When his daughter was in third grade, Ryan Bannister started having trouble helping her with homework.
“It just didn’t make sense to me,” he explains.
Like a lot of parents, Ryan didn’t understand the new methods being taught under Common Core, adopted by Pennsylvania in 2013. He began researching and became a regional coordinator and legislative liaison for PA Against Common Core, a Facebook group with more than 12,000 members.
“It seemed like they were sacrificing simplification for complication and it seemed like they were teaching — not necessarily the correct answer, but they were trying to teach my child how they should feel about the answer,” says Ryan.
Matt Stem, Deputy Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the Department of Education acknowledged the changes.
In a sit down with ABC27, he explained, “there’s a greater focus on conceptual understanding and teaching less topics but going in greater depth. Teaching topics in strands, all the way down to the kindergarten level.”
This shift in teaching has also created a shift in evaluation.
This was the second year for the new PSSA exam which tests students in grades 3-8 in math, English, language arts and science. Matt says the new assessments are aligned to the PA Core standards and are successful so far.
“This year in math for example, we saw every grade level in the state improve in math year over year, and that’s the first time that that has happened in PA since 2011.”
But Ryan chooses to opt his child out of these tests, which the state says parents can do for religious reasons, but Ryan insists every parent can opt their child out with a strong philosophical belief. The group, PA Against Common Core, has provided opt out resources on their website.
“These tests have nothing to do with grades, nothing to do with GPA or college admission,” says Ryan. He also believes the “months being spent on common-core-aligned tests” are a waste of class time.
Ryan says the federal government has pushed the testing so they can collect data. He claims the data being collected is given to marketing groups.
“They offered PA billions of dollars to implement common core and in exchange, we have to provide a data collection system,” says Ryan. He went on to claim that without 95% participation in the testing, the state does not receive the funding.
Matt Stem could not confirm that saying he doesn’t know at this point what the sanctions are at schools that do not hit the 95% participation but says Pennsylvania’s participation levels are well above 95%.
And as for the data being collected, Matt says it is for school-wide and community accountability. “What we’re looking to do is make sure that the investment that communities are making in their schools is measurably demonstrating the return on investment that communities are getting.”
The Department of Education says the tests are necessary to ensure that teaching and learning is happening in classrooms and are also required by the federal government.
“The every student succeeds act, which was passed last December, requires states to have robust and rigorous college and career-aligned standards,” says Matt. He explained it also requires 95% participation in statewide tests in math, in English, language arts and science.
Officials admit the methods and standards being taught are different than those parents learned so they have provided resources for parents.
Matt says everyone can access “PA Learns” through iTunes U. He says everyone can have access, even without an Apple platform. All you have to do is go into iTunes U courses to download resources, units of study and practice materials to work with children.
[Source:-abc]
