I report, you decide-by Barry Levinson
We Want Excellence From Our Students, Teachers and Administrators. Why Common Core will not get us there.
BARRY LEVINSON
We Want Excellence From Our Students, Teachers and Administrators. Why Common Core will not get us there.
I report, you decide.
As a concerned and involved parent of a son in a Fullerton elementary school that is instituting Common Core, I want to know how this major change will impact the quality of my son’s education.
F.S.D. Superintendent Robert Pletka-He could stop this if he wanted to.
What I have learned up until now has been anything but reassuring. My son’s school had a briefing for the parents earlier this year to discuss Common Core. We were told the following:
1. If your child does poorly on a Common Core exam, under Common Core the school will automatically dumb down the next test for your child. This process will not lead to excellence in academic achievement in my opinion. They would not be challenging the students with this scenario. There are many reasons why a student might do poorly on any given exam and to automatically dumb down future tests would be a total over reaction by the school.
2. I discussed with the administrators at the school that I believed there would be a lot of lessons learned in the first year of instituting Common Core throughout this elementary school and throughout the district. I asked at the end of the year a list of lessons learned could easily be created. I then asked would the individual schools and/or the district then make those changes to install those lessons learned the following year or would the district send the list to Sacramento and wait for their guidance. I was very saddened to learn that Sacramento has total control.
3. What real control does both the district and the individual teacher really have in the new Common Core System? In my opinion, it appears that most if not almost all of the control has been relinquished to bureaucrats in Sacramento. This is rarely a good thing.
If you believe that this change is mostly a bad thing, as parents you must let your school district board members as well as your principal know your concerns.
Clearly, this is a big step in taking away parental rights as well. The further away the real power is, the less control parents will have in the quality of the education given to their children.
Finally, I was informed that parents can legally opt out their kids from taking the Common Core tests but not the Common Core curriculum. However, I was also told that without the Common Core test scores the schools do not get money for your child, i.e. it impacts the financing of the schools.
If true, why is this important. It is important because if enough parents have their kids opt out, the schools will not be able to financially function and would have to consider dropping Common Core altogether.
Barry Levinson
#1 by Laguna road mom on August 17, 2014 - 9:04 pm
Mr. Levinson. I thoroughly enjoy reading your articles. You have been exceptional in your research as well as your conduct. It is not an easy task remaining civil when faced with such egregious behavior and I respect that. Is your wife on the PTA at our school? Do you know what her position is on the common core and the upper grade technology program? Maybe she can help stem the tide.
#2 by Another mom on August 18, 2014 - 7:21 am
There are others that will join in helping.