New standards adopted by Board of Education
By Tania Cervantes
The Guardsman
By a vote of 9-0, California’s Board of Education approved the adoption of national common core standards Aug. 2 in an attempt to win a federal grant for education.
The adoption of these standards, which are lower than California’s, would give the state more points in the application for a Race to the Top federal grant, an Obama Administration backed program that is part of the Recovery Act and holds an investment of $4.5 billion for education in the US.
According to a press release by the Department of Education, the Race to the Top criteria requires states to document their past successes and outline their plans to extend their educational reforms; build a workforce of highly effective educators; create educational data systems to support student achievement and turn around their lowest-performing schools.
“I am very suspicious of lowering the standards,” said Gus Goldstein, President for the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121.
“But it all depends on what you are getting funded to do. To prepare students to pass tests is a questionable enterprise in itself. If you’re funded to give better education with our students, getting prepared for college and then lowering standards does not mean lowering the quality of education our students should get.”
News website Education Week showed in its 2009 California State Highlights Report, the state is ranked 47th in the nation for amount of dollars spent per pupil, and 37th on overall spending for K-12 education from state taxable resources.
“It almost doesn’t matter what standards you adopt if you don’t adequately fund education,” Goldstein said.
Currently California’s standards have been noted as some of the best and most rigorous in the country, yet 8th graders rank below national average in proficient reading, according to Education Week.
Among the 35 state applicants for the second round of grants, California is a finalist. The first round contained 41 applicants, with Delaware winning over $100 million and Tennessee $500 million to implement their education reform plans over the next four years.
“My take is that teachers need to be able to feel passion for their students and the material they are teaching. If the standards are a barrier to either of these passions, then they are bad standards.” said Dave Keller, a Piedmont high School social studies teacher.
“The National Standards are not as detailed as California’s — adopting them may seem as a dumb-down of California’s – but I think as far as skills are concerned, they are not. When it comes to content, there are no specific requirements only guidelines for choosing the right content.”
Keller mentioned that the national standards do not require English teachers to teach Huck Finn, but they do say teachers have to choose a book as complex and as well written. This gives teachers, schools and districts a lot of responsibility to choose the right content, but it also gives them the freedom to teach what they and their students are passionate about.
According to the Common Core State Standards Initiative website, “while the standards focus on what is most essential, they do not describe all that can or should be taught. A great deal is left to the discretion of teachers and curriculum developers.
The aim of the Standards is to articulate the fundamentals, not to set out an exhaustive list or a set of restrictions that limits what can be taught beyond what is specified herein.”
The new standards are expected to be in place by the 2013-14 school year.