I would throw in over regulation by government as a reason not to do Common Core.  I opposed it early on because of the mess that was made with No Child Left Behind.  Of course, Common Core dictates what to teach nationally.  We have the SOLs.  Those are a more rigorous curriculum.

So enough on what I think.  Do you agree or disagree with Bill Nye?  I do think he is spot on about killing one’s passion for learning.  The SOLs have been doing that for years.  Why the same token, there should be some standards in Virginia’s schools.

21 Thoughts to “Bill Nye on Common Core”

  1. Ed Myers

    I want to make sure my federal tax dollars are being spent wisely. For that reason I want standard tests on more than English and math to see how each state and county is doing. I can’t do that unless there is a common core that becomes the basis for the test.

    I want my children to have educational experiences that are competitive with children in other states so they don’t get to college and fail or on the job and fail. If my county tries some new fangled teaching fad I want to know pretty quickly if it works and the best way to tell is to look at test scores.

    Teaching to the test and nothing more is bad, but not nearly as bad as teaching nothing at all.

    Our lives are data driven. If you are going to measure something there needs to be a standard to measure it against. No one loses weight by getting rid of the scale.

    However, I’m always concerned about how politics can mess with centralized systems. Because there are only a few textbook providers that match a state’s curriculum it is easy to do things like require textbooks to change the Sea of Japan to the East Sea. If we have national standards there will be more competition in the textbook market, but political meddling would affect all students instead of just one state.

    1. How do you feel about NCLB and the SOL?

      I am glad that we by-passed common core. I think education should be state-wide and local.

  2. middleman

    Well put, Ed. From my understanding, Common Core doesn’t dictate how to teach, it is a common set of standards that would be in place across the country. There HAS to be some common ground on forming a baseline of what kids need to know, and Common Core was initiated by the states, Republican and Democrat, to set those baselines. It could help to put young people on a level playing field as they start their working life, whether they come from Mississippi or Minnesota.

    I also understand that the original concept has been “adjusted,” which could be where some of the problem folks now have with it comes from. But I think the major problem is that President Obama had the nerve to endorse it, probably naively thinking that the wide bi-partisan multi-state support would shield it from the “anything Obama’s for, we’re against” group. He was mistaken…

    1. I have mercifully ignored the Common Core. Is there a national curriculum? I believe the SOL has stricter curriculum standards.

      Virginia has very tough standards.

  3. Ed Myers

    If Virginia’s SOL standards are better than common core, then there is no problem. Kids should be able to ace the national standards test. If, however, Virginia thinks that kids should wait to take geometry until after 11 grade and the standards call for it before 9th grade, then you are going to have a lot of kids failing 9th grade CC math. Aligning the Virginia curriculum to the common core makes practical sense.

    I was happy to have SOLs because then I could measure my local school. NCLB’s testing was great in concept …schools shouldn’t be allowed to abandon some children just because the average score was high enough to pass because of favorable demographics. Of course it was an impossible goal (either some children get left behind or you water down the standard to the lowest student’s capability)… purely for political purposes. I think it produced more good than bad, though.

    I like the two-tiered standards system. Nearly every student should pass the minimum standards and the advanced standards are a way to judge whether schools are teaching beyond the standards to reach the brighter kids. The tests focus on measuring how much stuff kids remember instead of whether they learned how to think. Hopefully college is a better environment to teach independent thinking and analysis.

    Learning standards are different from curriculum. Teachers can decide whether to use new math or rote memorization as long as Johnny knows that 2+5 = 7.

    1. Except the learning standards were the curriculum.

      There were pluses and minuses. NCLB was great on paper and sucked in reality.

      Fortunately, the public thought it was better than it really was/is. I just see common core as nclb on steroids…in my prejudiced mind.

  4. Cargosquid

    @Moon-howler
    We ….technically…bypassed Common Core. But the current curriculum is almost identical.

    Return the power of the curriculum to the states and get rid of the feds in our education system. They have no authority. The dept of Education is a boondoggle.

    1. The power of the curriculum remained in Virginia. The only states who didn’t retain it were the ones who signed on with Common Core.

      Virginia’s curriculum is stronger, according to the people I know.

      Are you willing to give up the fed money that we get? Here in Prince William County, that is a pretty big deal considering how much impact aid money we receive annually. Easy to say when you aren’t in the winners seat.

  5. middleman

    Cargo is right- we don’t need no common, coordinated base of knowledge in this country. I’m sure all the educators, parents and administrators who worked to put this program together would be the first to acknowledge that Cargo knows better how to prepare students for a productive future.

    Apparently, Common Core is great as long as you don’t call it Common Core, because Obama endorsed that and we don’t want anything he wants. Sad.

  6. Cargosquid

    @middleman
    Please….explain to us how this “Common Core” was developed and agreed upon by the citizens that will be learning it? Where is the discussion about the curriculum and how to teach it? Have you seen the Common Core “techniques” for teaching math?

    However did we survive before the federal gov’t got involved with our curriculum? Who gets to decide what’s important for ALL of us? If the states are in control, you have the option of leaving and going elsewhere.
    Having a common core of knowledge means nothing if that core is not worth anything. For example, using Howard Zinn’s history books……. pure, unadulterated crap. But they are VERY popular among the Left.

    And if the shoe is on the other foot….perhaps Common Core starts to teach creationism. Then what? How do you influence the federal gov’t? Is it not easier to influence the local school board or even the state?

    This nation was founded on decentralization of power. Common Core is a power grab.

    1. It isn’t a power grab in Virginia.
      Since they had the option of just saying NO, I hardly see where it is a power grab.

      I don’t think thawt any of these programs (NCLB, Common Core, etc) tell anyone HOW to teach. Curriculum programs tell what the student should be able to do at the end of the course of student. Example: The student will be able to recite the multiplication tables 1-10 times tables. (or list, write, apply) Individual districts might get into telling the teachers how to teach but the objectives simply state the desired outcome.

      The verb is a pretty critical part of the objective.
      The objectives are usually decided upon by educators in the field. I know that Prince William County pretty much wrote the science objectives for the state of Virginia for the SOLs about 20 years ago. No one whined about the science curriculum.

  7. Cargosquid

    Moderation?

    What did I say?

    1. You have been here long enough to know that sometimes people get swept up into moderation without an obvious reason. Were we discussing climate change? That
      That’s often what gets you.

  8. middleman

    Cargo, you should go back and actually research Common Core so you’ll know what you’re talking about. It CAME from the STATES! It was developed and initiated by governors- Republican and Democratic- educators and administrators from various states. It is a STATE initiative!

    Obama and the feds only signed on when the states asked them to. It was meant to be a national set of standards, but it originated at the state level, not the other way around.

    Here’s the facts on Common Core:
    http://www.usnews.com/news/special-reports/articles/2014/02/27/the-history-of-common-core-state-standards

    1. Those who are concerned might want to compare the SOL objectives for a certain subject at a certain grade level to the common core objectives for the same subject and grade level.

      Bobby Jindahl is so full of crap.

  9. Prince William County is apparently losing focus. I just went to find the math objectives to compare to Common Core objectives. They used to be very easy to find. Not so much any more.

    I honestly couldn’t find the curriculum from the PWC website. I had to go in backwards by googling pwc algebra curriculum and take it from there.

    Prince William County has gotten so bogged down in issues that you can’t even find the serious business. If the school system isn’t about teaching courses, then they are off their mark.

    This is not the fault of the curriculum specialists. They didn’t create the school website.

  10. Cargosquid

    @middleman
    It was a national initiative by Bill Gate’s foundation. It was sent to the states and bypassed Washington, but coordinated there. It did not get any discussion by representatives.

    1. What representatives are you referring to? The last thing educational objectives need are a bunch of dumb ass politicians pontificating.

  11. middleman

    Bill Gates helped fund it, but the hard work of putting together the standards was a collaborative effort involving educators, administrators, parents and state politicians from both parties, as I’ve previously stated. Bobby Jindal was strongly for it before he was against it. Now it’s federal overreach!

  12. middleman

    @Cargosquid
    You’re just completely wrong, Cargo-it was NOT coordinated in Washington. It was wholly developed and sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Gates was one funder, along with Pearson Publishing Company, Charles Stewart Mott and many others. 44 states have adopted the standards so far.

  13. middleman

    Crickets…

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