Education Week - September 25, 2013 - 26

26 EDUCATION WEEK
n
SEPTEMBER 25, 2013 www.edweek.org
n
COMMENTARY
www.edweek.org/go/commentary
How to Improve the Common Core
By Joanne Yatvin
A
s a sometime warrior in the war of words
over the Common Core State Standards,
I have been neutral about the need for national
standards, but highly critical of their
current composition, seeing it as deeply
flawed and ineffectual for its stated pur-
poses. Nevertheless, I have come to realize that nothing I
or anyone else may say will make the standards go away.
They are firmly entrenched in all but four states, and even
teachers who endured the No Child Left Behind Act are
resigned to this new swing of the pendulum and changing
their classroom practices.
I believe the best thing that standards critics can do right
now is work to make them better. It is not too late to advocate
for changes that would bring them closer to the expectations
of college and the workplace and the personal needs,
interests, and real lives of students. To stimulate others to
take action, I am using this forum to identify the key problems
I see in the English/language arts standards and suggest
some ways to resolve them.
Problem #1: In specifying the knowledge and skills
needed for “college and career readiness,” the standards authors
went overboard, including everything from the most
obvious items, such as integrating multimedia tools into
spoken presentations, to the least useful, such as naming
the parts of speech.
As a result, there are too many standards per grade level,
especially in the elementary grades. For example, for 1st
grade, there are three reading categories or “strands,” with
a total of 23 standards within them. There are also three
additional English/language arts strands for 1st grade, with
18 more standards. Teaching toward 41 English/language
arts standards, plus math standards, is a heavy load for 1st
grade teachers, not to mention the difficulty of moving from
strand to strand in planning instruction.
Possible Solution: Combining the strands would reduce
the number of standards and emphasize the importance of
those that remain. I suggest eliminating the “reading: foundational
skills” strand and the language strand altogether
and moving only their general expectations to the other
strands. For example, the call for students to “read with
sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension”
could be added to the two remaining reading strands for
the elementary grades, and the expectation that they will
“demonstrate knowledge of language and its conventions
when writing or speaking” could be included in the writing,
speaking, and listening strands.
Problem #2: While the standards authors have repeatedly
insisted that they did not specify curriculum, they have
strayed into dictating particular teaching methods in a few
places. This is most obvious in the “reading: foundational
skills” strand for elementary grades, in which a particular
phonics strategy is laid out across the elementary grades.
Although advocates of this method might say it is supported
by research, the National Reading Panel—of which
I was a member—reported in 2000 that various types of
phonics programs are equally effective, and that it is not
necessary to teach phonics to normally progressing readers
beyond 1st grade.
A specific teaching method also appears in the standards’
language strand in which students, even as early as 3rd
grade, are expected to use and explain formal grammatical
terms. Again, the body of research does not support formal
grammar instruction for improving students’ speech or
writing.
Possible Solution: As I suggested above, remove the
strands that prescribe methodology and add simple statements
of student expectations in other strands. As demonstrated
by the expectations of the reading, writing, and
speaking strands, methodology should not be included in a
set of standards for students everywhere.
Problem #3: By envisioning the elementary grades as
a ladder, with each rung introducing new skills, the standards’
authors ignored the realities of young children’s
cognitive, emotional, and social development. Worse, they
backed up their placement of skills with a harsh dictum:
“Students advancing through the grades are expected to
meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further
develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding
grades.” According to many early-childhood specialists,
several of the skills designated for the primary grades are
too advanced for young children. And many teachers of
upper-elementary grades see obstacles in getting their students
to learn what is required without step-by-step help.
Possible Solution: To give children more time for development,
the elementary-level standards should be grouped
into grade clusters rather than designated for a single
grade. In addition, the decree about expectations for grade
thing that standards critics
can do right now is work
to make them better. It is
“
Silence Is Not Neutrality
Schools Should Launch Dialogues on Trayvon Martin
By David Knight
I
applaud the San Diego school board’s decision
this summer to promote student discussion
about Trayvon Martin in middle
and high schools. More districts and schools
should follow.
As an educator, I know that students need
space to voice their opinions. Yet I also know that
people often feel uneasy about such dialogues,
especially ones with racial overtones. Some may
wonder whether schools have the capacity to hold
these kinds of tough conversations.
The questions around promoting contentious
conversations are messy. We raise schools up as
institutions for democracy, even when they have
historically fallen short of this ideal when it comes
to persistent social ills, such as segregation, student
dropout rates, poverty, and school violence.
Given this context, many may ask whether schools
are proper forums for dialogue on social issues.
Taking these concerns into account, I have come
to some firm conclusions.
First, silence is not neutrality. If schools stand
silent while whole communities suffer, rage, and
protest, then they close themselves off from important
democratic topics and leave students underprepared
for an increasingly diverse America.
Even worse, this position sends the message that
the experiences and perceptions of certain groups
and students are not important.
For example, ethnographic and interview data
from a 2012 study I conducted among 11 black
and Latino male teenagers in Boston revealed that
many male students cope by talking about their
concerns on race and social topics. Yet these kinds
of conversations almost always happen with other
teens outside of classrooms, reflecting how much
male students trusted—or did not trust—their
teachers and peers in school. Some male teenagers
said, in fact, that they believed their teachers had
lower expectations of them because of their race
or would negatively judge them if they discussed
racial concerns.
This isn’t optimal. Instead, schools should en-
deavor to be relevant and inclusive of students’
daily lives. Educators and students alike benefit
when schools open dialogue on contemporary issues
of race and justice. To do this, schools should
be deliberative in broaching difficult issues with
students, in age-appropriate ways. They should
focus on opening up discussions to multiple points
of view.
The San Diego district is doing this by carving
out space for students to discuss how the social
issues surrounding Trayvon Martin’s death and
George Zimmerman’s subsequent acquittal on a
murder charge in the case are relevant to their
lives. A school in the Bronx or the Midwest could
approach this conversation differently.
But despite these differences, racial topics are
relevant for all students, not just students of color.
Although we all view the world through our own
“
As an
educator, I
know that
students need
space to voice
their opinions.
Yet I also know
that people
often feel
uneasy about
such dialogues.”
not too late to advocate for
changes.”
I believe the best
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Education Week - September 25, 2013

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