The Common Core Standards that are being rolled out in the
states over the next year are receiving a lot of attention these days. The New
York State Superintendent cancelled a series of town hall-style forums after
the strongly antagonistic response he received at the first meeting.
Other states have experienced popular protest against the implementation of the
Common Core standards, too: North
Carolina, Illinois, Florida, Wisconsin, Washington, Michigan, and more have
“Stop Common Core” organizations that are making noise in their respective
state legislatures.
I have tended to avoid issues of education policy because of
my strange position as both a public school teacher and a Baptist pastor. I am
privileged to teach in the second-highest-rated district in the state of
Mississippi. There are inherent conflicts of interest (and obvious risks) in
speaking out about policies and legislation that affect public schools. However,
The Baptist Record, the official newspaper
of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, has published an article that has driven
me over the edge.
Mr. Rob Chambers wrote a major piece for the
Record on September 26
th.
Mr. Chambers is cited as a “consultant for the Mississippi Baptist Christian
Action Commission.” Mr. Chambers is not a public school teacher or
administrator, but his M.Div. from Southern Seminary gives him some clout on
the ethics of the Common Core Standards.
I object, though, to Mr. Chambers’ analysis, conclusions,
and rhetoric.
First, a note about the Common Core Standards. Common Core
is not a plot by the Obama administration to take over state public education.
Yes, Common Core is a product of a hybrid public/private initiative that had as
its goal the elevation of our performance in education across the nation.
However, this partnership is not a sinister cabal bent on taking away local
freedom or authority when it comes to curriculum or instruction. The Common
Core Standards are an attempt to set specific, meaningful goals for states (and
therefore for districts) in mathematics and English skills. THERE ARE NO
SPECIFIC CURRICULA INCLUDED IN THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS. What IS included is a
list of objectives that look very similar to what we’re already teaching.
However, Common Core has at its heart a motivation to make relevant connections
between academic disciplines and to relate those disciplines to real-world
experiences that will propel our students toward success in college and career.
The Common Core Standards do not tell teachers what to
teach, nor do they provide some nation-wide standardized test for students to
take (you know, like the ACT or SAT that we already use as the be-all and
end-all nationwide standardized tests). Further, even though I agree with Mr.
Chambers’ objection to Toni Morrison’s book The
Bluest Eye being “recommended” by the Common Core English Standards, it
must be pointed out that NO ONE is mandating the teaching of that or any other
specific work in your child’s classroom. What is covered in a specific
classroom is still up to the teacher, their department, their school, their
district, and their state department of education. We must keep in mind that
even with Common Core Standards being implemented perfectly and wholly, it’s
still up to teachers to chose, execute, evaluate, and revise lessons.
Secondly, Mr. Chambers is emphasizing scientific language in
an inappropriate way in making judgments about the Common Core Standards. In
reference to a statement by Dr. Lynn House of the Mississippi Department of
Education Mr. Chambers says, “This statement is a “statement of hypothesis.”
Notice the phrase, “will do” and “will ensure.” Since these standards have
never been tested, a casual reading of this would lead one to believe this
statement is a tested, proven and factual statement. It is not.”
What Mr. Chambers is objecting to is the language of certainty in Dr. House’s
description of Mississippi’s Common Core standards: “That’s exactly what Common
Core State Standards Will do…They will ensure that Mississippi’s children are
equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to thrive…”
Dr. House is not declaring that she or anyone else has discovered the formula
to make great students or citizens. Instead, Dr. House is stating what is
perfectly in line with natural reason: if we achieve certain universal goals
through our educational practice then we will have formed students into people
ready for the next step, whether that is college or career.
Mr. Chambers seems to rely on the “scientific method” too
much in his analysis. He says, “The primary problem is that the standards
actually represent a hypothesis only. This means these standards have not been
tested, there is no empirical data, and the outcome of the standards is at best
an educated guess. Furthermore, in keeping with the “scientific method” that
requires the testing of the hypothesis, there have been none in any US public
school. Therefore, the standards is not a scientific theory, and there is no
valid basis for any claim that these standards will work. Pure reason dictates
otherwise. Neither are the standards scientifically valid because the standards
have not been proven to be just as effective in one state as they are in
another. The one shoe fits all approach will not work.”
He is exactly right in saying that the Standards are not a
scientific theory that is testable in a lab. Education policy is in a different
category than scientific theory and testability. We cannot treat the goals of
education as hypotheses to be tested. Instead, education policymakers examine
the culture around them, assess the needs of students, compare those needs with
the philosophical goals of education, and finally act in accordance with that
complicated mixture of information.
The Common Core Standards are attempting to break the
“assembly line” mentality that Mr. Chambers himself reflects in his analysis.
Common Core aims to unify knowledge and demonstrate that the things we teach
are not isolated, context-less units of useless knowledge. Rather, what we teach
is essential for the pedagogical goal of helping shape young people into
full-realized adults who are knowledgeable and (more importantly) capable in
society. Mr. Chambers sounds like so many on the periphery of education that do
not understand the complicated work of reacting to the needs of students as
well as the demands of society.
Dr.
House probably complicated the issue by using a metaphor (raising the bar on a
high jump) to illustrate the intended outcomes of the Common Core Standards.
Mr. Chambers needs to move beyond the metaphor and actually show what Common
Core is: a set of un-scientific yet highly relevant guidelines to begin moving
our schools toward excellence.
Further complicating the issue is the Christian perspective
to education, specifically, that education should be about humanizing the
students as much as it is about helping them understand God’s creation and
their role in it. The Common Core Standards are certainly not designed with a
specifically Christian perspective, but they do encourage outcomes that a
Christian educator should be able to support, that is, that the idea that there
is a universality to truth, and that all things “fit together.”
I wish that Mr. Chambers had used his article to demonstrate
a Christian analysis of the Common Core Standards; it was an article in The Baptist Record, after all. There is certainly a Christian perspective on
the issue, and there is even more specifically a Baptist perspective on the
Standards’ implementation. Instead, Mr. Chambers laments the secular political
process and resorts to scare tactics intended to stir up the “parents and
grandparents” of the children who will be affected by the new Common Core
Standards.
Finally, to Mississippi. Common Core is not the great savior of public
education in our state, but it is also not the great doom of our schools
either. As one recently retired Mississippi teacher told me, “there will be
something new in five years, just watch.” I am neither excited that Common Core
is being implemented in Mississippi, nor am I frightened that it’s coming. I
will be required to learn a new way to show that I am teaching up to the
standards that Mississippi requires, and I will teach every student the
mathematics they need to understand the world as I have done every year.
Mississippi has an awful record when it comes to public
education when compared to the rest of the nation. We are 48
th in
major metrics (the ones that are scientifically demonstrable).
There is no plausible spin on the rankings that makes our public education
system look good as a state. The Common
Core Standards are an attempt to address our poor performance. Common Core is
not a set of lessons plans dropped out of the sky; it is an attempt to bring
Mississippi education into the better-performing landscape of American Public
Education.
Race is certainly an issue in Mississippi public education,
but Mr. Chambers is suggesting that the MDE’s plan to help lower-performing
race-based subgroups reach the level of the highest subgroup is cause to throw
out Common Core Standards. Again, at no point will the Common Core Standards,
let alone the MDE Annual Measurement Objective determine what is in a teacher’s
lesson plan. The MDE tries to make statistical measurements to predict testing
outcomes for reasons far beyond the actual teaching events in classrooms across
the state. Students of every race are taught the same lessons plans and given
the same assessments. If racially motivated instruction or grading is
occurring, then the school or district should correct it. Do not blame Common
Core for the something completely unrelated to it.
To conclude, Mr. Chambers achieved little more than to
frighten the readership of
The Baptist
Record. He concludes by suggesting that the Mississippi legislature delay
implementation of the Common Core Standards and that the Standards represent a
violation of the 10
th Amendment. This is pure folly. The States have
entered into an agreement with the Federal Government who, in turn, had entered
into an agreement with private organizations and businesses to develop the
Common Core Standards. Besides, we weren’t doing all that well on our own. He
also comments that, “A starting point could be that government officials work
together in delaying further implementation of the standards and related
components. Then, work together in full disclosure with the citizens and
develop a solution that is just, fair and equitable.”
The development of the Common Core Standards have not been a hidden, secretive
thing; they have been in process for years and only now that they’re about to
be implemented are people being encouraged to participate in the political
process of their development and launch.
Mr. Chambers means well, I’m sure, but his article produces
more heat than light, I fear. Stirring up Mississippi Baptists over issues they
shouldn’t be afraid of is shameful. There is no sinister plot to take over
Mississippi education. What should concern Baptists in Mississippi is that it
takes quality teachers (that is, men and women who seek the humanization of
their students based on the fact that their students are made in the image of
God) to make quality schools. No standards or curricula can make up for what
faithful men and women can do in the classrooms. That is what should concern
Mr. Chambers: the ethics of being a teacher in a poorly educated state.
Let’s not get too excited about Common Core in Mississippi.
The good news is that our test scores from the 2012-2013 school year will be
frozen for three years while the Common Core Framework is set up, tested, and
revised. We don’t have to begin a grassroots political campaign to repeal Obamacare
Common Core. We don’t need to take an absolutist position; we need to
understand that the power to teach is still in the hands of the teachers and
that Common Core Standards put into words and goals those things that we, as
teachers, have wanted all along - student success.
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