Dive Brief:
- Riffing off of a recently proposed bill to repeal the Common Core in Wisconsin, the Fond du Lac Reporter visits classrooms to see if teachers also believe the standards are making instruction difficult.
- As is explained by English teacher Katelyn Crabb, the Common Core is a list of guidelines that educators must teach by the end of the year, but contrary to the popular belief that they are a national curriculum, Crabb explains that the standards don't give lesson plans or day-to-day assignments.
- The Fond du Lac Reporter juxtaposes Crabb's confusion over the Common Core hoopla with Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to opt out of the Common Core and create Wisconsin-specific standards.
Dive Insight:
The article reiterates a pretty important point. The Common Core is merely a set of guidelines. Teachers can still mold their classroom however they want and teach the information the way they want, as long as students have met all of the listed standards by the end of the year. Aside from the belief that the standards present a national curriculum, the high-stakes tests attached to them have also been a major point of contention for some. Because teacher, student, and school performance is now largely determined by the Common Core-based assessments, there is extra pressure in classrooms to really create a "teach to the test" environment. So while the Common Core does not give lesson plans, it creates an environment where practice tests and multiple choice quizzes become a norm.
Advice for schools struggling to find a balance between innovative teaching and testing: Teach critical thinking. If students can think for themselves and have the ability to make inferences, predictions, and ask deeper questions, a multiple choice test will be a cake walk.