Common Core now a South Carolina shell game

If you have been reading most newspapers and social media, you probably think that with the passage of legislation, and with the 10,000 hours (by their account) spent by the rewrite team of the S.C. Board of Education (BOE), and after the commitment by the Education Oversight Committee (EOC), the Common Core education standards for grades K-12 have been replaced by a “new” set of standards “written by South Carolina.” These “new” standards are to be implemented for the 2015-2016 school year.

Surprise!

By a detailed count directed by the EOC, those “new” standards are simply rebranded Common Core standards.Ninety-two percent of the English language arts standards and 89 percent of the mathematics standards are still aligned with Common Core standards.

Moreover, the basic structure of the “new” standards are also carried over from Common Core: elementary school math basics (addition and subtraction mastery, division and multiplication mastery and first year algebra) have all been delayed by one year; geometry is being taught through a method tried only in Russia where it failed; calculus exists only for the gifted; ELA in kindergarten and first grade continue developmentally inappropriate (too complicated); reading curriculum will rely heavily on very simple material (as much as 70 percent for high school seniors); spelling skills and vocabulary growth are still de-emphasized, and more.

So, the activist groups representing parents and students did their job, the S.C. legislators did their job, but the EOC, the Board of Ed, and the new Superintendent did not do theirs.

At the beginning of the rewrite process, the EOC might have directed the rewrite team to start with the Massachusetts standards, which are widely recognized as the best in the nation. These are free for the taking on the internet. These standards have produced continuing gains in academic achievements for Massachusetts students over the last 13 years vs. mostly level (no gains) results for South Carolina (per NAEP test results). Instead the EOC directed the writing team to start with the Common Core standards, thereby all but guaranteeing that the “new” standards would closely resemble the CC standards.

Then, In January of this year, with two more months remaining to get truly new standards done, Supt. Spearman flatly refused any more input from parent activists saying “we just want to be done with this chore and any upgrades from parents or other advocacy groups will not be accepted.” It seemed that the SC Education Board members were more interested in protecting federal funds than in producing quality standards for our school children.

And here’s what the experts say about the final draft of the “new” standards:

“These standards don’t prepare SC students for a high school diploma, nevermind college,” said Professor Sandra Stotsky, who directed and wrote the Massachusetts standards. “The vocabulary standards are incredibly weak.”

She adds” “To bury CC standards in all that verbiage and to get away with the deed is the crime. It should not go unpunished.”

Professor James Milgram, a world renowned math professor at Stanford University, had this to say: “The expected levels for the different grades are so far from what is generally expected … with K, 1 and 2 being far too difficult, but 3-6 progressively less challenging to the point that by grade 8 they (students) are two years behind international expectations.”

So, what to do now?

Parents and teachers must continue to show strong evidence of their displeasure with the “new” standards. To date, parents have essentially been kept out of the rewrite process and teachers have been muzzled by the bureaucracy. (go to SCPIE.ORG to see how).

The organization representing parents — South Carolina Parents Involved in Education (SCPIE) — will be encouraging acts of civil disobedience to highlight parents’ objections to high stakes testing.

SCPIE has already provided space on its website (SCPIE.ORG) for teachers to voice their objections (either personally or anonymously) regarding the effects Common Core is having in the classroom. The site will persist until the education bureaucracy gets the message that excellent standards in S.C. schools are much more important than federal funds grants.

The crusade to get excellent standards into SC schools is not over. Stay tuned.

This story was originally published May 10, 2015 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Common Core now a South Carolina shell game."