WILLIAM B. PLOWMAN/NBC/NBC NEWSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES
THE
CORE
engaging. Instead of trying to cram
dozens of math concepts into a
semester, she can go deep on the
basics so that her students truly
understand math, rather than
just how to compute equations.
“Geometry unfolds differently for
kids” under the Core, she said.
“They never know what they’re
going to figure out. They’re not
looking at their watches waiting
for the bell to ring.”
States including Kentucky and
New York are now testing students based on the standards.
Because the Common Core is
supposed to be harder and more
demanding, those tests have
shown major drops in proficiency
rates from previous years. In New
York, fewer than one-third of
students were found to be up to
Common Core English Language
Arts standards in the 2012-2013
school year — down from 55 percent on non-Core aligned tests
the previous year.
Policymakers predicted this
drop, but faced with lower scores
and higher expectations, some
parents and politicians have
started to object to the Core on
a number of counts. Even some
Core supporters have pointed to
the abrupt New York score drop
HUFFINGTON
02.02.14
as reason to slow down implementation, particularly the use
of new exams. American Federation of Teachers union president
Randi Weingarten recently called
Common Core implementation
“far worse” than that of Obamacare, and has said New York
City teachers weren’t given a
thorough Core-aligned curriculum before their students were
first tested on the standards.
As more states start piloting
Common Core-aligned tests this
year, debates about the federal
Randi
Weingarten,
president of
the American
Federation
of Teachers
union,
recently said
the rollout
of Common
Core was
worse than
that of
Obamacare.