Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Common core has led to ‘historic’ drop in achievement scores, study finds

It was a good idea until it became Leftist Core

The adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has led to a “historic” drop in student achievement scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” a new study reports.

In the decade before the adoption of CCSS throughout most of the United States in 2013, mathematics and reading NAEP scores for both fourth and eighth grade were gradually increasing at a fairly steady rate, states The Common Core Debacle: Results from 2019 NAEP and Other Sources, published by the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. This rate of growth had been occurring at roughly the same pace as it had been since before states began launching their own individual curriculum standards in the 1990s, writes author Theodor Rebarber, CEO of the nonprofit education organization Accountability Works.

Many involved in the education industry said they were dissatisfied with this pace of improvement, and they sought to remedy it by pushing states to drop their curriculum standards and adopt a single, national standard, which became Common Core. Promoted heavily by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Obama administration, CCSS was touted as being necessary to improve U.S. academic competitiveness with other nations on international testing, raise NAEP results, lower the achievement gap between black and Hispanic students and their white and Asian peers, and reduce the same gap between low- and high-income children.

Now, a decade after their adoption by most states and six years after their implementation, the Pioneer Institute report makes clear Common Core has had the opposite effect from what was promised. NAEP scores from 2013 to 2019, after the implementation of CCSS, have decreased by a “statistically significant” amount, the study found. Scores for both fourth and eighth grade in reading and math are down, with eighth grade scores decreasing at a rate nearly equal to their rate of growth before the implementation of Common Core.

Achievement Gap Widening

More frighteningly, the study observes, scores are falling sharpest for low-income, black, and Hispanic students.

“U.S. students at the top, the 90th percentile, have continued to make gradual improvements that generally maintain the pre-Common Core trend line, ultimately neither helped nor harmed,” Rebarber writes. “But the farther behind students were before Common Core, especially those at the 25th and 10th percentiles, the more significant the achievement decreases have been. These declines appear to have wiped out the gains that lower-performing students made in the decade prior to Common Core.”

The report also includes summary analyses for seven states: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and New York, chosen “mainly based on their size and geographic distribution.” All seven states performed worse on the NAEP after CCSS than they did in the decade prior to its adoption. In Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and New York, students’ scores declined in math and reading in both fourth and eighth grade.

No Excuses

The report dismisses excuses proffered by opponents that claim these declines are not the fruit of CCSS and are instead attributable to other problems, such as inadequate public school funding or the impact of the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009. Rebarber notes per-pupil public school spending in the United States increased by 10.5 percent in constant dollars between the 2012-13 school year, before CCSS were adopted, and the 2018-19 school year, and is the second-highest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

In addition, if the Great Recession were indeed a cause, Rebarber notes it would have shown up in score declines in 2008-09 and 2010-11, yet there was no decline. Scores also did not decline during the large recessions in 1980 and 1982, Rebarber notes.

‘A Monumental Error’

Rebarber recommends states fully repeal Common Core, but he says he realizes this will be a tall order, no matter how far scores decline, because the standards embody the “common curricular assumptions and conventional wisdom of the educational establishment.”

“It is human nature for those who supported a failed strategy to find it difficult to admit a monumental error,” Rebarber writes. “But our most vulnerable students are paying the steepest price for this particular error. After six years of digging this hole, the most fervent Common Core advocates seem to believe that we should continue to dig deeper. Instead, we must ensure that reason prevails and a different approach is considered.”

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Purdue’s Smart Approach to COVID-19: Planning for Fall

My modest band of followers is tired of my saying it, but, with apologies to West Virginia’s Gordon Gee, Arizona State’s Michael Crow, and Southern New Hampshire’s Paul LeBlanc, probably the best major university president in America right now is Purdue’s Mitch Daniels. He implemented a tuition freeze seven years ago that is spectacularly successful, forcing some serious rethinking of inefficient, expensive management practices. He teamed with Gallup to learn more about how students and recent grads feel about college. Purdue bought the respected Kaplan on-line educational operation, starting Purdue Global. It helped pioneer the use of Income Share Agreements, a promising way of financing college. The innovations are many and Purdue has done well, with rising enrollments and reputation as tuition fees have fallen both adjusted for inflation and relative to the competition.

Mitch has started his second year as a septuagenarian, an age when most people are retired, although relative to some major American political figures (e.g, Trump, Biden, Sanders, McConnell, Pelosi) Daniels is, if not a child, still a tad youthful. He has come up with a sensible approach to today’s existential issue: how do you deal with a pandemic like COVID-19?

In a letter to the Purdue community, Daniels states, “Purdue University...intends to accept students on campus in typical numbers this fall, sober about...certain problems that the COVID-19 virus represents, but determined not to surrender helplessly to those difficulties but to tackle and manage them aggressively and creatively.”

Daniels notes that younger Americans are less likely to get this coronavirus and, far more important, most of those who do get it suffer only modest discomfort—similar to what one gets catching flu bugs that confront us annually. The dangers to most college students from COVID-19 are extremely small. Hence, why seriously compromise their education at this critical stage in their lives? To be sure, as Daniels acknowledges, there are some older members of the university community, including many teachers, who are more at risk, and having them teach remotely makes more sense on health grounds. The proposed Purdue approach seems similar to what Sweden is doing now.

I think Daniels is on the right track. He is very careful to say that his plans are preliminary, and will be likely modified as new information becomes available. He is also saying, I think, “Americans are innovative and adaptable. While medically, we very appropriately want to minimize lives lost to this pandemic, we also don’t want it to force us to abandon our job—educating students in the best possible manner, while continuing to expand the frontiers of knowledge to provide better, longer lives for our progeny.”

I have recently talked to a number of undergraduate students, most at Ohio University, but some from other institutions (e.g., Princeton) sent home to learn on-line. Most of them are pinning to get back to school and resume a more or less normal academic life, with some socialization. Humans are highly social animals, and 18 to 22-year-old ones are even more so, and human interaction is an important part oftheir learning—transitioning from kids living under parental direction to relatively independent adults. They develop lifelong enduring friendships, often including a spouse. Interfering with that socialization process may be desirable for health reasons, but we should use a cost-benefit approach, and I agree with Daniels that the costs to most students from leading a fairly traditional campus life with direct human interaction is low, but the benefits are great. We should use innovative ways to reopen campuses to serve both the traditional educational as well as the less academic but still important social functions that colleges provide.

I am old and have some of the health conditions (albeit moderately) particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Still, I hope to teach “live” this fall (for the 56th year at Ohio University), keeping my class small (12-15), having students sit six feet apart in a fairly large classroom, and, if necessary, doing some supplemental instruction via Zoom. While on-line instruction can be economical and often useful, students from the time of Socrates have benefited mightily from direct interaction with their teacher and fellow students. Mitch Daniels, never a professor himself, understands that.

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Australia: Students return to school in NSW and Queensland today - but there'll be no assemblies or combined lunch breaks and classes will look VERY different

Students in New South Wales and Queensland will return to school on Monday as the states inches towards relaxing COVID-19 restrictions.

Students in NSW will return for one day of face-to-face learning per week from Monday, with attendance to increase over the course of the term.

The state government is working towards a target of a full-scale return by term three.

The Berejiklian government on Sunday announced the easing of a broad range of restrictions as the state continues to flatten the curve.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews - who will on Monday announce changes to lockdown rules as a May 11 state of emergency expires - has yet to reveal when students in the state will return to school.

But the return to classroom teaching comes as education authorities in Queensland prepare to enforce a range of measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

While primary school students will be free to use play equipment, gatherings of pupils may be limited by staggered lunch breaks and play time.

The principal of Mango Hill primary school Tracy Egan told ABC News staff may even need to personally take children to their parents' cars to stop transmission.

'We'll be really using our stop, drop and go lane and we expect our parents will strongly support that,' Ms Egan said.

Hand sanitiser use will also be a priority in the classroom, as well as a ban at first on any events involving large congregations of students like assemblies.

Some schools are even planning to implement virus-proof protocols in their tuck shops and cafeteria - including an online-only order system.

The return to classrooms has come with a warning in NSW, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian promising any surge in numbers of confirmed cases could see a return to tighter measures. 'If there is evidence or if there is data that shows ... a huge spike, then we'll have to go backwards,' Berejiklian said.

'But similarly, if the data shows us that we're doing better than expected, we can move forward and be faster.'

The government has urged parents to be vigilant about their children's health and to keep them away from school if they exhibit any symptoms of coronavirus.

Social distancing guidelines will be maintained in classrooms and extra health measures will be in place, including additional cleaning and health equipment in sick bays.

Lunch breaks will also be staggered.

Ms Berejiklian said it is not compulsory to send children to school and parents would not be penalised for keeping them at home.

'It's never been compulsory to force parents to do one thing or another, we've been very clear about that in New South Wales,' she said.

'But our strong recommendation is face-to-face teaching needs to start. 'We want to get to full-time face-to-face teaching as soon as we can - and the best health advice is schools are safe environments.'

Children meanwhile enrolled in kindergarten, prep, and years one, 11 and 12 will be the first cohorts to return to school in Queensland.

The state government will assess the statewide response to the partial reopening of classrooms this Friday, before the go-ahead is given for those in other year levels.

It is proposed students between years two and 10 will return to school from May 25.

The staged approach is part of the Queensland government's wider plan to reopen the state following the flattening of the coronavirus curve.

The NSW government on Sunday announced the winding back of restrictions from Friday, including allowing people to leave their homes for recreation.

The new relaxing of restrictions will allow up to five people to visit a home, including children.

Outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people will also be allowed, such as a physical training session or sitting down in a park.

Restaurants and cafes will also be allowed to have up to 10 patrons at a time, while ensuring they maintain social distancing of 1.5 metres between people and four square metres space per person.

A total of 10 guests will be allowed at weddings, and up to 20 people at indoor funerals and up to 30 at outdoor funerals.

Religious gatherings and places of worship can also welcome up to 10 worshippers.

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