GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

I’ll pass on this one. Anyone who’s spent a career teaching knows the book rooms of elementary schools are filled with shelves of discontinued reading programs that last a couple years before tens of thousands are spent on new ones. There have been four of five “new” math, “new new” math, etc initiatives, yet somehow through all these changes good schools do well and the “failing” (sic) schools don’t no matter what the current fashion is. Sorry for feeling jaundiced that Common Core won’t make a dent, although their use of the words “authentic” and “rigor” is less than two dozen so I guess that’s a start. I did notice that Teaching Matters raised $15 million in “private” money so I guess the Wall St. crowd is on board too. Seems book and PD companies do well on all this, which is ok in planning my post-retirement job prospects. Too cynical perhaps? Not really. I could be wrong, but I do have hope that someday America will wake up to the critical importance of universal quality Pre-K, where it all starts. Just hope it doesn’t take too long. 

some good points. Much of what I’ve learned comes from other teachers for sure and I always make sure to return it by helping other or beginning teachers in any way I can. My take on this post was from a policy angle and my very deep concern that kids are getting shafted by national, state, and city neglect of pre-K initiatives where long established research shows real gains are made, not from curriculum revisions.  No reason to get personal about it. I am still learning, welcome the feedback, enjoy teaching, and kids like me too, so not planning on going anywhere just yet. Enjoy the conference.

Thanks for the apology. I suppose I can have a sharp tongue when I argue for what I think is right for kids; its very personally painful to see young lives wasted. To be fair about it, I have probably nothing against CC per se. As I understand it, reading more non-fiction for kids is probably good, at least for males, since I suspect there is a gender gap interest issue here. As a guy I read probably 50-100 bks a year, all but 1 or 2 non-fiction. It wasn’t until college and could dump all that fiction, that I really became an avid reader once I discovered how many interesting books there really were. Also, relating subjects to real life has always been good teaching practice when its possible. I am suspicious however, that in a hostile teacher environment from administrators-reformers that this is just going to be used as another “gotcha” gimmick. In any case, I still believe effective reform is going to come from some other places, pre-K, class size, etc, that is being stalled-ignored by the same folks who happen to back CC.

Are you having a math one any time soon?