While controversy surrounds the Common Core State Standards, many people have never really read them, Connie Matchell told Siloam Springs Republican Women during their meeting on Monday.
Many potential presidential candidates are not in favor of Common Core, said Christy Barnett, president of the women's club. Matchell was invited to speak to share what educators in Siloam Springs think, she said. About 20 people attended the meeting, held in the First Bank Community Room.
Matchell, currently the curriculum coordinator for the Siloam Springs School District, has accepted a position to chair John Brown University's Education Department starting in July.
Common Core State Standards are a set of academic standards in math and literacy that outline learning goals for each grade level. They have been adopted by 43 states, according to the standard's website www.corestandards.org. Matchell distributed copies of the math and literacy standards as well as a booklet she wrote answering questions about Common Core.
The idea for the standards was initiated by the Council of Chief State Officers and by the National Governors Association, she said.
"Understand, these are standards not curriculum," Matchell said. "That is a really important distinction."
The standards were developed because the United States is falling behind other countries in standardized tests. They were also designed to respond to a transient society, she said.
Siloam Springs School District has been involved in Common Core State Standards from the very beginning, Matchell said. The standards were put out two times for review and Siloam Springs officials commented on them the first time, Matchell said. The second time the standards came out for review it was apparent the writers were responsive to their comments, she said.
Before the standards, Arkansas schools followed the state educational frameworks that changed about every five years. Local representatives met in Little Rock to work on one grade level at a time, but there wasn't much talk between grade levels and often frameworks overlapped or had gaps.
Many textbooks claimed they were aligned with Arkansas Frameworks, but were originally designed for larger states such as Texas or California, Matchell said.
Many of those problems have been addressed by the standards, according to Matchell. States can share material and many good resources are available online for free, she said.
Under the Common Core State Standards, books and curriculum are still chosen by the local school district, Matchell said. The only literature the standards require students to read is the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution in ninth- and 10th-grade literacy.
One key change is that in high school there is a focus on more nonfiction texts and an emphasis on close reading of complex texts. The standards recommend 70 percent of literature to be nonfiction and 30 percent to be fiction; however the nonfiction includes textbooks students read in other classes such as social studies and science, Matchell said.
In math, there are eight mathematical practices that are woven through the standards in kindergarten through eighth grade. Most are pretty common, but the first and third practices contain some new ideas. The first is to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. The second is to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Children are given a problem in kindergarten, first and second grade and are allowed to figure it out using manipulative or other means. The goal is to move to the most efficient strategy possible, eventually reaching the standard algorithm, Matchell said.
Because of the new way of teaching, students are doing amazing things such as understanding negative numbers at an early age and having mathematical dialogues in the classroom.
"The thing I love about it is the kids aren't afraid to tell how they worked (the problem)," Matchell said.
Matchell also spoke about how the adoption of the standards coincided with Arkansas waiver from the Education and Secondary Education Act that required all students to score 100 percent proficient or advanced on standardized tests this year. The waiver requires that states adopt "career and college ready standards" and administer a test to give accountability for how students are learning those standards.
Arkansas has chosen the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test, which was administered for the first time beginning this month, she said.
Several Republican Women members raised concerns that districts in other parts of the country are not implementing the standards as well as Siloam Springs.
"It's sounds like from what you've told us, if a district doesn't do well with this it's their own fault," said Republican Women's member Barbara Foreman. "I'll bet kids have more fun with this kind of math."
"As a recent graduate it's good to know we're in good hands and good hands in the future," said Sunny Netro, vice president of the club and a 2014 graduate of Siloam Springs High School.
Netro said she was concerned the standards took too much classical literature, such as Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," out of schools. She was relieved to learn that it would still be included in the curriculum.
Julia Faught, who is not a member of the Siloam Springs Republican Women but attended the meeting, said she attended because she has a child about to start kindergarten and she wanted to learn more about Common Core.
Faught said she has heard a lot of negative things about the standards and wanted to hear both sides. Faught said she felt Matchell gave good information and was glad to have the paperwork Matchell handed out for continued reading.
General News on 03/25/2015