Who Wrote Common Core Standards? See Below

From Diane Ravitch; [italics mine]

Mercedes Schneider: Who Are the 24 People Who Wrote the Common Core Standards?

A few days ago, I posted the names of the members of the "work groups" that wrote the Common Core standards. There was one work group for English language arts and another for mathematics. There were some members who served on both work groups.

Altogether, 24 people wrote the Common Core standards. None identified himself or herself as a classroom teacher, although a few had taught in the past (not the recent past). The largest contingent on the work groups were representatives of the testing industry.

Mercedes Schneider looked more closely at the 24 members of the two work groups to determine their past experience as educators, with special attention to whether they had any classroom experience.

Here are a few noteworthy conclusions based on her review of the careers of the writers of the CCSS:

In sum, only 3 of the 15 individuals on the 2009 CCSS math work group held positions as classroom teachers of mathematics. None was a classroom teacher in 2009. None taught elementary or middle school mathematics. Three other members have other classroom teaching experience in biology, English, and social studies. None taught elementary school. None taught special education or was certified in special education or English as a Second Language (ESL).

Only one CCSS math work group member was not affiliated with an education company or nonprofit....

In sum, 5 of the 15 individuals on the CCSS ELA work group have classroom experience teaching English. None was a classroom teacher in 2009. None taught elementary grades, special education, or ESL, and none hold certifications in these areas.

Five of the 15 CCSS ELA work group members also served on the CCSS math work group. Two are from Achieve; two, from ACT, and one, from College Board.

One member of the work groups has a BA in elementary education but no record of ever having taught those grades.

Almost all members who had any classroom experience were high school teachers.

Schneider concludes:

My findings indicate that NGA and CCSSO had a clear, intentional bent toward CCSS work group members with assessment experience, not with teaching experience, and certainly not with current classroom teaching experience.

In both CCSS work groups, the number of individuals with “ACT” and “College Board” designations outnumbered those with documented classroom teaching experience.

The makeup of the work groups helps to explain why so many people in the field of early childhood education find the CCSS to be developmentally inappropriate. There was literally no one on the writing committee (with one possible exception) with any knowledge of how very young children learn. The same concern applies to those who educate children in the middle-school years or children with disabilities or English language learners. The knowledge of these children and their needs was not represented on the working group.

US Department of Education's Lack of "Critical Thinking" in Dorchester 2 ACT Ruling

The request made so much sense that the U. S. Department of Education shot it down immediately. After all, who do those peons in Dorchester District 2 think they are--President Obama?

Based on the logic that ACT-developed tests make more sense for everyone involved, DD2 requested a waiver (with the full support of the S.C. Board of Education and S.C.'s Superintendent of Education) from taking the PASS. Using the ACT tests could have been a pilot program for the state, which must change the PASS in the next couple of years because of adoption of Common Core standards.

Now the logic of the refusal is that all students in a state must take the same tests, presumably so that one school may be measured against another. Of course, with the ACT-developed tests, all students taking the tests in any state could be measured against each other.

Too logical? The U.S. Department of Education is in competitor College Board's pocket? Opt-outs must not be allowed because they might set a precedent?

Herein lies the evidence of why education should not be run by inside-the-beltway educrats.

HSAP: High School Exit Exam Reveals Major Flaws in System

The heartfelt letter to the editor from the Rev. J.T. Williams of the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Summerville emphasizes the cruelties imposed on graduating seniors by their failure to pass the HSAP, or exit exam. How, he asks, could a student pass all of his classes, meeting all diploma requirements, and then be denied a diploma for not passing the HSAP?

Well, that's a good question. To put it another way, how could a student fail the HSAP when he or she has passed all required subjects to receive a diploma? Note that HSAP guidelines make adjustments for limited English proficiency, students with IEP's (individualized education programs), and disabilities. See http://ed.sc.gov/agency/programs-services/43/

Why have an exit exam at all? These tests appeared decades ago as an antidote to students' graduating from high school unable to read own their diplomas (at worst) or unfit for even the simplest of jobs requiring literacy and basic math skills. NCLB now requires testing as part of the law that enables the public to assess how well a school is educating its students.

The student who opens his diploma folder to find it empty should not be shocked. Students have multiple opportunities to pass parts of the exam for years prior to, and even after, graduation.

Some could argue that the topics covered by the HSAP go far beyond the original purpose of the test; however, nothing is tested that is not in the required curriculum for high school. Show me the teacher who has not been under duress to make sure that at least 80 percent of her students pass the course. What teacher has not pushed that persevering but unprepared (for the level) student over the line to 70?

The Reverend Williams wants to see South Carolina drop its requirement of an exit exam, as in a bill passed by the state representatives last spring that will be taken up by the state senate in January.

Some have suggested that students take the ACT instead, with non-college bound students taking the ACT-WorkKeys. See  http://www.act.org/products/workforce-act-workkeys/ for a description. The former might annoy the college-bound with its higher levels of mathematics, but the latter testing seems to answer the original problem of employability. Certainly this switch would make the ACT organization happy!

If the exit test is not replaced by other measures, such as passing end-of-course tests, at failing schools standards will fall again.

Beware Comparing CCSD's ACT Scores

The ACT is definitely a better college-entrance test than the SAT as it measures more of what a student has learned in high school to prepare for college than the student's potential for learning. Until recently the SAT has ruled in college admissions in the South; however, the ACT is gaining.

Still, the percentage of students in a high school graduating class who take the ACT varies widely. Both good and bad overall scores for a district are at the mercy of which students took the test. In many cases, very few students' taking the test can skew the results dramatically.

Our local newspaper needs to learn how to report statistics accurately, not merely to make
schools look good. Any overall score, state, county, or district-wide should be accompanied with the percentage of graduating seniors who took the test. Duh.

ACT Scores Picture Too Blurry to Be Useful

While everyone should be happy to see that ACT scores for last year's graduating classes in the tri-county area remained stable or improved slightly [see Area ACT Scores Improve], those statistics are virtually meaningless without regression analysis of variables affecting the scores. The numbers taking the test vary widely from one high school to another and from one year to another.

Look at it another way. What would really be an accomplishment would be that the statistics on standardized testing did not continue to mirror the socioeconomic status of the students. Do the numbers mean that Wando High School (at an ACT of 22.9, above the national average) does the best job in education or that its relatively affluent and white student body would do that well regardless of how poor its curriculum was?

Do the numbers mean that Burke High (with an ACT of 15.7, well below the national average) does the worst job in educating its students or that its relatively poor and ill-prepared student body would have done even worse if not for its strong curriculum?

In fact, until taking the ACT is a graduation requirement and high schools become more diverse, such numbers will be but a blurry snapshot of educational progress.

State Superintendent Flunks Everyday Math

Today's P & C story on ACT scores provides both the good news and the bad news. [See State ACT Scores up 5th Year in Row.]

First, the good news: "The composite score for the Palmetto State's 2008 high school graduates was 19.9 on a 36-point scale, which is a .3 improvement from last year."

Now, the bad news: "'This is pretty remarkable to see a three-fold increase in one year,' [Jim Rex] said."

Mathematicians of the world, unite! Most readers won't even see the problem.

By the way, although CCSD did finally manage to beat South Carolina's average, the only non-magnet high school to match the NATIONAL average was Wando.