before I type a bunch of stuff.  Giving it a test run.