On the front page of last Sunday’s New York Times, was a cautionary tale about American education reform in a story of a Brooklyn public school whose students are undergoing the transition to Common Core.
Reporter Javier C. Hernandez focused on a 9-year-old Black Haitian-American youngster named Chrispin Alcindor, a fourth grader who’d excelled in his previous studies, but was having trouble understanding and comprehending the new standards; especially math.
New York was one of the first states to implement the controversial Common Core standards, and standardized tests measuring students’ understanding those standards.
Last year’s tests were a disaster! New York students’ grades plummeted; even in the best schools.
According to the Times article, of New York City schools that were 75 percent or more white, the number of students passing the state mandated Common Core tests fell 36 percent. In schools 75 percent or more Hispanic, the number of students passing fell 58 percent; in schools 75 percent or more African-American, the number of students passing dropped 55 percent.
The Times article is the first I’ve seen in major media that breaks down what Common Core is all about; which is teaching American children how to think and rationalize their answers. Rote memorization, which is what most of us learned, is out. Understanding is in.
For example, we learned through memorization that 4×4=16. In Common Core, students have to explain or show how you come to that conclusion.
“Officially” Indiana isn’t using the Common Core standards Chrispin Alcindor had to cope with. But the reality is that Indiana’s new “College and Career Ready Standards,” are really, with some changes, Common Core.
What Indiana’s students will be taught officially starting in August and more critically what third through eighth graders will be tested on in March and May of 2015 will be what Chrispin Alcindor and others in New York and elsewhere have wrestled with for two years. Curriculum far harder than what you or I learned when we were in school back in the day.
The feds are forcing Indiana students to take new, harder ISTEP tests tied to the new standards next spring.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz believes Hoosier students should take the tests, but that the results should NOT count for school and teacher accountability grades.
Last week, in a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Gov. Mike Pence said flatly that the 2015 ISTEP’s WILL count for school and teacher accountability.
That’s a mistake!
ISTEP scores will fall for everyone next year. Black and minority students will be hit hardest. Yes, teach the new standards, give students the new ISTEP, but use the scores as a baseline; not punish teachers and schools for doing their best to help students cope with a radical educational change students, teachers, parents and taxpayers really didn’t ask for!
What I’m hearing in the streets
The Indiana State Board of Accounts reported in an audit that the 2013 revenues and expenses for the Indianapolis Public Schools were correctly recorded; thus confirming the district’s 2013 $8.4 million surplus wasn’t the $30.2 million deficit Interim Superintendent Dr. Peggy Hinckley and IPS’ Chief Financial Officer Debra Hineline led the community to believe.
But the most damning findings came from six top school finance experts brought in to look at IPS’ financial procedures by the Council of Great City Schools, an organization of 65 of the country’s largest school systems.
The group’s report painted a picture of a half billion dollar organization run with financial systems and controls worse than any mom and pop business.
In the most egregious example, 2008, IPS was saying its projected deficit was going to be $20 million. In reality, the district recorded and actual surplus of slightly over $20 million.
IPS Supt. Dr. Lewis Ferebee, who uncovered the incorrect financial mess, has pledged strong reforms, including more openness and transparency of budget numbers and tightening up of IPS’ financial and budget procedures.
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Indy’s Department of Public Works (DPW) isn’t making the safety of senior citizens and handicapped residents living on the Westside of downtown a priority.
A marked and lighted crosswalk is desperately needed along West 10th Street in the IUPUI, Indiana Avenue areas. I’ve personally witnessed the dangerous situation for pedestrians walking from the Indiana Avenue and Goodwin Plaza communities to the shopping center along 10th and 11th streets between Indiana Avenue and MLK.
In response to a request to appear on our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos” program to explain the city’s plans to deal with this dangerous pedestrian situation, a condescending DPW communications director Stephanie Wilson flatly refused to appear or explain the city’s position.
Wilson said the city and DPW has a “special process” to handle handicapped accessibility, but refused to explain what that special process is.
Meanwhile seniors and the handicapped, who are virtually all Black, along with able bodied residents of the area, including many IUPUI students, risk life and limb crossing heavily traveled West 10th and 11th streets, while the city and DPW does nothing to insure pedestrian safety. Shameful!
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
