New Curriculum Standards

I spent the day today at Savannah's school.  There are lots of interesting little tidbits.  Most relate to the reaction I get when I am sitting there signing with someone from the deaf department and they find out that I have a blind child.  Though I don't think I sign very well, I get the impression that I might sign better than I think....  but the looks on some of the faces is funny. 

During the day there was a introduction to state standards session for the parents.  8 years ago when I graduated from College with my teaching degree, The current thing was that the state had standards for what the teachers should all be teaching for each of the different grade levels.  Now I am finding out that just in that 8 year period, those standards were replaced not once but twice.  The current ideology is what is called the Common Core State Standards.  Huh?  I, a once certified teacher, now just flunked the introduction to state standards course....  oh boy.  (I took heart in the fact that everyone in the room flunked right along with me since it was a new program as of this year.)

Basically, under Obama, someone high in the education department made a decision that we as a country needed to improve test scores since we do not compete very well academically on the international level... so the Race for the Top was created.  Sound familiar?  Vaguely?  Yeah I didn't pay much attention to that either.  Anyways, one of the requirements for federal funding was to join in this Race for the Top competition at the state level.  (There are very few states with the education budget that can handle not jumping through the federal loops to get the money they need.)  To join in the competition the state must be willing to adopt a 'states created' national standard for education so that all students regardless of state of origin could move to a different state and still have the same general background of knowledge.  The belief is that if all students are all taught the same skills at the same grade level then the background thinking skills will be established for the future learning if the family unit were to relocate across state lines without leaving gaps in the students education.  In other words, if there is national standards, a student who moves from Colorado to Florida would learn all of the multiplication facts in, say, second grade because both states would have been required to teach multiplication at the same level thereby not requiring the student to either play catch up or learn to require a calculator from there on out in the school career.  (Not that I know from personal experience that this could have happened fifteen years ago....  This is just hypothetical.)  So then there would be no gaps in education of students, the tests can be created to cater to those ideas in the standards for all students nationwide and national test scores would rise...then Obama and his guru's would get some praise for raising test scores...

Under the Common Core Standards, the FCAT tests are being phased out too over the next few years, but for those who just can't wait to test the students each year for those wonderful scores that mathematicians love to dive into, do not fear they will only be replaced by another test.  This time it is an EOC test which is an End of Course test...  and after the first year or two, you take a test at the end of the year and you either pass the class or you don't based on the one test.  Could be good for the students though cause it requires cramming for only one year's information and not all four at one time... and those mathematicians get their numbers.

I am not usually a supporter of Obama, nor many of his policy makers, but I don't know where I stand on this particular policy.  I will have to get back to you on this...

But what about you?  You ever heard much about this and what is your opinion on a national standard of education?