So what was the impact of standards based education reform in America?
One thing that I have noticed in the last 21 years of working in education and in several major cities in the US, is that “reform” in education has been on going since I started. It’s like the seasons, new reform waves come what feels like every year.
Standards based education shifted to new standards in the Common Core realm of organization, and the concept of this is purposeful, ideal when thinking of creating a foundation for all students in education. The common core state standards were created via a major study across the US in schools that were successful, taking what worked, and in determining why — the standards were created to replicate this concept of successful education, nation wide.
The roll out of common core — although varied state to state, was terrible.
It’s as if we had the vaccine back then, and couldn’t figure out how to vaccinate everyone efficiently and we have what you see today. A solution, with no solid way to get it out there — but to just throw it, became negatively looked upon as not a solution, but another part of the problem.
The concept of reform the standards into what is/was the Common Core, fused literacy across all subject areas, and the intent seemed purposeful. Each state had the ability to obtain buy in and then roll out the newly forced upon change which overhauled what was taught, how it was taught, and how it would be assessed. This change — means work. Hours and days and weeks and months of newly rethought solutions to fuse in the platform of teaching Common Core standards. This was met with hesitation, negative reactions of not wanting to throw out “what always worked in my classroom”, and depending on the state and city — could have been ignored completely by the teachers.
As a teacher when the common core standards were being rolled out in New York City, I saw the negativity in almost every school. My school staff was hesitant and resisted.
I went to see Bill Dagget speak at the MLK high school auditorium in hell’s kitchen NYC, and he broke down how the common core standards were created, why they were, and what they intended to do. By the time he showed his rigor and relevance framework, read about it here, I was hooked and began thinking of how to roll it out in my curriculum.
I became an Assistant Principal in the following school year, so now I had to roll it out to a staff that wasn’t willing to do anything more than what they’ve already done. I needed buy in, fought against how everything from the planning of lessons to how we assessed students was met with resistance. I did not blame the teachers, this was perhaps the 4th major wave of “reform” that we experienced in only my 9th year of my career.
The results however, of those that were doing it, were so easy to highlight and share out to the staff, because the teachers that did implement the common core into their curriculum, were finding out that they were able to hone in on the fundamentals of learning, reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and this made what evert they taught — easier to eventually comprehend.
I know Math teachers love to say Math is the universal language and needed by everyone for survival. However, you aren’t communicating answers in any way shape or form, if you can’t speak, read, or write. You’ll never know what is said — if you’re not listening. Let’s move on.
What teachers were also finding, was that they were able to fuse purpose into what they were teaching as well, because the effectiveness led to a deeper understanding of the content covered.
Purpose, and the connection of what students are learning to why that is applicable knowledge for them to endure in life, is what impacts education most. The common core standards, just paved a foundation for schools to attempt to get there. When school roll outs where led exactly as I heard it in SEVERAL schools, where the administrators said things like, “For our latest feeble attempt to change education, we have to teach this way from now on…” or “Since the Pearson’s of the world have such a firm grip on US education, we now have to change everything about what we teach so we can give out their new test every state needs to pay for.”
Although I totally agree with that last one, the way I rolled it out to my staff was with Bill Dagget’s model of rigor and relevance — so they could see why it worked. I got my strongest teachers to try it, and once they started getting creative and began to run with it, others were still resisting making new lesson plans. That’s where sharing best practices came in — and by the end of that first year, we saw increases in state test scores, passing percentages, and graduation rates.
The point here is, it worked because of how it was rolled out.
When it’s perceived as just another temporary thing, it’s taken lightly and with a temporary lens. The results were far less than successful nationwide and the reform promised by the new common core standards lived up to the temporary hype that it was rolled out with.
For true reform, we shouldn’t look to standards, we should look to purpose. Why are we teaching algebraic expressions? Why do students need to know literary devices from classical novels? Why is it important to know our history or about our climate? Turning these open ended questions into the focus of what we teach — now you have engagement, now you have purpose, and you will see a transformation in your students and their productivity instantly.
If you’d like to know more, reach out to me at thetravelingprincipal@gmail.com.
