Scores on Math and English Tests Plummet After State Adopts New Standards

New York Times ^ | August 7, 2013 | By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ and ROBERT GEBELOFF

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The number of New York students passing state reading and math exams dropped drastically this year, education officials reported on Wednesday, unsettling parents, principals and teachers and posing new challenges to a national effort to toughen academic standards.

In New York City, 26 percent of students in third through eighth grade passed the tests in English, and 30 percent passed in math, according to the New York State Education Department.

The exams were some of the first in the nation to be aligned with a more rigorous set of standards known as the Common Core, which emphasize deep analysis and creative problem-solving over short answers and memorization. Last year, under an easier test, 47 percent of city students passed in English, and 60 percent in math.

[cripplecreek]

Common Core, which emphasize deep analysis and creative problem-solving over short answers and memorization.

LOL

[Smokeyblue]

The exams were some of the first in the nation to be aligned with a more rigorous set of standards known as the Common Core,

Well, this is an easy one. Drop the standards and then give them a Nobel Peace Prize to show how enlightened and morally superior you are. Problem solved.

[Venturer]

Yup this is the last time anyone takes this test.

[goodwithagun]

I teach in Ohio and we also adopted CC. It’s crap. The 9-10 grade and 11-12 grade language arts standards contain almost no specific language. For example, one standard requires students to take part in sustained reading. Define sustained. Is it 10 minutes, one hour, half of a school day? Another favorite standard requires students to take part in sustained research, so along with sustained what is research? Surfing the Yahoo! newsfeed? Consulting primary sources? Accessing peer reviewed papers? It’s just a mess because bad teachers, and there are many, will be able to take advantage of this. Then there is the fact that the 9-10 grade standards are identical, and the 11-12 grade standards are identical. To top it off, both sets of standars’ bands are almost identical to each other!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

3...2...1...

RACISM!!!

[MacMattico]

And I’ve heard from many students that half the things on the HS Regents exams weren’t even covered by teachers. This from several different districts.

[immadashell]

I think school boards should start testing teachers to see if they can pass the test. BWAHAHAAAA.

[goldi]

Deep analysis and creative problem solving for six-year-old kindergarten students. What a laugh.

Please just pull your kids out, go on line and find a suitable curriculum for your child’s age group. Start your own schools — or better yet, homeschool.

The whole thing is a joke.

Public schools are finished. You want to know why? The teachers aren’t smart enough, talented enough, to teach your kid since they are a product of the same crappy NY public school system - so sorry.

[gop4lyf]

I teach. You would be shocked (or perhaps not) at the amount of teachers who are not comfortable enough with the curriculum to be able to teach it effectively. Oh yeah, the level that I teach.........elementary.

[Myrddin]

Common Core is a crap communist indoctrination scheme. It has little to do with academic excellence. It is easier to manipulate the illiterate. Common Core increases illiteracy.

[SkyDancer]

Now if the tests were text messaged and Tweeted perhaps ....

[Myrddin]

The word "sustained" is commonly found in the popular communist/socialist literature. It is embedded in the Agenda 21 crap. The only "stain" you'll get from Common Core is a skid mark on the skivvies.

[willywill]

i’m trying to find any reason why Elliot spritzer, Anthony weiner or Michael Bloomberg would want an educated and informed citizenry in new York.
i’m not coming up with with a reason.

[Conspiracy Guy]

In other words there is no right or wrong answer, it is all nuanced. Good way to produce MORE democrap idiots.

[Maceman]

The number of New York students passing state reading and math exams dropped drastically this year, education officials reported on Wednesday, unsettling parents, principals and teachers and posing new challenges to a national effort to toughen academic standards. . . . The exams were some of the first in the nation to be aligned with a more rigorous set of standards known as the Common Core, which emphasize deep analysis and creative problem-solving over short answers and memorization. . . . The Common Core standards have been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. Although not technically national standards, they are ardently backed by the Obama administration and education officials who contend that outdated and inconsistent guidelines leave students ill prepared for college and the work force.

In 2010, Barack Obama called for fixing the public education system by giving us the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and “Race to the Top,”

which he said would fix the education system already fixed by the 2001 GW Bush and Ted Kennedy legislation called “No Child Left Behind,”

which was supposed to fix a system supposedly already fixed by a 1994 piece of federal legislation called “Goals 2000,”

which was supposed to fix a system already fixed by “America 2000,”

which was a 1991 response during the Bush administration to a 1983 federal report on education called “A Nation at Risk,

which was published a full four years after Jimmy Carter first fixed the nation’s public school system by establishing a cabinet-level Department of Education in 1979.

[Dallas59]

RACISM!

[dinodino]

I second that motion!

[sasquatch]

Ummm,
what’s math?

[sasquatch]

(I’m kinda knew her)