Common Core, in 9-Year-Old Eyes

[elleng]

“I am a 9-year-old,” he began, “who struggles with math.”

Chrispin had reason to worry. New York’s state exams were two days away, and he was having difficulty dividing large numbers and deciphering patterns. He had once been a model student — the fastest counter in the first grade, his teachers said. But last year, in the confusion of a new and more difficult set of academic standards known as the Common Core, he had failed the state tests in English and math, placing him near the bottom of his class.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/education/common-core-in-9-year-old-eyes.html?hp

[NYC_SKP]

1. The degree to which the institution works contrary to their own best research findings never ceases

...never ceases to amaze me.

I remember a course in grad school, taught by "specialists" in the field of special accommodations, the focus of which was how to accommodate "exceptional children" (includes gifted and LD), the in their practice broke nearly every rule they were teaching:

Teacher-centered, powerpoint-based, or endless droning, non-participatory.

Ridiculous. We aren't moving forward.

[elleng]

2. Right, SKP,

and in video, interview w teacher, seemed to confuse WHAT teaching with HOW teaching. What the heck are the GOALS??? and who knows what they are?