Oregon's Schools Being Hijacked! (Salem, Keizer: 2015, home, school district)

[Priscilla Martin]

I realize this should go in the Education forum, but it concerns all Oregonians. I was at a monthly educator retiree function the other day. I have to admit I was taken off guard by what the speaker had to say. The table is set for what the speaker called the worst educational disaster since New Math. If you thought NCLB was bad news, hold on to your hat. Called the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) it is worse. Oregon, slated to begin CCSSI in 2014-2015, is one of 45 states with federal marching orders for what is essentially the nationalization of our public schools. Kiss local control goodbye. All the while the snake oil salesmen are telling us it's each individual State's set of new standards. Already 10 states have legislation to either refuse or overturn CCSSI implementation. Education Week: Exit Strategy: State Lawmakers Consider Dropping Common Core
I know what you are thinking; if it's so bad why did 45 states adopt it? The reason is the US Dept. of Education made adopting it contingent upon obtaining NCLB waivers. With Waivers, National Standards Anything but Voluntary | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation
Still don't believe me? Look at the two maps below. The first shows states granted NCLB waivers, the second state's adopting CCSSI.


What about those standards? While NCLB raised the bar too high for states, CCSSI lowers the bar far below those of other countries. Masquerading as a college readiness program it removes four year college required Algebra 2 and Geometry content from our high schools. It gets into too much educational gobbledygook from there.

CCSSI does one thing I thought I’d never see. It has united far-left teachers unions, far-right conservative groups, parents, Christian groups and the home-schooled. Union Joins Opposition to Common Core National Standards and Tests
This linked piece from the Washington Policy Center paints the concerns with a broad brush and is an excellent appetizer. It may be all you need. If you are really interested in what teachers are saying from around the country type Common Core in the Education forum, or Google it.
Why the Common Core is Bad for America | Washington Policy Center

Whether you have school aged children or not the ramifications of CCSSI will ripple down throughout society and affect all of us.

It's not too late for Oregonians to take action.

[Silverfall]

Considering Oregon schools are quite average, I'm not sure this is a bad thing. My kids have only gone to Salem-Keizer where expectations were far to low for my liking. If local control means mediocre education, why is that a good thing?

My kids go to private now and they follow the common core. Pre-algebra is 7th grade and algebra is 8th grade.

[Larry Caldwell]

Pretty soon teachers will spend their time filling out federal reports and the kids will have to fend for themselves.

[Steve Pickering]

A little over reaction here.

[Silverfall]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

Pretty soon teachers will spend their time filling out federal reports and the kids will have to fend for themselves.

They already spend too much time filling out reports. The US is much more interested in reports than actual education.

[Steve Pickering]

I taught, my niece teaches, my brother is an administrator with an Oregon School District. What are all these reports you speak of?

I think the US as a whole, are much more interested in the educational success of it's children. Teachers do not spend that much time doing reports. At least no more than teachers have ever had to do anyway.

Now if you are talking about the Federal handouts schools are seeking, then they will have to jump through what ever hoops are required to get the money.

The issues start at home when the local taxpayers do not want to fund education in their district.

Education is not underfunded in Oregon. PERS bleeds the system dry, and illegal residents exceed the educational capacity of the schools.

[tablemtn]

I don't see why Algebra II should be a required course. Historically, only about a quarter of highschoolers have ever taken algebra beyond a basic course, and it's not much of a predictor of future success, academic or otherwise.

I suspect there is a natural ceiling of mathematical understanding that hits around that level and would preclude a large majority of kids from graduating at all if it were a requirement. We understand that this holds true at higher levels of math - nobody expects kids to take linear algebra or Lie group theory to graduate.

[pnwmdk]

In response... There is and never has been ANY advantage to the students, to having the federal government involved. The greater involvement, the worse things get.

Common Core is just the means devised by liberal academia to make everyone so stupid they'll do anything a politician tells them to do.

[Steve Pickering]

Originally Posted by pnwmdk

In response... There is and never has been ANY advantage to the students, to having the federal government involved. The greater involvement, the worse things get.

... ...

That is why I voted for Art Robinson.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

I taught, my niece teaches, my brother is an administrator with an Oregon School District. What are all these reports you speak of?

If Oregon's implementation is anything like Maryland is doing:

FfT (Framework for Teaching) objectives for your practice, that one itself is a couple pages. Optimal use is daily creation with the objectives aligned with the curriclum (2.1 Educobabble; 2.2 More Educobabble; etc.), description of delivery methods for each sub-category.

SLO (Student Learning Objectives) targeted to a sub-set of your students. Their success will be used in judging your effectiveness and will comprise 50% of your evaluation.

Administrators will no longer do full period observations unless the teacher is under a performance plan. Observations are now "drive bys" with a prescribed set of look fors which include appropriate bulletin boards, PBIS posters, posted student work for the week (that includes Monday's work if you're observed then), College Corner, a new one for us this year is the "Dream Corner" where it is "suggested" that you post pictures of yourself in various stages of your life taken while attaining your "dreams".