In one high school algebra classroom in Highland Park, Ill., students could be heard arguing about which way an inequality sign should point, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Such a crescendo would not have been heard last year, before the Common Core was being implemented, according to the energetic math teacher at the front of the room, Robin Gapinski, who would soon take control of the discussion again.
“What an amazing thing for kids to know exactly what they’re supposed to be learning,” the paper quoted Marcie Faust, a sixth-grade English teacher at a middle school in nearby Deerfield, as saying. “It was never like that before.”
According to the Tribune, material that teachers would have presented in a lecture before the Common Core is now part of fact-based argument and deep conceptual understanding among students, thanks to the Common Core. “In this approach, process is paramount,” wrote reporter Gregory Trotter. “It’s no longer enough to know the right answer, educators say. A student has to be able to prove how they know … something to be true.”
But even though the Common Core State Standards in math and English language arts have shifted the focus away from lecturing and toward student discussion—and debate, in some cases—most educators realize the standards themselves didn’t really play that crucial a role. After all, states have always had standards of learning.
“I do honestly believe these are a better set of standards,” the Tribune quoted Jeff Zoul, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for Deerfield Public Schools District 109, as saying. “But I don’t think any of us who have dedicated our lives to this calling go home jazzed about standards. It’s about instruction.”
The standards are just the beginning
As I have written many times (see here and here, e.g.), standards are where teachers begin, not where they stop. The instruction, I would believe, Mr Zoul is referring to in this article takes the standards in the Common Core for what they are and goes from there. That is, teachers start with the standards and push their students much higher, extending their reach in the classroom far beyond the minimum standards.
In high school math, for instance, the standards really only go up through algebra I, algebra II, and geometry. If students want to get into a good college, they had better take more than that, which means schools had better offer instruction in more advanced math classes.
The standards do impose limits or restrictions on statewide testing. Any question on any test that purports to align with the Common Core can’t exceed the standards in the Common Core for the specific grade level being tested. But teachers in their classrooms, they’re supposed to exceed the standards with their students, challenging them to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts.
