Contact your reps on Common Core

[SlugSlinger]

The standardized tests are the best thing to happen in our system. We have been waaaay behind most other states tests in the US. I tell my kids all the time tests are upmost importance-anyone that has college education knows the value.
Also
These test expose the weak districts and as well as all the way down to the weak subjects and weak instructors in particular schools. It is what we need.

So the districts that teach kids how to take and pass a test as a focus on education are better than the districts who have a broader focus in things like science and history, that are not on the test?

People can excel at taking test and still be dumb.

 

[Poke78]

The standardized tests are the best thing to happen in our system. We have been waaaay behind most other states tests in the US. I tell my kids all the time tests are upmost importance-anyone that has college education knows the value.
Also
These test expose the weak districts and as well as all the way down to the weak subjects and weak instructors in particular schools. It is what we need.

Trying to inspect quality into a process after the fact, i.e. testing, is contrary to real performance improvement which has a proactive, rather than reactive, approach.

 

[farmerbyron]

lets repeal it so other countries will get further ahead in education and we can have more uneducated welfare recipients.
my son is in 4th grade and doing 6th grade subjects and getting straight A's. it requires parental involvement which young parents don't want to do.
(takes away their pot smoking & drinking time)

All we are going to accomplish is leaving more kids behind. I'm sure that will really leave us behind other countries. That kind of leads into another point. I call BS on the US being behind the rest of the world in education. The immigration problem in the US says volumes about how horribly we are doing.

My son is doing well as he is very bright but not all kids are so naturally bright and/or have involved parents. So you want to solve the dropout problem and kids doing poorly by pushing all kids into advanced courses despite their abilities? Or not having modified tests for learning disabled student? It's a pretty stupid theory. We are going to have more kids running around without HS diplomas. Does that sound like a good idea to anyone?

Not to mention the curriculum. I can't wait to see how they try to teach about the constitution and second amendment. I urge you to reconsider your position. I want what's best for our kids but common core is not it. It will move them backwards.

 

[farmerbyron]

People can excel at taking test and still be dumb.

+1

There are plenty of morons with college degrees and geniuses without them. Not to discount the value of a college education but it is not a measure of intelligence.

 

[farmerbyron]

The standardized tests are the best thing to happen in our system. We have been waaaay behind most other states tests in the US. I tell my kids all the time tests are upmost importance-anyone that has college education knows the value.
Also
These test expose the weak districts and as well as all the way down to the weak subjects and weak instructors in particular schools. It is what we need.

The weak districts don't need exposing. Everyone already knows which schools suffer the most. Inner city schools with a limited tax base and an uninvolved family unit. With the biggest factor being the family unit. All the tests and reforms in the world will not make a damn bit of difference if the kid and family don't care about their education.

 

[CBCollier]

Here, I googled it for you: https://www.google.com/search?q=soc...-US:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7

Many articles on that aspect of homeschooling and the myths surrounding it, your last sentence being among them. I've seen comments on the web from some that if a homeschool parent thinks their child is missing something from the public school experience, they could always go smoke in the bathroom while the kid is in there, "pants" him, steal his lunch money, and give him a "swirly" to ensure he has the full experience.

I'm of two minds about homeschool (HS hereafter) since my kids went to a "good" public school system, the same one from K-12, the youngest graduating in 2004. Generally a good experience but could have been better. Now those kids have one child each and I'm more concerned about schools than ever before. I'm less certain there are "good" public school systems and the impacts of the broader society within the schools concerns me, along with this Common Core train-wreck.

OTOH, I have been able to personally observe some HS kids in general settings and it's easy to pick them out of a group of peers. One was in my son's Boy Scout troop where I was the Scoutmaster. The HS boy did not easily mix with the others on group activities and had difficulty in leadership roles, especially in communication as he had an uncorrected lisp that would have been addressed in PS (wife was a PS speech pathologist for nearly 30 years.)

Another HS boy I've observed is the son of a colleague and has some other challenges that made a regular classroom nearly impossible for all. The choice to HS was to give him the structure and intensive management he needed that PS could not deliver. It's made a significant difference for him and he still gets to socialize through church activities where he's more easily accepted than in a competitive school setting.

Don't get me wrong. I think my son's experience has been good so far in public school. I have known children that where taught at home, and while I think they where just as intelligent as the next child, it just seemed that they lacked the ability to interact with peers and adults. Now, this was a very limited sample size, and could have been just an issue with these children. But, it stands to reason if you interact with people your own age and have to answer to an authority figure that is not your parents, you at least have been exposed to the same basic system that is used for most places of employment. Which we all know is what we spend the majority of our life doing.

 

[turkeyrun]

Teaching the test is NOT teaching.

The school systems have been on the way down for a long time. Back in the mid '60's when the 'system' got away from teaching the basics. Reading, writing and phonics was changed to sight and memory, as was taught to deaf children. Because deaf children learned this way, it would be the best for all and STANDARDIZATION must be better, as testing on a level field would point out low achieving schools / teachers and PROVE these were lower achieving because the testing was standardized. Remember all those 'achievement tests'? We would 'race' to see who could fill in the circles fastest and never read the question.

I was taught phonics, my wife, my brother and my sister were not. Their spelling skills are awful, they read much less than I do and their math skills are lower. They know and admit this, not my assessment. Look at some of the posts on this forum and the use / misuse of the language. ie. their vs. there vs. they're. A typo is one thing and I overlook, because my own typing is so much slower than what I am trying to put into the typed statement, but basic misuse of the language just makes me shake my head. Regardless of 'grammar police' statements, this is just a lack of basic education. I see the same things happening with my grandkids under Common Core and the dumbing down of America.

Common Core needs to eliminated NOW. The school systems need to return to TEACHING as was done pre-1960.

 

[turkeyrun]

SCHOOL -- 1957 vs. 2007

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - B ATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates pare nts , siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

 

[turkeyrun]

How many here could pass this test and have graduated the 8th grade? I had always heard how my Great-Granddad had 'ONLY' graduated the 8th grade and then we found this. WOW! Would love to give this to some college professors to take and see how they could do and tie the results to their salaries or keeping their jobs.



1895 8th grade final exam

Take this test and pass it on to your more literate friends...
What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895...

Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education?


Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA .
It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley
Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.



8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895

Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run.'
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the


practical use of the rules of grammar.



Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000.. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven


months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6..00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt





U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour) [Do we even know what this is??]
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball,


mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)
1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4.. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez,


Aspinwall and Orinoco
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each..
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.



Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.
Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?!

NO, I don't have the answers!

 

[farmerbyron]

Turkey, if you strongly believe in the repeal of common core, contact your legislators. Bitching here won't do nearly as much good as bitching to your representation. Let them know that you and many like you are watching the issue closely and will take note of how they vote.