Common Core Show 5 with Host Priscilena Shearon – Six Reasons to Reject Common Core

Join Priscilena as she discusses Common Core, a set of K-12 education standards used to guide the teachings of math and language arts to students. Included are studies of Common Core's effects on students and educators, its implementation across various states, and the uncovered truths about its overall efficacy on children's learning and psyche. 
 
This episode is show 5 in the continuing series of Common Core episodes. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Block Hope Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Good afternoon and welcome to Sunny Sunday. This is new
hips show on education and I am for Selina Sharon,
your host. Thanks to everyone who changed their schedule to
tune into my show on a different day. I do
appreciate your loyalty. Also, as a reminder of my showtime
and day will be every Sunday at five thirty pm Central,
I do hope you can join me at that time.

(01:09):
The New Heights Educational Group Incorporated promotes literacy for children
and adults by offering a range of educational support services.
Such services include assisting families in selection of schools, organization
of educational activities, and acquisition of materials. We promote a
healthy learning environment and original programs for families of preschool

(01:30):
and school age children, including children with special needs. You
can contact New Heights Educational Group by visiting our website
at www dot New Heights Education dot org, or email
us at New Heights Education at yahoo dot com, or
phone us at four one nine, seven, eight, six, zero

(01:53):
two or seven if you would like to call into
to the day. Call in to the show today is
three four seven nine three four oh to hear your
views on today's topic. This show is geared toward addressing
my facts and common misconceptions about the development, intent, content,

(02:14):
and implement implementation of the Common Course Standards. So today's
topic six reasons why common Core should be rejected. And
this article was written by Valerie Strauss May two, twenty
and fourteen, So the article is not that old. It
starts out by saying the Common Course standards for students

(02:37):
in kindergarten through grade three have come under severe criticism
by early childhood education experts who say they are not
developmentally appropriate. That goes ties in to the topic that
I covered on my show the past two fridays. And
remember we were saying that most other countries up until

(03:03):
the age of eight. In some countries, those children are
still able to let their creative juices flow. They are
not tied to a strict set of standards, nor is
Chasi bound to a strict set of standards. And like

(03:24):
we also pointed out, or like I also pointed out
in one of those previous previous shows, some children are
able to these standards earlier. By that meaning some children
can read Harry Potter at the age of five and
grasp it and go on to be successful parts of

(03:48):
society while others cannot. And we are seeing that for
our children. It may be especially young ones pre k
to grade three, just common course sentence may be pushing
them just a little bit hard. But let me go ahead,
I digress, let me read further. Even some supporters of

(04:08):
the Core initiatives, including American Federation of Teachers President Randy Winegarden,
have called for a revamping of these early education standards.
Winegarden made her call in conjunction with early childhood expert
Nancy Carlton Page of Leslie University in Cambridge, a senior
advisor to Defending the Early Years, a nonprofit or a

(04:31):
nonprofit product of the Survival Education Funds that is dedicated
to rally educators to take action on policies that affect
the education of young children. Here from Defending the Early
Years is a document creative to help teachers and parents
understand why the common Core State standards are inappropriate for

(04:53):
kindergarten through and parents advocate against them, while at the
same time promote policies and classrooms practices that will best
meet the needs of young children. But here we go
six reasons to reject common Core State centers four K
through Grade three. I will read through all six of

(05:13):
the standards, all six of the rejections rejections, and then
time permitting go back and discuss each one in depth.
Number one. Many of the kindergarten through grade three common
Core State standards are development developmentally inappropriate and not and
are not based on well researched child development knowledge about

(05:35):
how children young children learn. The common Core Standard state
standers for young children were developed by mapping backwards from
what it's required high school graduation to the early years.
This has led. This has led standards that lists discreet skills,
facts and knowledge that do not match how young children

(05:55):
developer thinks will require young children to learn. Facts and
skills for which they are not ready are often called
by teacher led the dactic instruction instead of experiential play
based activities and learning young children need. These acue the
whole child and the importance of social emotional development, play, art, music, science,

(06:21):
and physical about. An example of a developmentally inappropriate common
course standard for kindergarten is one that requires children to
read emergent reader text with purpose and understanding. Many young
children are not developmentally ready to read in kindergarten, and
there is no research to support teaching reading in kindergarten.

(06:43):
There's no research showing long term advantages to reading at
five compared to reading acts six or seven rejection number two.
Many other skills mandated by common course state standards erroneously
sum that all children develop and learned skills at the
same rate in the same way. Decades of chigh development

(07:07):
research and their theory for many disciplines cognitive and developmental, psychology, neuroscience, medicine,
and education show how children progress at different rates in
different ways. For example, the average child the average age
of children start walking is twelve months. Some children begin
walking as early as five months, all those nine until

(07:30):
fifteen months, and all of this files within a normal range.
Early walkers are not better walkers than l walkers. A
second example is that the average agent which children learn
to read independently, it's six point five years. Some begin
as early as four years, From nine until eight seven
or later, all of this falls within the normal range.

(07:51):
Research has shown that children who score well on early
intelligence tests have on their forty percent correlation with later
achievement tests results, and that on one third of the
brightest incoming third grade is stool below average prior to kindergarten.
The common Core State standards are measured using frequent and

(08:13):
inappropriate assessments. This includes high stakes tests, standardized tests, and
computer administrative assessments. States are required to use computer based
tests such as PARK, which is PARCC to assess common
Course State students. This is leading to mandated computer used

(08:35):
at an early age and the misallocation of funds to
purchase computers and networking systems in school districts that are
already underfunded. Rejection number three. Early childhood educators did not
participate in the development of the sense of the standards.

(08:59):
Common Course States I will begin to refer to it
as CCSS do not comply with the internationally and nationally
recognized protocol for writing professional standards. They were written without
due process, transparency, or participatity participation by knowledgeable parties. Two
committees made up of one hundred and thirty five people

(09:20):
wrote the standards. Not one of them was a K
three classroom teacher. Early childhood educational professionals when cc ss
were first fully first release, more than five hundred early
childhood professionals sign a joint statement opposing the standards. On
the realm, that they would lead to long hours of

(09:40):
direct instruction, more standardized testing, and would clowd out highly
important active play based learning. All of this has come
to pass. Notably, this important joint statement was not even
reported in the summary of public feedback sit on the
Common Core Standards website. Rejection number four. There is a

(10:07):
lack of research to support the current Early Childhood cc SS.
The standards will not pilot testing, and there is no
provision for ongoing research or review of very impact on
children and on early childhood education. The CCSS do not
build on what is known from earlier long term studies

(10:29):
such as the Perry Preschool Project, the Abersharkadian Projects, the
Abbot Schools of New Jersey or Chicago Parent Child Centers,
which demonstrates what works for young children. There's no convincing
research showing that certain skills are bits of knowledge, such
as county to one hundred in kindergarten, are being able

(10:51):
to tell in right time in hours and half hours
using analog and digital clocks in first glade will lead
to later success in school. There was no research on
how to effectually train teachers on implementing for common course
state standards. Rejection number five. The standards do not take
into their account what young children today need when they

(11:14):
get to school. Children need to play in school now
more than ever. They need teachers who are skilled facilitators
of play so the solid foundations can be laid in
the early fool years optimal learning in the later years.
Many of today's children are over exposed to electronics and schools.
Many of them are overly scheduled and lack opportunitiesies for

(11:35):
sustains unstructured free play and especially outdoor metrial play. These
conditions have led to reduced play opportunities opportunities for many children,
which has in turn led to deficiencies and many of
their essential foundational skills that develop through play executive functioning,
self control, persistence, there activity, problem solving, flexibility, attention spans,

(12:03):
and ability to call on storat or knowledge when needed.
Rejection number six. The adoption of common cold state centers
falsely implies that make the children learn. These centers will
combat the impact of poverty on development and learning and
create equal educational opportunity for all children. The United States

(12:26):
is are we bless the destination in the world and
has the highest child property rate among industrialized nations. Corporate
style reformers would have us believe that we can solve
the problem of poverty by mandating the teaching of basic
skills of our nation's school But schools. But schools cannot
solve all the problems created by us those high sociable

(12:48):
factors that exist outside of school walls. While we do
not have all the answers, years of research tell us
that schools were all important cannot solve all the disadvantages
created by pty. In fact, during the last eight decades
of educational reform, increased standards and testing, more accountability and
data gatherings, the inequalities in our education system have increased

(13:12):
and the child poverty rate has grown. So those for
the sixth rejection. Six reasons why why the Common Course
Standards SHO should be rejected not all, not across the board,
but just for our young learners. So here are six

(13:34):
principles to guide the policies. Young children learn through active,
direct experiences and play. Young children learn best through active
learning experiences within meaningful context. They need materials that can
be used in multiple ways and allow for hands on
exploration and problem prove it. They need dynamic ongoing relationships

(13:58):
with teachers who understand and child developments, can build on
to and extend their hands on activities and provides well
thought out educational experience that demonstrate knowledge of and respect
for each child. The teachers must be able to create
time and a schedule to remote these activities at These
active experiences between children as pure in actions play a

(14:22):
crucial role in cognitive learning and social development social emotional developments.
Children learn skills and concepts at different times, races, and
pass Every child is unique. Every child possesses a unique personality, temperament,
family relationships, and cultural backgrounds. Each has different interests, experiences,

(14:44):
and approaches to learning. Each child proceeds and approaches the
world differently, often taking different routes to reach the same end. Thus,
all children need learning and experiences that are take in
the teen, take into account, support and bill onto who
they are as individuals. Okay, I'm gonna start there for

(15:06):
a moment, give your time to take all that in
and think about it, and then we're going back because
I've given you the sixth reasons why common Core should
be rejected for grades K through third grade. And I
began to read six policies six principles to guide the policy,

(15:30):
which basically are six things that the people who set
down and wrote the common Core Standards for grades K
through free should have looked, should have had at hand
when they were writing those standards for our young learners,
because as it has been pointed out, all of six

(15:51):
of these rejections are very important. But the one that
stands out to me more than any children learn a
different race, All children learn at different rates. That sticks
out to me because we as adults know that all

(16:12):
that we learn things at different rates. I think there
was a great example when they said, for example, walking,
we should take any example of a newborn, a newborn
to child age and check their milestones and whether and
you will have two newborns that did hit every milestone

(16:33):
at the same time, because we have the time. You know,
when they begin to crawl, when they begin to walk,
when they begin to talk, when they put together their
first sentence, all of that. You know if you are
and young children learn at different ages, different stages. They
don't learn it all at the same stage. So you

(16:53):
can't really take say a small classroom, let's just say
fifteen fifteen kindergarten, kindergarten age students children. Put them in
that class, give them teacher, and say, okay, all of
these students, all fifteen of your students, must have all
these standards learned by citizens of state because the background

(17:19):
will be different. Each one of those children come from
a different background. They've had different interaction with the written words,
different experiences before they came to kindergarten. Some of them
may have gone to museums, had parents that took them
in to the museums and movies and plays, and then

(17:40):
you may have had some parents that were unable to
do those things and pretty much all that child was
able to do was watch TV and that was their companion.
So you can't say that the child that's gone to
museums and plays and been immersed in all of that

(18:02):
is on the same plan. So as a child that
has not, that kindergarten teacher is gonna have to take
all that into consideration. And that's really what is what
kindergarten is about, is about give it bringing all those
different personalities, different backgrounds together and making them meld together.
And that's where play. That's where that standard that principal

(18:24):
principal number two that I read saying children young children
learn through active That was principal number one. I'm sorry.
Young children learn through active, direct experiences and play. That's
how they learn. That's the best way for them to learn,
especially when you get them at such a young age,
because some of them the cut off date for going

(18:47):
to cut off age they may be four years old
when they start school, others maybe five. Others may have
they're cut off age, may maybe six. So we're gonna
have that to deal with. So they're gonna have the
different stage, different levels of maturity. And for a lot
of them, maybe that some of them did not may
have not went to pre K and may have been

(19:09):
homeschooled in the home of the mother. So that's another
thing that they're going on. They will have to become
accustomed to being in a classroom with more than one
child's and that would be a lot of simulations for
that child that was homeschool through pre K rather than
the mother a working mother or what have you, and

(19:31):
they been in pre K in a daycreer setting. So
it's just different. It's just different, and the common course
standers for grades K through pre K did not take
that into consideration. Also, another one of the rejections that
stuck out to me was the one that says the

(19:53):
common course centers early childhood educators did not participate in
the development of the It seems to me that the
people who were going to implement these standards should have
been a part of writing the standards because those people,
that core group of people knew already from years of experience,

(20:21):
what it really entails to be to have young minds
coming in for the first time in a educational setting. Now,
let's look at policy number three. Policy number three states

(20:42):
young children an best when they're cognitive, social, emotional, and
physical self become highly engaged in learning processes. And that
makes sense, and a lot in what we've seen from
the common Core state standards is it's more teacher driven
then student driven. The teacher is really doing most of

(21:06):
the parting of the knowledge and the children are just
supposed to be like a little sponge and soaking up that.
Do we need to be honest with each other and
young children ages five six, it's hard for them to
sit in one spot for that long and grasp anything.

(21:31):
It says active learning experiences play engage multiple aspects of
the child's capacities, simultaneously, a curriculum folks on academic standards
and go cart menalizes learning in ways that are not
natural for young children. Hands on play based experiential learning
engages the whole child and strengthens and supports young children's

(21:56):
intellectual dispositions and the innate thirst for better, fuller, and
deeper understanding of their own experiences. Guideline number four Assessments.
Assessments of young children should be observational in nature, ongoing,

(22:18):
and connected to curriculum and teaching. They should take into
account the broad days nature of young children's learning, not
isolated skills, and the natural development variation in all areas
of young children's growth and developments. Assessment methods should be
developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responses tried to children's daily activities,

(22:41):
supported by professional development, inclusives of families, and connected to
beneficial purposes, making sound decisions about teaching and learning, identifying
concerns that may require focused in the vision interventions for
individual children, and helping programs improve their educational developmental interventions.

(23:02):
Assessments in early childhood should be as infrequent as possible
to maintain high program quality. Standardized tests are highly unreliable
for children younger than third grade and should not be
used in early childhood settings. The linking of test scores
to teacher evaluation or to program evaluation leads to an
increase in standards and test based instruction and less developmentally

(23:26):
appropriate play based Exponential education administrators need to emphasize quality
educational experiences and teaching, not test course in the early years.
The problems of inequality and child property need to be addressed.
Almost one quarter of our nation's children live in property.

(23:47):
We need to do what other developed nations do, which
is to ensure that all of their children have health care, housing,
and basic needs nests meant for economic security and well being.
Then we must fund our school equally by giving them
money to the schools and students where needs or greatest,
which are most commonly in schools and low income in neighborhoods.

(24:11):
Educational funds should not be distributed to states based on
their acceptance of specific education reforms, such as we have
seen in the last decades. If we begin to redress
some of the profound inequalities that exist for children in
the US today, this will be the surest way to
genuinely improve schools and overlaw of being in success for

(24:33):
all nations for all of the nation's children. Number six.
Quality early childhood education with well prepared teachers is the
best investment a society can make in its future. Research
shows that early childhood education enhances the life's prospects of
children and has a high benefits cost ratio and rate

(24:55):
of return for society's investments. The Perry Preschool Projects aim
major largitudment study of a quality preschool education program show
the investment in high quality preschool education improved the lives
of those who were in the program and paid handsome
returns to society. Building a strong foundation for learning in
the early years is especially crucial for disadvantaged children. The

(25:19):
United States ranks twenty four among wealthy nations in providing
availability and quality of early childhood education. Committing to high
quality early childhood education with well prepared teachers is a
crucial first step our nation can make in reducing the
achievement gaps between rich and poor children and improving the
lives of children. All Right, so today we have reasons

(25:47):
why common core standards should be rejected, and just to
recap those reasons we had. The first reason was many
the kindergarten two grade three common course standards are development
inappropriate and are now not based on well researched children,

(26:09):
well researched child development knowledge about how young children learn.
Many of the skills mandated by common course sake standers
erroneously assume that all children develop and learn skills at
the same rate in the same way. Early childhood educators
did not participate in the development of the standards. There

(26:30):
is a lack of research to support the term early
childhood common Course State standards. The standards will not politiests,
and there's no provision for ongoing research a review of
their impacts on children and on early childhood education. The
standards do not take into account what young children need
today when they when they get to school. Children need

(26:52):
play now more than ever. They need teachers who are
skilled facilitators of play. So the solid foundations can be
laid in the earth police school years for optimal learning
in the later years and six. The adoption of the
common Course state standards falsely implies that making children learn
these state standards will combat the impact of property on

(27:13):
development and learning and create equal education opportunity for all children. Okay, now,
for today's announcements. Once again, we would like to congratulate
Brianna Ditchner. She had been She was honored for her
exhiplary volunteer service with national awards, the Certificate Excellence for

(27:37):
the Prudential Spirit of a Community Awards and the President's
Volunteer Goal Service Award, granted by the program on behalf
of the President of President Barack Obama if the award
was presented. Is presented annually by Prudential Financial Partnership with
National Association of Secondary School Principles, the Prudential School the
Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. Aren't young people across America

(28:01):
for outstanding volunteer service. Also please tune in too Brianna
Editioner's show Fridays at twelve thirty Eastern Times. Also, the
New Heights Educational Group of Defiance, Ohio nominated Finilla is
As for national honors, last file and recognition of a
volunteer service. Miss Jazz is vice president of the organization's

(28:23):
National School Student Leadership Council and former Internet radio hosts.
She also helps with research and document buildings. Alabama's e
Jazz did not win the award honor, receiving a nomination
is true reflection of her education and hard work. Have
you ever wondered how you can show your support to
New Heights Educational Group. Make Wellesley dot com your browser,

(28:44):
stock papers, and each day that you use the Internet,
Wellesley will make a free donation to New Heights Educational Group.
This allows anyone to have a hand in raising prcial
funds and therefore making a direct impact. I'll learn more
at going to www dot wellesz dot com, fort slash
John for slash New Educational Group. John Pauline Days are

(29:07):
going to be July eighth through ninth, twenty sixteen. We
have been invited as a local nonproject to be a
food game vendor. We are looking for volunteers to see
if anyone is interested in setting up a game or
food table. Okay, that brings to a closed show. Remember
my time has changed from Wednesday from Tuesday to Sunday

(29:28):
Sundays at five thirty pm Central Standard time. I do
hope you're able to join me, and I hope everyone
has a great weekend. And then what about the

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Never never never thinking the l