Carol Burris Compares Common Core to NY State 2005 Math Standards and Gags

Why is support for the Common Core in New York so quickly sinking into the deep? Some contend that it is because teachers do not have enough materials to teach the Common Core. They argue that if teachers had more preparation and resources, all would be fine.  I disagree. Support is disappearing, not because schools don’t have the Common Core curriculum, but because for the first time they do.  After last year’s testing debacle, teachers are frantically attempting to implement the standards using the modules provided by the state. Kids and parents are reeling from the effects of teaching the Common Core standards, at the fast pace needed to get through them in time for the tests.... Carol Burris

Carol Burris must be getting some brain waves I've been sending out. For the past few weeks I've been reminding myself and others that as a teacher in NYC from 1967-2002 and contrary to popular belief -- even in our own union -- we had damn good standards. Wha' happened? I knew I was supposed to teach division of fractions at some point. You know the simple way -- reverse the numerator and denominator of one set of numbers and multiply across. Simple. Does that really teach the concept of what is going on? And what if they are still having problems multiplying? A hell of a lot of gaps - or metaphoric potholes had to be filled in on the road to math literacy. Read Carols comparisons to the current and the past.

And she doesn't buy the union line that the problem with the CC is in the implementation but in their very nature. Here is the message she sent

Here is my latest blog on the Common Core.  The NYS Senate is calling for King to “pause” and NYSUT has just redrawn its support of the Common Core and King.

In this blog, I also compare the NYS 2005 standards with the Common Core standards in K-5 math. When you see how they compare with the Common core, side by side on some topics, you will be shocked.  Please get this around. 

The full post is here, excerpt below.

Senator Latimer emphatically smacked the table while calling for a delay, likening the rollout of the Common Core to “steaming across the Atlantic” when there are icebergs in the water. The defiant King refused to acknowledge the icebergs, and remained insistent on full steam ahead. He let the senators know “you’re not the boss of me” by asserting that standards are controlled by the State Education Department and the Regents, not by the legislature.