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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW SOU's Academia Latina program helps incoming high schoolers learning to lead ... Ashland Calendar, Saturday, Aug. 8 ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: Affirmative actions ... SOU's Academia Latina program helps incoming high schoolers learning to lead ... Ashland Calendar, Saturday, Aug. 8 ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: Affirmative actions ... COMMENTARY Chris Honoré: Romancing the Common Core and testing, Part 1 Comment By Chris Honoré DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré Posted Jun. 22, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Chris Honoré Posted Jun. 22, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News For some time I’ve read brief accounts about the adoption nationwide of Common Core standards in education. The name and apparent intent, at first glance, seem to make sense: As a nation, let’s agree on what K-12 students will need to know as they step into the competitive and rapidly changing global world of the 21st century. In researching Common Core, I came across the following: It is a set of “rigorous national standards (that) will transform American education, prepare students for college and careers and maintain international competitiveness.” As a basis for a national debate on curriculum, teaching and methodology, such a mission statement can seem a solid platform — until you look more closely. While we may all agree in the most general way on the premises of these goals, how each teacher gets there involves a profoundly complex number of variables. There is, in fact, no singular template. It’s hard for those outside the tent to fully comprehend that schools are not factories and what classrooms produce are not widgets; rather, the youngsters who arrive each day do so with a host of personal and developmental issues. It is the most heterogeneous population imaginable, and it’s why great teaching is an art, which — as fuzzy as this sounds — involves magic. Forty-six states have adopted the Common Core English/math standards. Fine. But here’s the rub. While you can speak of “rigorous” standards for all, this does not mean that each school and each teacher can execute such a plan according to one-size-fits all expectations. Education, by its very definition, does not work that way, and to pretend that it does is to willfully ignore what a classroom is truly like. There is nothing standard about a group of students or their connection to their teacher. Compounding this fallacy, standardized tests are imposed, intended to measure if students are meeting the requisite benchmarks year after year. Keep in mind that the federal No Child Left Behind law, requires that more than 95 percent of all school children be tested yearly, in reading and math, beginning in grades three through eight, plus grade 11, if the schools are to receive federal education dollars. Naturally, since 46 states have bought into the Common Core, to include Race to the Top funding, they will adopt those high-stakes, high-stress standardized tests. Now go one step further. Decide, as many states have, to link teacher evaluation to the results of those tests. In New York, for example, standardized test results will make up 50 percent of teacher assessment, reflecting a complete misunderstanding of what it means to teach. And then consider this: According to the Southern Education Foundation, for the first time in 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in the 2012-2013 school year come from low-income families. There has been an explosion of the number of children who come to school each day from homes at or below the poverty line, a reality that has been expanding even as the economy improves. It’s called income inequality. A majority of students lack the opportunities of their more privileged peers. Academically, many never catch up. Instead they struggle and endure, too often alone and lost. For many teachers these are the kids gathered before them. Their needs are great, transcending any curriculum outline provided by the feds/state/district. The job description for these teachers includes being a parent, nurse, counselor and instructor. They buy them pencils, notebooks, erasers. They tie their shoes, bring them extra socks, brush their hair and place a caring hand on a small shoulder. Imagine curriculum planners knowing that so many of our children arrive at school hungry, poorly cared for, uncertain, even fearful. And then imagine justifying that these same kids must take a yearly test that will rigorously measure the efficacy of the Common Core. The scores from those tests will be compared with those of other schools and other states while righteously buttressing the rubric of student/teacher accountability. If we felt a true sense of accountability, we would embrace these kids first and then figure out how to most effectively teach them, all of them, not just test them. Chris Honoré lives in Ashland. By Chris Honoré DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré Posted Jun. 22, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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