Perhaps John Kass Should Write an Article About the Common Core

So, I saw this article written by John Kass of the Chicago Tribune in the paper this weekend.  This article is, of course, about ObamaCare, but a similar article could easily be written about the Common Core State Standards.  Perhaps not yet, since ObamaCare is blowing up in Americans' faces in a very quick and obvious manner, and it may take years for the damage done by the Common Core to be recognized for what it is.  In the not too distant future, however, I fully expect to see similar articles about the Common Core when that grand design crumbles.

Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is Wednesday, November 20, 2013. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7 p.m. Both meetings are open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend. You can find the agenda for each of the meetings here.

My Prediction for Common Core

Anyone that has read my blog recently knows that I am not a proponent of the Common Core State Standards (the "Common Core").  My reason for opposing the Common Core is that I do not believe that they will be positive for education.  In fact, I believe that they will be a dismal failure, a straight-jacket that will drag most children down.

I predict that in the coming years, more and more people will realize that the Common Core represents the latest in a long line of failures of the education establishment (remember when No Child Left Behind was touted as the "end all/be all" of education).  Unfortunately, the failure of the Common Core may perhaps be counted as the worst due to it being implemented on such a wide scale (at least No Child Left Behind did not dictate one national set of standards).  We have essentially created a nation of educational guinea pigs and shackled them to an untested and unchangeable set of standards.

We have abandoned the model of judging and implementing educational change on a local level in favor of judging and implementing on a national level.  One huge problem with that is that when we make mistakes (and we are bound to make mistakes since we are still human after all), the mistakes are made on a national level and the harm will be felt on a national level.  Another huge problem with that is that we (or at least some of us) have decided to stop judging whether something is good or bad for our children's education ("It doesn't matter whether I think it's good for the children or not, we have to implement it.").

We have also abandoned the notion that all children are unique.  We have adopted a one size fits all solution for a one size fits very few issue.  Common Core is the "Model T" solution to education (Henry Ford, when producing the Model T in the early 1900s, is reputed to have said "You can have a Model T in any color you want as long as it's black.").  In a world where almost everything is customized to the particular needs of the end user, we are telling children they can have any type of education they and their parents want as long as it's Common Core.  We no longer see each child as a unique human being whose education should uniquely fit their needs.  Rather, we see children as a collective entity whose education must follow the Common Core (while we all mutter the mantra "Common Core, Common Core, we must serve the Common Core"), their needs be damned.

We have adopted a model of education that is based on unmitigated hubris: the notions that (1) a few educational elites could possibly determine the one right set of standards for the education of millions of children that they have never met and will never meet; (2) this new and untested set of standards is superior to any and all standards that came before it or (since there is no provision for changing the standards) after it; (3) that no one who wasn't involved in the promulgation of the Common Core has a superior idea about the education of even one of the children in the states that adopted it; and (4) (perhaps the worst) that regardless of whether it works for a particular child or children, it must be implemented and followed (besides, who are you to judge, see (1) above).

I hope for the sake of the millions of children who are being and will be subjected to the Common Core that I am wrong.  But, the limits of human intelligence being what they are and the dismal track record of the education establishment being what it is, I fear that I am correct in my assessment of the Common Core.

Is It Time to Dump Standardized Tests?

Well, that seems to be at least one person's opinion.  See this commentary from the Chicago Tribune.

How Not to Roll Out a Change in Curriculum

The manner in which Minooka CCSD 201 rolled out the new Go Math "pilot" program could be easily labeled "how not to roll out a change in curriculum."  First, the pilot program was first mentioned to the school board in May of last year (the end of the last school year).  The rush to implement the Go Math pilot was due to the anticipated arrival of the new PARCC test in 2014 (see here for more information).  This, of course, meant that parents were given no warning that the math curriculum in many of the classrooms would be different from what they were expecting it to be.  It also meant that teachers were given no advance training prior to the start of the new school year.  Okay, maybe they had one or two days of teacher institute days to get up to speed.  As a result, teachers were learning how to teach the new curriculum at the same time that they were expected to be teaching students.  Second, only after it became clear that there were issues with the new curriculum did the district send out a letter to parents notifying them of "Parent Curriculum Information Meetings" to inform them about the new curriculum.  The schedule of meetings, by the way, is as follows:

October 2nd - Aux Sable Elementary School 5:30-7:00PM (already held)

November 13th - Minooka Intermediate School 9:00-10:30AM

December 4th - Walnut Trails Elementary School 9:00-10:30AM

January 15th - Minooka Junior High School 5:30-7:00PM

February 6th - Jones Elementary School 5:30-7:00PM

March 19th - Minooka Elementary School 9:00-10:30AM

You are free to go to any of these curriculum meetings.  You do not have to wait until a meeting is held at your child's school.

Now if you are a parent and decide to go to one of these meetings be prepared to hear the following (or something like it):

1.  "There were similar outcries from parents and teachers when Saxon Math was adopted a decade ago."  This may be true.  I don't know, since I wasn't there.  But that doesn't mean that the current complaints are any less valid.  Each curriculum should be judged on its own merits.

2.   "Go Math is research-based."  This one I love.  You hear the term "research-based" thrown around quite often when you talk to school administrators.  Very rarely, if ever, do they back up that statement by citing any research.  The statement insinuates, of course, that Saxon Math (or the alternative to whatever it is that they are promoting at the time) is not "research-based."  So, what should be the relevant decision criteria when choosing a math curriculum?  Whether it is supposedly "research-based" or whether it has a proven track record of inculcating a thorough understanding of mathematics and teaching children efficient methods of solving mathematical problems?

3. The high ISAT scores that Minooka CCSD 201 students achieved during the years of being taught with Saxon Math were "phantom scores" or "inflated scores."  It is funny that this was never mentioned before.  So, either this is true and the administration has been touting "phony" scores all these years, or this is false and is a less than honest shot at Saxon Math.  Either way, it is problematic.  So, in the future when the administration touts the scores that students achieve on standardized tests (or any test for that matter), we will have to wonder if the scores mean anything or will we be told at some future date that they were "phantom" scores all along.

Now, I am not at all under the misconception that Saxon Math is perfect (no curriculum is).  What I have an issue with is choosing a mathematics curriculum because of a new standardized test (rather than the quality of the math education that it provides) and rolling it out without proper preparation.

Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is Wednesday, October 23, 2013. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7 p.m. Both meetings are open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend. You can find the agenda for each of the meetings here.

The Myth of Untarnished U.S. Credit History

"History is the lie commonly agreed upon."  --Voltaire

"What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done."  --Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

Every so often, I post about a topic that reaches far beyond the confines of Minooka CCSD 201 but nonetheless affects the district and the people that live in the district.  The current federal government shutdown, the debt ceiling debate and the trajectory of federal debt are issues that affect all of us.  No matter where a person stands on the issues, it is always a good idea to approach the issues without any myths or misconceptions about what has come before (i.e., the past).

Numerous leading political figures have been making statements about the untarnished credit history of the United States.  The following is a sample:

"There is no magic wand that allows us to wish away the chaos that could result if -- for the first time in our history -- we don't pay our bills on time."  --President Barack Obama

"No Congress in 224 years of American history has allowed our country to default, and it’s my sincere hope that this Congress will not be the first."  --Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew

"There is precedent for a government shutdown.  There's no precedent for default."  --Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs

The facts, however, seem to intrude upon this narrative of an untarnished U.S. credit history.  The United States has defaulted on its obligations many times in its history (for a sampling of articles discussing previous defaults, see here, here, here, here, and here).

The list of U.S. defaults include the following:

1.  1814 - Under President James Madison, U.S. defaults on debt payments for a few months in the wake of the War of 1812.
2.  1862 - Under President Abraham Lincoln, U.S. defaults on "greenback" demand notes by refusing to redeem them in gold as promised.
3.  1933 - Under President Franklin Roosevelt, U.S. defaults on the "gold clause" in its debt contracts and pays in paper dollars rather than gold.
4.  1968 - Under President Lyndon Johnson, U.S. defaults on "silver certificates" by refusing to redeem them in silver as promised.
5.  1971 - Under President Richard Nixon, U.S. defaults on the Bretton Woods international currency arrangement and ceases to exchange dollars for gold.
6.  1979 - Under President Jimmy Carter, U.S. defaults on certain debt obligations due to back office "glitch" at Treasury.

So, let us debate the issues regarding the shutdown, debt ceiling and the trajectory of debt.  But, let us do so without the myth of a default being unprecedented in U.S. history.