Zealous Supporters and Detractors of the Common Core State Standards are Both Wrong

By John Wolfe and Rita Platt

A new poll has come out that suggests the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are losing teacher support.

That bothers us. While we strongly reject some of the baggage that comes with the standards. We strongly support the standards themselves. See Rita’s piece on the pros and cons of the CCSS here. When it was written last year, the concern was about politics taking over the discussion. We had just been to a county fair and the booth run by republicans was sharing all kinds of nonsense about CCSS being equal to the “evil of big government.”

Today, we are more concerned about the outcry from  those who identify as very liberal, our people.  And not only because we find the concept of the far right and the far left allied together in opposition of the core to be an unsavory union.

Again, we basically like the standards. But, we basically hate the tests, the big business, and the teacher bashing that come with them. Sadly, those three things seem to come with everything in education these days.

Here are some thoughts for the teaching community. First, we’ll talk to the supporters and then the detractors. Then, PLEASE talk back to us. Teachers, if we don’t learn to communicate better, we’re in a sinking ship and since we refuse to give up, that means we might drown. Let’s talk, please!

Supporters:

1. Knock off the grandiosity and over claiming. The CCSS are not the be-all-end-all. They are not a panacea. They’re just good common standards. That’s enough.

2. Stop spouting hollow phrases like “college and career ready” and “rigor.” They are more than meaningless, they are dangerous. They are misused to justify everything from low-level tech-ed to coursework that is too difficult and out of many students learning zones.

3. Stop with the made-up strategies. “Close reading?” Oh come on. How on earth does that help with any real-world reading situation?

4. Start focusing on the potential for the CCSS to bring us together. Most teachers I know like the possibility presented here. The CCSS gives us a platform to share and collaborate like never before. That is powerful and should not be underestimated.

5. Start being honest about potential problems. Biggest one? The idea that all learners can master all standards in a prescribed time-line. Sorry, this is antithetical to all we know about teaching and learning. The standards should help us see our way not replace our eyes.

Detractors:

1. Don’t throw away the ‘good’ in favor of the always out-of-reach ‘great.’ These standards are good and together we can make them better.

2. Focus more energy on the things that we really need to dump: The tests. The consultants. The text books.

3. Knock it off with the silly myths.  We simply cannot believe that we’re still hearing that the CCSS stop teachers from teaching good literature in favor of all nonfiction, that the CCSS amounts to a national curriculum, or that they standards force teachers to teach to a test. None of these things are true.

4. Stop saying that the above things are a de facto truth. Almost all previous organized state standards came out of publishing too. There is not a dichotomy between the CCSS and the mythical pure standards made by teachers for teachers. It’s always been about the money.  We’ve always needed to fight for fair testing and sensible application of standards and teaching strategies.

I overheard a teacher at a training for a new standard’s-based math curriculum say, “This looks good, but I hate starting new things because the CCSS will be gone before long and then we’ll have to start all over again.”

Starting over could well be the final nail in the coffin for anyone who believed public education ever had a clue about teaching and learning.

Both sides, detractors and supporters of the CCSS are looking for ways to balance reform and stability in our schools. Maybe, if both sides took down the rhetoric a notch, we could make the CCSS serve those ends.

Rita Platt (@ritaplatt) is a Nationally Board Certified teacher. Her experience includes teaching learners of all levels from kindergarten to graduate student. She currently is a Library Media Specialist for the St. Croix Falls SD in Wisconsin, teaches graduate courses for the Professional Development Institute, and consults with local school districts.

John Wolfe is a teacher on special assignment for the Multilingual Department at the Minneapolis Public School District. He has worked with students at all levels as well as provided professional development to fellow teachers. His areas of expertise include English Language Learners, literacy, and integrated technology.