Major Issues With the Common Core State Standards

by Ken Scherpelz, VP, Sales and Business Development


In trying to explain the ins and outs of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Grades K through 12, it’s just as important to explain what the standards are not as it is to explain what they actually are. Executive Director Jay Diskey of the American Association of Publishers (AAP) PreK–12 Learning Group did just that in a web presentation to educational publishers on September 9.

In a nutshell:

• The CCSS, finalized in June 2010, is a state-led initiative developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA) Center.
• The standards were designed to identify the knowledge and skill set that every K–12 student should possess in math and English, and to increase the rigor over that of most current state standards.
• Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have initially adopted the standards.
• The federal government provided funding to develop tests as well as to provide incentives for states to adopt the standards.

Unfortunately, several recent public polls, including those conducted by Phi Delta Kappa International/Gallup and Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, discovered a lack of understanding among many Americans.

The results found

•  a lack of knowledge and support for both CCSS and corresponding assessments.
•  fewer than one-half of Americans with children in public schools had heard of CCSS.
•  a majority of respondents said the standards will make the United States less competitive or have no effect.

Some information about the standards that has been circulating is simply inaccurate. Among the misinformation:

•  The CCSS Initiative is an attempt to federalize education.
•  The federal government is mandating that all states adopt the standards.
•  The federal government will use the standards and assessments to collect personal data on students.

Strong opposition to the standards is growing from groups that span the political spectrum, such that 14 states have introduced legislation to delay adoption or to prohibit that state’s board of education from adopting the standards. Some groups oppose the standards because they feel that implementing the CCSS will result in more testing, even though many states are planning to replace current state-specific standardized tests with CCSS-focused tests. Budget-strapped districts have also complained of the costs required to train school staff and to replace current standardized tests.

It was clear that many attendees of the presentation were concerned about the need for initiatives to educate the public about the standards in order to facilitate their acceptance. The AAP is currently discussing what its role needs to be in supporting the standards and responding to critics and misinformation, but nothing official is forthcoming. And what about the NGA and CCSSO, the original developers of the CCSS? Well, it seems that in our hyper-political climate, the governors, 36 of whom are up for reelection in the 2016 midterm elections, are reluctant to take a strong stand supporting the standards for what appear to be obvious reasons.

Many districts have been purchasing and using curricula that address the new standards in an effort to have the standards fully implemented by the 2014–2015 school year. But the path to overall acceptance, adoption and implementation is still rocky and rife with obstacles.

Did You Know?
To assess students using the CCSS, there are two options for states to choose from: the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), is a consortium of 18 different states plus the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), is made up of a state-led consortium that is developing assessments. These organizations were started to help states implement the CCSS into their core curricula. To simplify, CCSS identifies the standards that each curriculum should align to, while PARCC and SBAC help the states form tests that align to these required standards. So what’s the major difference between the two options? SBAC offers the adaptive computer component, meaning that as a student is tested, the level of questions increases in difficulty depending on the previous response. PARCC, however, uses streamlined questions, called fix-formed delivery, that have predetermined difficulty levels. For a more in-depth look at the options that each state faces, the Educational Testing Service developed a white paper with the facts. School Leadership 20 lists out the comparisons on its website as well. (DYK by Emeli Warren)

Field Trips: Rediscover Your City

by Emeli Warren, Sales & Marketing Coordinator

Google wants you to find your inner child. The best way to do that? Go on a field trip, even in the city where you interact every day. In light of the thrifty economy, where many schools can no longer afford to take full classes on field trips and workers don’t have much of an expendable income, Google has stepped up with an app that reviewers are saying makes field trips “uber affordable.”

The app Field Trip, released over the summer, helps its users locate thousands of interesting places for the inquiring mind—and many are free. The app acts as an automated guide, meaning that it alerts you when you’re close to a location, offering you interesting facts and usable information in relation to that point of interest. Plus it’s customizable.

There are three modes of notifications: “Feeling Lucky,” “Explore,” and “Off.” Each is based on how many alerts you want to receive: The first sends sporadic messages, limited to specified interests; The second pushes more information for those open to any and all curiosities; And the third disables notifications completely for a more self-service experience.

Not only does Field Trip teach its users about their surroundings, but it also sends discounts to their phones based on their locations. This is an opt-out feature that the app provides, just in case users are purely in for the experience and don’t want to spend any money. If this is the case, a user can subscribe to notifications in other categories, such as  “Architecture,” “Cool & Unique,”  or “Historic Places & Events” rather than “Offers & Deals” or “Food, Drinks & Fun.”

This “consistent stream of information” that Google provides through the app was created in conjunction with recently purchased Zagat, Eater, Inhabitat and The Daily Secret. Zagat, perhaps the most well-known of these resources, is a publication specializing in restaurant lists and reviews based on consumer recommendations. Eater, a source for frequent diners and drinkers, offers updates on food-related items such as celebrity chefs and dining trends. Inhabitat is a weblog dedicated to clean and efficient design that tracks innovation in technology and architecture. The Daily Secret, on the other hand, is an email newsletter-based venture that provides insight into a subscriber’s city, covering restaurants, nightlife, sightseeing and anything in between—but with a focus on hidden gems and coveted locale.

All these forces combined into one app is worth a download, even if it is just intended for the occasional use. With the growing popularity of “staycations,” Field Trip can help you reconnect with the city you’re already familiar with or help you discover new adventures not far from your front door—and with the beginning of a new school year, we could all use a little adventure.

Did You Know?
If the Field Trip app doesn’t fulfill your curiosity needs, there are several apps that may. These don’t automatically update you with need-to-know facts, but they do make it easy to look for food you’re in the mood for, shows you’ve been dying to see and hidden bars with expertly-made drinks. Whether you favor iOS or Droid, there is something for everyone waiting on the other end of a download. Sosh, currently limited to New York and San Francisco, is working to curate search options for Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle and Chicago. Places of interest can be bookmarked if your search brings up an interesting place you’re not quite ready to try. Scout takes these search engines even further with the ability to locate hostels, hotels and vacation homes, in addition to activities in your area.  UrbanDaddy makes the search itself more fun: After it renders the time and location for you (which can be changed manually), you move to selecting options ranging from “Dancing” to “Snacks” to “I’m Game for Anything.” Tell the app who you’re with: “Friends,” “Boss,” “Parents” or even “nobody in particular.” This renders an “And…?” category where you can finish with “and that’s all I need,” or you can push it further with more customization choosing from categories specifying types of food, the reason for the outing, if you want a celebrity chef to be cooking, or even the type of person you’re with (foodie, from out of town, etc.). Click submit and you’re given a long list of options with a map of locations. All you have to do is go.  

Searching for a Good Read

by Chelsea Cooper, Intern Summer 2013

In March, Amazon announced it was expanding its business by acquiring Goodreads, a website that allows readers to discover new books and provide commentaries on books either already on shelves or soon to be publicly available. This expansion will surely draw more readers to Amazon; however, Goodreads originally helped not only readers, but a variety of booksellers as well. In a recent Publisher’s Weekly article, reporter Judith Rosen discusses how some booksellers used Goodreads to find bloggers’ and early readers’ reactions to advance copies of books before selling them in their stores. Becky Anderson, co-owner of Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Illinois, states that she used Goodreads “to make blurbs, shelftalkers, and to submit for IndieNext.” Rosen writes that due to this expansion, some booksellers are seeking other independent platforms to replace Goodreads, especially since Amazon is one of their competitors.

One possible replacement Rosen mentions is Riffle, which just launched in May. The site provides a Pinterest-style, mobile-friendly setup, by focusing on individual posts that can be shared with a bigger network. The creators based their site on successful sites and apps in order to learn how to manage massive traffic. Bookish is another potential solution for booksellers. CEO Ardy Khazaei describes the platform as giving “people the insight of publishers large and small around their books.” Despite it still being in the early stages of certain functions, Khazaei also wants Bookish to integrate more with IndieBound—a site dedicated to directing consumers to their nearest independent bookstore for their book purchases—to promote indies.

Some people may prefer Zola, an up-and-coming site that, in addition to allowing its customers to socialize, will provide book news and offer features including digital book sales and, eventually, audio. Joe Regal, president of Zola, says “we’re kind of Amazon meets Goodreads [prior to the acquisition] and more.” Although it is only in its beta stage as of this summer, the site already has 137 booksellers ready for the launch. Beyond US options, there is BookLikes, a Polish-based platform that has Tumblr similarities in function and design. CEO Dawid Piaskowski believes BookLikes is more personal than Goodreads because users can create a virtual bookshelf, update reading timelines, post blogs and even get 100 percent commission from sales through their chosen bookstore. Also, with new updates, BookLikes will become even more personalized by syncing with Facebook and other reading apps.

Even though Amazon has acquired Goodreads to help compete with other booksellers and incorporate other components for its users, competing booksellers and other consumers have additional options for social media reading experiences. These alternatives will still have to compete with Goodreads but also with each other in gaining customers. Many customers may remain loyal both to the site and to Amazon, while others, namely competing bookstores or consumers looking for a differently formatted site, will recognize options they may not have realized existed. Now, the hardest decision for these customers will be which platforms to use.

Interested in more about Goodreads? Check out our previous blog on the topic, “Authors Join Goodreads” by Emeli Warren!

Did You Know?

Even though Amazon purchased Goodreads back in March, it seems the company is still working to fulfill their initial intended purpose for the buyout. Aside from wanting to use Goodreads to sell more books, the social media platform hasn’t been incorporated into their Kindle functionality. However, Goodreads now offers an additional option—Kindle Lending on Goodreads—and it has three basic requirements to join the group and partake in the shared titles:

1. You must create a “shelf” that is dedicated solely to books you are willing to share. 
2. You must have books on the shelf. (This prevents people from joining the group and purely borrowing books, rather than also sharing them.) 
3. You have to live in the United States. 

For those comparing it to Amazon Prime’s Kindle Lending Library, this group is not only free to join, but borrowing isn’t limited to one select list title per month, something Kindle readers may consider a deal breaker if thinking about Prime’s year-long membership. However, Prime users can borrow select books from public libraries for library-implemented time increments, or even loan books to fellow Kindle users for up to 14 days. (DYK by Emeli Warren)

Pay for an Education, or Get Paid for One?

by Hayley Gundlach, Intern Summer 2013

Every year, 20 college educations are put on hold for two years. This group of young adults—many under the age of 20 years old—are among the brightest, most creative and most motivated people in the world. They are all recipients of the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship.

Peter Thiel, a co-founder and former CEO of PayPal and the first investor of Facebook, encourages young entrepreneurs to go after their goals. He supports start-up companies around the country and has recently established the Thiel Fellowship. The fellowship is based on the idea that college is not always the best way to gain an education and that a degree does not guarantee success. Thiel announces the 20 fellows in May of every year. This year’s fellows will be the third group awarded the fellowship; the first group was announced in 2011. Thiel fellows are given $50,000 a year for two years “to skip college and focus on their work, their research, and their self-education.” According to the website, this is a “no-strings-attached grant of $100,000.” No rules, no limits.

The chance of being awarded a Thiel Fellowship is lower than the acceptance rate at an Ivy League university (where many of the recipients attended or were accepted). Submitted applications are reviewed by 15 to 20 would-be mentors from the program; these future mentors also then choose the finalists. All finalists then have two-and-a-half minutes to pitch their project ideas to Thiel mentors. Finalists are narrowed down to the final 20 recipients and then announced.

Thiel fellows come from a variety of different backgrounds. Though most of those selected are American, there have been fellows from outside the United States, whose native countries include Britain, China, Canada, Germany, India, Russia and Singapore. The fellows’ fields of study are also diverse. They range from robotics to artificial intelligence, information and communication technology to medical technology, biotechnology, genomics and synthetic biology to nanotechnology, just to name a few. Most fellows focus on science, computer technology and medicine; however, the 2013 class claims a fashion merchandiser from San Diego named Maddy Maxey, the first of her kind among the fellows.

During the two-year program, a network of successful mentors guides the fellows. They include doctors, developers, inventors and entrepreneurs who offer business connections and advice that is hard to find in a traditional classroom. Some of this year’s mentors include Rob Meagley, CEO of One Nanotechnologies; Jonathan Baudanza, founder of Beatlab.com; Lindy Fishburne, executive director of Breakout Labs; Michael Ellsberg, author of The Education of Millionaires: Everything You Won't Learn in College About How to Be Successful; and Peter Thiel himself. The fellows are also encouraged to work and engage with each other, creating their own network of connections. In order to get the most benefit possible from the fellowship, it is suggested that the fellows stay in the San Francisco area, where the fellowship is headquartered. However, if necessary, they may travel around the world to work on their projects.

While the Thiel Fellowship claims some success stories since its launch in 2011—it has raised over $34 million from investors and been the foundation for 30 new companies—not all the fellows have been successful. Most don’t make an income during their fellowship, and many switch from one project to another. Critics who favor traditional schooling use low success rates as evidence against the program; the chance at becoming a successful college-dropout-turned-entrepreneur like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs is slim. However, for Peter Thiel, the rate of success is secondary. What’s most important is the fact that these 20 young adults are given real-world experience and the chance to try.


Did You Know? 
Although a lack of funding for school arts programs is not a new problem, it seems pro-arts initiatives are finally being given the attention they deserve. Individual states and districts are doing their best to revitalize their programs, arts being a main priority. Thanks to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at least “some arts instruction and cultural programming” is available in almost all city schools—a stark contrast to the low 45 and 33 percent of schools that provided arts education in elementary and middle schools, respectively. Dallas is another up-and-coming pro-arts community. For the first time in over 30 years, every single elementary student within the Dallas Independent School District is required to participate in 45 minutes of art and music instruction each week. Communities in Minneapolis, Chicago and Arizona follow Dallas and New York City as making the most notable changes to their programs in an effort to infuse the arts back into their curricula. (DYK by Emeli Warren)

Students Need to Read 70% Nonfiction, Says Common Core

by Grant Bradley, Intern Summer 2013

As the new Common Core State Standards (“The Standards,” or just “CCSS” in some circles) begin to be implemented in the 45 states that decided take on the across-the-board learning criteria for American students, one policy in particular is rousing the ire and frustration of teachers, parents and students: The Standards hold that 50 percent of elementary, 55 percent of junior high, and 70 percent of high school reading curricula should be nonfiction. Proponents of this significant change argue that nonfiction readings—or “informational texts,” as the Common Core denotes them—will prepare high school graduates for the things they will be reading in their future careers. Detractors say that less fiction means smaller imaginations, unengaged students and a dearth of literary classics in students’ lives.

David Coleman, president of the College Board (the organization that offers standardized higher education tests such as the SAT as well as programs such as AP) and lead architect of the Common Core standards, contends that poor student reading scores and lackluster reading comprehension in the working world require exactly this kind of overhaul. “If we can't have a breakthrough in this country in reading performance, particularly in later grades, so many students will be consigned to a world where they can't read the text in front of them and hence [can't] grow and learn," said Coleman.
By incorporating more of this kind of material, students will gain valuable experience with complex nonfiction documents and different styles of writing. "The idea is that things like Lincoln's second inaugural address and Martin Luther King's letter from the Birmingham jail… are worthy of close attention,” said Coleman. “Not just in a historical context, but also for the interweaving of thought and language.”

Some teachers on the ground don’t believe the new nonfiction requirements will be the literacy panacea that the Common Core claims it to be. Literary classics like The Great Gatsby or Lord of the Flies, goes the counterargument, will be replaced by bland reports such as “Executive Order 13423: Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management” by the General Services Administration (an actual recommendation from the Common Core found in Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks for Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects).

Jamie Highfill, an eighth-grade English teacher and the 2011 Arkansas Teacher of the Year, says that the new standards force her to get rid of some of her favorite units and discourage students from engaging in the content. “I’m struggling with this, and my students are struggling,” Highfill said. “With informational text, there isn’t that human connection that you get with literature. And the kids are shutting down. They’re getting bored.”

A large part of the problem for both nonfiction hawks and fiction defenders is the way in which schools are putting the new nonfiction requirements into practice. While much of the debate centers around English courses, the 70 : 30 nonfiction-to-fiction ratio is meant to apply to a student’s entire curriculum—science, math, and history in addition to English. The Common Core intends this to mean that math classes could read selections from Euclid; environmental science classes could include passages from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring or an executive order concerning energy and transportation; and a social studies class might read a passage from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. The actual amount of nonfiction students would be reading in English classes, then, would have a much more equitable ratio with fiction texts.

Unfortunately, many school administrations and teachers are neglecting to distribute the nonfiction load. Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University and a previous member of the Common Core team—he and the rest of the team parted ways over differing approaches to developing the standards—notes that teachers in other subjects feel nonfiction has no place in their curricula and consequently dismiss it. “You have chemistry teachers, history teachers saying, ‘We’re not going to teach reading and writing, we have to teach our subject matter. That’s what you English teachers do,’ ” Bauerlein said.

Neglecting nonfiction entirely seems like a big mistake—there’s much to be said about diversifying course readings, and some of the greatest pieces of human writing are speeches, legal documents, and essays. But if English classes need to address the new nonfiction quotas without help from the disciplines intended to help them, we may end up losing some of the greatest works of fiction, too.

Did You Know?
Teachers are arguing that the inclusion of so much nonfiction in the Common Core State Standards will make English and literature courses boring and cause a lack of imagination in their students. Teachers in mathematics and sciences are saying that it’s not their job to teach reading and writing, but it seems that they could benefit in teaching not only nonfiction but fiction as well. For example, subjects that otherwise may not engage students who lack strategic skills may find that fiction helps grab and maintain their attention or clarify concepts. Marilyn Burns, an educator who is founder of Math Solutions Professional Development and has published a number of books, notes that she uses children’s books to make her math lessons more effective. Not only does it help students engage in problem-solving experiences and build their appreciation for mathematics, but it also gives teachers who lack skills in teaching mathematics a way to gain personal enthusiasm in the subject and to spark self-confidence. She has organized a collection of fiction and nonfiction titles that she recommends for use in the classroom, titled The Marilyn Burns Classroom Math Libraries and published by Scholastic. (DYK by Emeli Warren)

Can You Spell D-E-F-I-N-I-T-I-O-N?

by Jessie Miller, Intern Summer 2013

Gladiolus.

Antediluvian.

Chiaroscurist.

Kamikaze.

Guetapens.

Knaidel.

What does this list of words have in common? They are all winning words from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, dating back to the first bee in 1925 (gladiolus) through 2013 (knaidel). For 85 tournaments, the spelling bee never included a vocabulary component—though contestants have always been allowed to ask for the meaning of a word during the competition. This year, a vocabulary quiz incorporated into the preliminary round makes it easier to narrow down which contestants advance to the finals. A contestant’s score on the vocabulary test and onstage spelling combine to form his or her cumulative score.

The change to the spelling bee marks a shift in the competition from rote memorization to actual understanding of the words. In a press release, Paige Kimble, director of the spelling bee, explained, “Spelling and vocabulary are, in essence, two sides of the same coin.… As a child learns the meaning of a word, it becomes easier to spell.” She also added that the change reflects the bee’s commitment to “develop correct English usage” that competitors can retain long after they leave the stage.

However, the change came less than two months before the national spelling bee date of May 28, 2013, giving competitors little time to adjust their training strategy. Both parents and kids admitted they were not fans of the time crunch, but that adding a vocabulary component seemed beneficial to the future of the bee. And there was a justifiable reason for delaying the announcement—Scripps waited until all qualifying regional bees were completed.

With a $30,000 prize and a bit of national glory on the line, it’s understandable that contestants were taken aback by this change. Many contestants trained all year for the bee, so adding in a vocabulary portion just weeks before the competition seemed to diminish their hard work. An editorial in The Express-Times of Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, acknowledged the possible benefits of the change, but opined that it was simply unfair to competitors who spent months preparing for a specific type of competition.

Karen Klein, writing for the Los Angeles Times, also opposed the change, explaining that “[t]he bee has always been a show of amazing memorization skills, not of enhanced vocabulary.” Many people agreed with Klein that a spelling bee is not about definitions or concepts, but simply a memory game. In a similar blog entry, Ben Zimmer wrote in The Boston Globe that Kimble, however, claimed that memorization was never supposed to be the sole skill utilized for the spelling bee. She explained that vocabulary upholds “the mission of the E. W. Scripps Co., the media conglomerate that operates the not-for-profit bee.”

Regardless, the 2013 Scripps Spelling Bee proved successful on May 30 with 13-year-old Arvind Mahankali claiming the championship. As expected, contestants were subjected to two multiple-choice vocabulary tests before the preliminaries and semifinals, though both occurred offscreen. And the bee was broadcast on ESPN—just one indication of the spelling bee’s expanding popularity in spite of its evolutionary growing pains.

Did You Know?

The Scripps National Spelling Bee came into national limelight in the early 2000s when books and movies about the bee began trending. Bee Season, starring Richard Gere, was released in 2005 and based on a novel of the same name by Myla Goldberg. This was shortly followed by the bee’s stint on Broadway in a show titled The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a long one-act musical comedy nominated for six Tony awards and featured a cast recording nominated for a Grammy. Just the next year, Akeelah and the Bee, starring recording artist Keke Palmer, documented a girl’s journey through various levels of the bee and highlighted education issues in a low socioeconomic African American community. Spelldown: The Big-Time Dreams of a Small-Town Word Whiz, by Karon Luddy and released in 2007, followed a girl from South Carolina, telling her fictional account of what it was like competing in the bee with a “spelling jinx.” One of the first, however, was an Academy Award-nominated documentary cleverly titled Spellbound that follows eight competitors of the 1999 youth lineup, including the national winner—it was released in 2002. (DYK by Emeli Warren)

Private Funding Keeps Art Alive

by Hayley Gundlach, Intern Summer 2013

There’s a point in the year that certain high school art-kids dread: school budget analysis. It is the time that many of their beloved programs are predictably brought to the chopping block. Art classes, film programs, writing workshops and music ensembles inevitably have their own individual budgets hacked away year by year, each annual meeting leaving them in a financial state more serious than the year before.

As a proud band-kid myself, I have been subjected to this same fear. I’ve attended my fair share of school board meetings, awaiting the fate of the programs that my peers and I held very dear. As the years go on, it doesn’t get easier to see meaningful programs have their budgets marginally reduced or whole activities get eliminated. The experience is scarring, leaving feelings of emptiness, inappreciation and anger that never truly go away.

At a time when local, state and federal arts funding are at an all-time low, it seems like individual supporters are just now beginning to work to fill in the gaps that the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) cannot. The truth is, individuals have always been the largest source of funding for the arts. The NEA reports that nearly 75 percent of private contributions are made by individual donors. In 2011, $13 billion was given to arts charities by individuals. Now, with the help of new technology, becoming an individual donor is easier than ever.

A website called Kickstarter is acting as the newest platform for individual support of the arts. A “crowdfunding” operation, it is modeled after the way artists from decades ago, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Whitman or Twain, would fund their projects, but with a twenty-first century twist. Launched in 2009, Kickstarter allows artists to propose their creative projects or goals like music albums, art pieces, video games and so forth on its website. Project creators set a goal for how much they want to raise and a deadline for when they need it; anyone who views the idea on Kickstarter’s website can pledge to fund money in any amount. The project creator will then only receive the money that was pledged to their project if he or she meets the set goal and deadline.

Since its inception, Kickstarter has raised over $724 million from more than 4.5 million individual donors. Nearly 44 percent of the projects proposed through Kickstarter have reached their goals and been funded. That makes a total of 45,000 creative projects that have been funded solely through individual supporters.

The arts have been in danger for some time due to lack of funding, but with the continued support of individual benefactors and the newest support from ordinary people from all reaches, they don’t have to be. Organizations like Kickstarter make it easy to be supportive of the things you care about and help out other people who care about it, too.

Did You Know?
Although a lack of funding for school arts programs is not a new problem, it seems pro-arts initiatives are finally being given the attention they deserve. Individual states and districts are doing their best to revitalize their programs, arts being a main priority. Thanks to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at least “some arts instruction and cultural programming” is available in almost all city schools—a stark contrast to the low 45 and 33 percent of schools that provided arts education in elementary and middle schools, respectively. Dallas is another up-and-coming pro-arts community. For the first time in over 30 years, every single elementary student within the Dallas Independent School District is required to participate in 45 minutes of art and music instruction each week. Communities in Minneapolis, Chicago and Arizona follow Dallas and New York City as making the most notable changes to their programs in an effort to infuse the arts back into their curricula. (DYK by Emeli Warren)

Algebra II or Not Algebra II, Questions the NCEE

by Grant Bradley, Intern Summer 2013

The Washington, DC-based National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) released a stirring report this May entitled “What Does It Really Mean to Be College and Work Ready? The English and Mathematics Required of First Year Community College Students.” The two-year study investigated seven rural, urban and suburban community colleges in different states with student populations ranging from 3,000 to 30,000 in order to determine precisely which skills and knowledge high school graduates need to succeed at the college level and in their future careers. The report found that many community college programs require little to no math; that the level of math used in these programs rarely exceeds that of middle school; and that Algebra II is not essential for most careers.

Many crucial mathematical concepts are being swept under the rug in the rush to move through Algebra I to Algebra II and Calculus, according to the NCEE. Phil Daro, co-chair of the study’s Mathematics Panel and co-director for developing the math Common Core State Standards (“the Standards,” or just “CCSS”), makes the case that curricula should spend more time developing students’ understanding of probability, complex measurements, arithmetic, ratios, proportions and simple equations. “We were surprised how little math is used in first-year community college courses, and what is used is mostly middle school math,” Daro said. “Our system makes no sense for these students: even though so many students have a shaky understanding of the middle school mathematics they really need, high school courses spend most of these students’ time on topics not needed for their college programs.”

The NCEE report argues that if schools dedicated more class time to these kinds of topics, and if college placement exams took away the incentive for high schoolers to study little-used, upper-level mathematics by altering their material to better reflect the realities of community college, students will be more competent in their college courses. However, not everyone agrees with the NCEE.

Linda Rosen, CEO of the nonprofit Change the Equation (CTEq), has several bones to pick with the NCEE’s study. First, Rosen questions the validity of the study’s methodology. The NCEE derives some of its numbers on math in the workforce from a 2011 Georgetown study, which she says only accounts for a narrow definition of STEM jobs that “doesn’t include any jobs in math-dependent fields like finance, social science, management or health care.” Likewise, while the sample of community colleges seems diverse, the study does not state how typical the colleges actually are.

Second, Rosen contends that high schools should not necessarily lower their educational standards because community colleges are doing so. “The authors are right to be concerned that many high school graduates cannot clear even a low bar. This is the challenge of US school reform in a nutshell,” she said. “Yet surely the answer is not to lower the bar now so that we can raise it again later. Instead, we have to step up our support for students earlier in K-“12.” And just because the skills learned in Algebra II may not directly apply to community college coursework does not mean that upper-level math doesn’t have value—it teaches students logical thinking and complex problem solving.

Community colleges are attended by 45 percent of US undergraduates. Half of them are explicitly training to directly enter the workforce upon graduation. Either high school is inadequately preparing its students for college, or college is letting down high school graduates. Regardless of the perspective, we as a nation need to move forward and give our children the best education possible.

Did You Know?

As it turns out, some of the highest paying jobs require mathematical skills beyond basic algebra. The top ten list by Forbes includes degrees that require skills in math, engineering and the sciences. The number one best-paying job is that of anesthesiologists, followed by surgeons, gynecologists, maxillofacial surgeons, general internists, orthodontists, all other physicians and surgeons, family and general practitioners, psychiatrists and, finally, senior executives. Notice a trend? Of the listed jobs, 9 out of 10 require a medical degree—which includes math far beyond basic skills—and the odd-man-out still demands further learning via an MBA program. Earning an MBA, the norm for senior executives these days, usually requires, at the very least, proficiency in higher-level math-related disciplines such as statistics, accounting, and/or economics. As a comparison, most of the worst-paying jobs include those in food service, agricultural laborers and ticket attendants, although none of these typically require a college degree. (DYK by Emeli Warren)