Info-graphic from Utahns Against Common Core
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Commentary on #CommonCore #Math Standards Doesn't Add Up
William Schmidt's "Math Commentary [on CC standards] Doesn't Add Up"
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/08/08/37letters-4.h31.html
Published Online: August 6, 2012
Published in Print: August 8, 2012, as Math Commentary Doesn't Add Up
Letter to the Editor
William Schmidt claims his research “found an overlap of roughly 90 percent between the common math standards and the A+ [TIMSS high achievers] standards” (“Seizing the Moment for Mathematics,” July 18, 2012). Unfortunately, his own data, which can be found in a PowerPoint presentation at www.achieve.org, belie this claim.
The A+ country data in his PowerPoint show 99 intended grade-level topics spread over 32 topics and eight grades. The common-core data, shown later in the same presentation, include 131 grade-level topics spread over 35 topics and eight grades.
Perhaps the good professor would be so kind to explain how he got “roughly 90 percent correlation” when the common core has 30 percent more grade-level topics than the A+ countries to begin with.
And while he is at it, perhaps he would also explain why he needed to use a magician-like sleight of hand to rearrange the order of the common-core topics so they would give the impression of being visually similar to the A+ countries’ sequence. When, in reality, if both slides have the same order of topics, they would differ widely.
Perhaps Professor Schmidt seizes the moment a bit too enthusiastically.
Ze’ev Wurman
Palo Alto, Calif.
The writer served as a senior adviser in the U.S. Department of Education
from 2007 to 2009.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Absolutely Groundbreaking! #mathchat #edreform #maths #mathed
A research team led by Carnegie Mellon University’s Robert Siegler has identified a major source of the gap — U. S. students’ inadequate knowledge of fractions and division.
déjà vu
Monday, June 11, 2012
Take Two ~ My Math Stuff on TeachersPayTeachers
<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lisa-Jones-43/"><img src="
Here's my stuff on TeachersPayTeachers
<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lisa-Jones-43/"><img src="
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Here's Why I'm Excited About #TeachersPayTeachers
And "no" - I haven't made a dime!
TeachersPayTeachers is an open marketplace for teacher-created materials: lesson plans, units, activities, projects, exams, powerpoints, smartboard activities, and more.
It’s a place where teachers can openly share (or sell) their instructional materials to other interested teachers. It's encouraging that its founder had such respect for teachers and the teaching profession to give it a go! It's inspiring on many levels!
I agree that "the ensuing exchange lifts all boats and leads to the better sharing of best practices. In the end everyone wins, especially our students."
One big, under-the-radar success story is TeacherPayTeachers, an open marketplace in which teachers can buy, sell, and share their original lesson plans. A former teacher, Edelman launched TeachersPayTeachers in 2006 and sold it to Scholastic later that year. But the recession saw the site’s growth dwindle, so Edelman offered to buy the site back from its acquirer. Scholastic agreed, and it’s been profitable ever since.
Why is TeachersPayTeachers so successful? Because it addresses one of the big problems with education in the United States. Often, teachers will need to stay up hours into the night working on the activities for the next day, improving lesson plans and grading papers. This happens night after night, which turns teaching into a grueling process of nightly routine. At the same time, after years of teaching, teachers start to accumulate stacks of activities and daily lesson plans...
EdTech Digest, December 15, 2011 From interview with the founder, Paul Edelman...
"Some say that’s not possible to do 'at scale' so they are looking for culprits (the unions) and solutions (through technology) that I think are part of the solution, but also often just a distraction from what I think is the real solution. That is, to find, train, retain and sustain 3.2 million great teachers. We can only do that if we made it a national priority. Something has to be our national priority, why not this? I’m happy to be proved wrong. If anyone has an argument that proves that finding 3.2 million great teachers is impossible, please email me."
"If it’s not impossible, then let’s do it.
As my dad always said, where there’s a will there’s a way."
Now THAT's an attitude I can appreciate!!
Lisa Jones
(Yes, I will always be "concernedabouteducation")
Friday, June 8, 2012
#Teaching Isn't Common
In this month's Education Matters, there is an article entitled "There Are No Miracles, But There Are Teachers: An Educator's View on the Common Core" (p.2-3) It is a well-written article by a very dedicated and thoughtful educator. A couple of things just kept nagging at me while I read.
The author claims that "True collaboration among teachers could be the single most important result of common standards - if we seize the opportunity." I love collaborating with my colleagues, and I do not support the Common Core Standards Initiative. Sure, teachers can and will collaborate while implementing CCS, as most of us have done in the past while working with state and local standards, but it is incorrect to assume that the standards have fostered our collaboration. Having the opportunity to work within, or create, a trusting and collegial environment encourages teachers to collaborate.
He also shares a quote, which, in part states, "thoughtfully and faithfully implemented rigorous curricula can move the the achievement needle." I have thoughtfully reviewed these standards and personally do not agree that they are rigorous at the high school level. I believe that expecting teachers to be "faithful" to the implementation of a set of standards, as if they should not feel free to scrutinize them as they reflect on their teaching practices, seems to me to border on professional negligence.
I agree with the author that, "By equating a set of standards with the curricular experiences created by teachers for their students, you immediately undercut the craft of teaching." I would go a little further and add that linking a set of standards to academic achievement has the same result...
Wait a minute! Isn't that what the 2012 Brown Center Report concluded? (p.9 of 36)
"Don’t let the ferocity of the oncoming debate fool you. The empirical evidence suggests that the Common Core will have little effect on American students’ achievement. The nation will have to look elsewhere for ways to improve its schools."
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