Dear Carol,
Over the past two weeks our students took the first phase of the English Language Arts (ELA) assessment. We did not experience the technical problems that were sensationalized in the media. Our district delayed the start of the assessment for a day to see how the technology fared throughout the state. We then delayed a second day after some districts experienced technical difficulties. Once the assessment began any questions or concerns our teachers had were quickly resolved. We will assess our students on the remaining ELA standards in April.
This point is personal for me. Sixty-eight percent of my students come from poverty. They do not take vacations and have not been exposed to diverse experiences.
Based on the students’ accounts, this writing assessment was much better than previous state writing assessments. Students said in the past they were given an essay prompt that was difficult to write about. This year, they read passages and responded to a writing prompt with evidence from the passages. My students said that their in-class writing assignments prepared them well for the assessment.
This made me reflect on the example in your letter of your well-traveled four-year-old granddaughter. Her travels, you say, put her at a distinct advantage of being able to describe her personal experience. That is, in fact, one reason I support the Common Core standards: it minimizes personal experience, by calling on students to respond to questions with evidence from the text.
Related: Common Core tests will widen achievement gap — at first
This point is personal for me. Sixty-eight percent of my students come from poverty. They do not take vacations and have not been exposed to diverse experiences. For many, personal experiences were so limited they entered kindergarten not recognizing their letters and numbers. Many of my students begin at a disadvantage, followed by an achievement gap that widens over time when students’ experiences outside the classroom become required for success in the classroom. The Common Core standards make success accessible to all students by allowing them to demonstrate their learning based, not on their life experience, but what they read in the text.
With over one-third of our students moving from school to school during the school year, we see the lack of consistency in what is taught to be a concern.
As a result, Carol, I cannot “blame the standards themselves” for the difficulties you and your colleagues in New York have experienced with Common Core implementation. In fact, I see just the opposite. The standards ask teachers to help the students, with instructions like these in kindergarten: “with prompting and support identify…. in a text” or “with guidance and support from adults….” The standards presume — perhaps even prescribe — scaffolding and differentiation by the adults who are working with these children. Support is determined, not by policymaker or standards author, but by a teacher.
To check my own thinking, I asked some of my teachers with children in early grades about their Common Core experience. Their responses differed from your teachers’. Their children are not stressed by the new standards. They love school and are enjoying learning. The parents do not have a problem with the standards. In math, the parents stated they were taught to solve a problem with a set format to determine the answer. Their children are being taught to think through the problem to find a solution and are asked to describe their process as part of the answer.
Related: How Common Core serves white folks a sliver of the black experience
For all our differences, I share your concern regarding the Florida Statute that requires third grade students be retained if they are not determined proficient through a state assessment test. As high school administrators, you and I see the devastating impact of retention on students and the propensity to create drop outs. This inappropriate use of test data is not the fault of the standards. The standards are designed to provide consistent grade level expectations. With over one-third of our students moving from school to school during the school year, we see the lack of consistency in what is taught. Now with a common set of expectations for each grade level our students have a better chance of being able to transition between schools smoothly which will lead to greater opportunities for academic success.
We are in our fourth year of implementation of college and career ready standards at the elementary school level. Students in the third grade this year have known only these standards—first as the Common Core standards, then the Florida Standards for the past year. This will be the first year these students are going to be assessed on these standards. I don’t have the impression the tests are “unreasonable” as you indicate. These third grade students are taking the Florida Assessments this week and we will soon see how they perform.
Students said in the past they were given an essay prompt that was difficult to write about. This year, they read passages and responded to a writing prompt with evidence from the passages. My students said that their in-class writing assignments prepared them very well for the assessment.
What I can confirm, though, is that the similarities between the Common Core and Florida Standards do not signal any nefarious activity. When Florida’s review of Common Core took place, most schools had already been teaching to the standards for two or three years. We held a public discussion about the standards and people in our state who are heavily invested in education weighed in. We identified areas of change before adopting the standards.
Related: What this spring’s Common Core tests promised, and what they will actually deliver
Preparing for the standards was part of our teachers’ professional development and has helped in their implementation. For teachers who have spent their careers teaching a particular curriculum the transition can be a challenge along with the students who are new to the standards. Ongoing professional development and the sharing of best practices will help teachers and students as we move forward.
Carol, you paired the standards and assessments together saying they were “two sides of the same coin.” While I believe we need to determine if students have learned the standards that are being taught, currently assessments are being used to make significant decisions beyond mastering standards. Assessments are used to determine a child’s progression in school, determine teacher evaluations, and grade schools. The shifts in assessments to digital platforms have also created hardships for schools that do not have enough computer hardware or bandwidth. These issues have raised great concern over the assessments but they should not be transposed on the standards.
The first phase of our new assessment went well and we are preparing for the full wave of the testing season in April. I am looking forward to hearing about your impact analysis on the Common Core Standards in math and English Language Arts in your upcoming letter.
Jayne
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