Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Common Core ELA are a Subset of Comparable High Quality Standards

Ed Week:
The common-core standards in English/language arts and mathematics are generally aligned to the leading state standards, international standards, and university standards at the high-school-exit level, but are more rigorous in some content areas, says a report released Wednesday.
Zeev Wurman in comments:
This report purports to validate the rigor and suitability of the Common Core standards for college readiness. It concludes that the Common Core is "generally aligned to the leading state standards, international standards, and university standards at the high-school-exit level, but are more rigorous in some content areas."

Nothing can be farther from the truth. This report takes the Common Core and checks if a match is found with some standard in the compared set. That only indicates whether what is in the Common Core exists in the comparison set. It DOES NOT say anything about whether everything in the comparison set is found in the Common Core. The report is quite clear about it (p. 5):

"the comparison standard had to match the full Common Core standard. This meant that a broader comparison standard could be matched to a more narrow Common Core standard."

And, indeed, the report "matches" a beginning Common Core algebra standard 3.6c (pre-algebra, really) "Recognize situations in which one quantity changes at a constant rate per unit interval relative to another" with California CALCULUS standard 158 "Students demonstrate an understanding of the formal definition of the derivative of a function at a point and the notion of differentiability." Similarly, an elementary understanding of an approximation of statistical data with a line (Common Core 5.3a) "Interpret the slope (rate of change) and the intercept (constant term) of a linear model in the context of the data" is matched with a calculus standard (160) "Students demonstrate an understanding of the interpretation of the derivative as an instantaneous rate of change. Students can use derivatives to solve a variety of problems from physics, chemistry, economics, and so forth that involve the rate of change of a function." Boggles the mind.

Or, in ELA:

CC 9. Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.

Aligns to:

  • IB 2. Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the thought and feeling expressed in the works studied.
  • IB 3. Compare the techniques and styles used by authors to convey their subjects by looking at a range of works from different periods, genres, styles, and cultural contexts.
  • IB 15. Understand and appreciate literary works as products of historical, political, economic, and cultural factors.
  • IB 37. Understand the relationships among disciplines of human study.
  • IB 40. 6. Develop an awareness of personal and ideological assumptions based on parental influences, religious persuasions, and political leanings.

Unless I'm reading the crazy tables wrong (also they've fiddled with the id numbers in both sets of standards).

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