5 ms·
PARCC, Common Core, and the heightened focus on (even more) standardized tests is an unmitigated educational disaster. My children have been wasting their time
by swasheck 12y ago
PARCC, Common Core, and the heightened focus on (even more) standardized tests is an unmitigated educational disaster. My children have been wasting their time taking practice tests instead of actually learning. The school has to jump through the distict's hoops. The district has to jump through the state's hoops. Kids don't actually get educated because everyone's afraid of failing the tests so they're overpreparing. My kids are only learning how to game the system and take tests and not actually learning information analysis and synthesis.
- timw0j 12y agoCommon Core doesn't really have much to do with the glut of standardized testing. Common Core is more about setting a guideline for lesson planning, allowing teachers across the country to share lessons and techniques to teach. It was developed by teachers for teachers. Standardized testing is a completely different problem. There's this strange desire at the state and district level to boil everything down to a single metric that says "this kid was taught something" without looking at any of the data that can be provided by their day-to-day instructor.
- swasheck 12y agoI agree that there's no link between CC and standardized testing, I was just attempting to note that all of these things when taken together with how they're being implemented are a collective disaster.
- timw0j 12y agoExcept that there's really nothing wrong with Common Core and if you talk to most teachers they're for it (disclaimer: my wife, sister, and sister-in-law are all teachers, and my parents are retired teachers). Common Core is used as a political boogeyman against people who don't really understand what it's trying to accomplish.