The following is the transcript of a new video put together by the Maryland State Department of Education about the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in mathematics and English/language arts this year across the state. It was released for public viewing in two formats, available from the state’s website.
- .MOV file (formerly only for Mac users) is here.
- .WMV file (formerly only for Windows users) is here.
The video is very well produced, but for those who prefer to read rather than bother those around them, the following transcript is provided for your convenience. Unlike the transcript, the video also features some on-screen graphics that list the “10 things parents should know about the Common Core.” It’s reproduced from the MSDE document here, which is a PDF file.
The video was made entirely by MSDE and is therefore highly filtered, but I wouldn’t present it to you if I didn’t subscribe to all the statements made. The “Common Core,” which tells schools basically what kids should know in each grade from kindergarten through high school, provides a solid background for teachers to develop lesson plans and tests.
I would be remiss not to mention the controversy over the Common Core in Washington, state houses, and think tanks, but that controversy has, thank goodness, not made its way into Maryland’s classrooms. If educational controversies interest you, I invite you to read some enlightening articles in and about the New York Times, here, here, and here.
I suspect you’re really not all that interested in the controversy, though, as a few national polls recently found, and I myself prefer to stay out of the fray as well, since I believe the standards are pretty good as far as they go. Besides, they are the law in more than 40 states, and until someone changes the rules, I’m going to follow the law.
Different groups outside the educational community are twisting them into things they are not and using them for purposes other than educating our children, but my hope is these well-meaning groups will soon see the need for the upgraded learning standards and let our schools get back to work tweaking the standards where such tweaking may be necessary as they develop lesson plans to prepare our children to be world-class citizens, lifelong learners, and basically, college- and career-ready for the 21st century.
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Maryland Gov MARTIN O’MALLEY:
Hello, I’m Governor Martin O’Malley. It’s back-to-school time for students all across Maryland. In our state, we’re committed to giving every child the opportunity of a world-class education, because in an innovation economy, education is the single most effective strategy for creating jobs and expanding middle-class opportunity. Together with record investments, even in tough times, you and I have built the No. 1-ranked, best public school system in America. Our goal moving forward is to build the best public school system in not just America, but in the world. That’s why we’re choosing to adopt the Common Core standards, new curricula that will prepare our kids to be winners in a global economy, which is growing more knowledge-based by the day.
JAMES GATES, state board member and professor of physics at the University of Maryland, recipient of the National Medal of Science, here:
First of all, as we move forward in the next couple of decades, American kids are going to have to compete with kids from all over the world for jobs. The Common Core is good for America’s jobs in the future.
DAWN PIPKIN, instructional resource teacher, ELA, St Mary’s Co.:
That’s really going to be the big change. We’re really focused on the application of the skills and processes we’ve worked on before, and now we’re taking that to the next level.
JOLYN DAVIS, principal, Corkran Middle School, Anne Arundel Co.:
To share ideas, to problem solve, to think out of the box. And so the Common Core brings that to the table, which is so key.
NINA NEWLIN, secondary supervisor, Kent Co.:
If you look in a Common Core classroom, a Common Core mathematics classroom, you’ll see all sorts of students working together.
Dr GATES:
Jobs will be tied not just to what’s going on at home, but elsewhere. The Common Core brings our kids the chance to compete successfully with kids who are educated elsewhere: in China, in India, and that’s the bottom line.
Ms PIPKIN:
Because the standards are a background, from K to 12, and Maryland has included and is working on preschool standards, each grade level has its own small responsibility for what they have to do to prepare students for college and career readiness.
Ms DAVIS:
Parental involvement is going to be key as we really implement Common Core State Standards. As a parent myself, reading with your kids on a regular basis is so critical—asking them about what they read, and asking them to justify the answers that they’re giving to you.
Ms NEWLIN:
In the past, the emphasis was on procedural and fact fluency. And that’s still an important part of Common Core. But in addition, there’s a lot of emphasis on conceptual understanding.
Dr GATES:
In the past, when we actually looked at educating kids in the United States, it was done as kind of a patchwork fashion. So that means, for example, that a kid in Iowa might get a very different kind of education for a young person, say, in Maine, or here in Maryland.
Ms PIPKIN:
One of the current stresses of the English/language arts standards in the Common Core is really thinking about the integration of those skills. Not teaching reading for the sake of reading or writing for the sake of writing, but that integrated nature. So if you were to walk into a classroom, students would be looking at all kinds of different texts: reading, analyzing, having discussions, because listening and speaking is such an integrated part of the ELA standards.
Ms NEWLIN:
America was pretty much known for the “mile wide inch deep” method of curriculum instruction in mathematics, and that has changed to model more what high-performing countries are doing.
Ms DAVIS:
It’s really important that our kids collaborate with each other in the classroom. Teachers are going to be asking kids to collaborate at a higher level than they’ve ever been asked to do before.
Dr GATES:
It’s been needed only within the last 20 years, when the forces of globalization have really struck the American economy.
Ms PIPKIN:
Because the anchor standards exist, and those anchor standards are the same pre-K to 12, we all know that we’re reaching for the same target.
Ms DAVIS:
As we raise the bar for our kids and expect more out of them, they are going to rise to the occasion and be more successful.
Ms NEWLIN:
There’s no longer a track for your less high-performing students and a track for your high-performing students. The rigor is there for everyone.
Dr GATES:
We’ve got to change our educational system to meet the challenges.
Ms PIPKIN:
Look at what those standards are for the previous grade.
Ms DAVIS:
Regular times where your family reads.
Ms NEWLIN:
Be given the tools to be successful.
Dr GATES:
The American dream really needs this.
Ms PIPKIN:
In our classrooms every day.
Ms NEWLIN, Ms PIPKIN, and Dr GATES:
The Common Core.
LILLIAN LOWERY, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools:
The Common Core standards do not dictate curriculum. Rather, they provide benchmarks for success at each grade level in English/language arts and mathematics, to ensure that our students are college- and career-ready, prepared to succeed in their futures. These standards will help set them on that path. Teachers and schools will continue to create lesson plans and individualize their instruction for the needs of their students, keeping these benchmarks and these goals in mind. Thank you.
