I know many of the teachers at my local school that can't stand common core, there is even a commercial in NY showing teachers complain about it and asking for it to be optional. Common core was implemented to help kids learn different ways to accomplish the same goals as before. I get that. What I don't get is why its ok to be wrong as long as you know the proper way to get the right answer. The right answer should matter.
Sure, but you inhibit those that are naturally gifted in a certain areas by this. Everyone's big puah to make everyone equal essentially holds a group back. My daughter is very astute and works her butt off to make good grades. My son on the other hand instinctively knows how to solve equations...should I hold him back? No I encourage him to push further and further, just as much as I encourage her to grind it out. Real world doesn't care whether or not you did all the steps right...they care about end results. I'm not saying blast the kid who doesn't get it, in fact I think you should help that kid to the fullest extent. But by lowering it to these levels you surely stunt the growth of those that have the ability and instinct in whatever area to excel.
In math and science, understanding procedure and methodology is extremely important. You can get a correct answer with a guess or cheating. Showing your work illustrates that, even if you made a mistake and came up with an incorrect answer, you understand the process. The other way around, getting an answer without a method is how pseudo-sciences get started. Good process and procedure is paramount to understanding. You can learn to use a methodology to get the correct answer, you cannot use a correct answer to learn a methodology. If a good method is followed, be it math, science or any other aspect of knowledge then results are reproducible whereas guesswork and bad methods are not.
But why should someone have to show it every time? All it should take is checking with each student a time or two how to do something to be able to tel if the person can figure it out or not. Also, why should one uniform methodology be used for every person? Not all people's thought processes are the same, so why be forced to do equations the same? I believe that the answer itself is more important than the process personally. For example, there was a spacecraft that exploded here in the US decades ago that exploded due to an engineer leaving a decimal point out of a flight calculation. It exploded due to the answer being wrong, not because his process was.
Education isn't stagnant. Students are not just learning one thing and stopping. The constant influx of new knowledge and increasing level of difficulty means they need to keep reinforcing good method. Repetition helps with retention. This isn't opinion, it's well documented and confirmed in multiple studies. It's just how our brain works. Methodology and formula are not dependent on the individual. This is how science and math works. Just because student A has a different thought process of student B doesn't change the rules of math. Maybe if that engineer had showed his work and his results verified, that wouldn't have happened but that's not accurate anyway. The Challenger exploded because of a defective O-ring but that's non sequitor. The point is, if you understand how you got an answer you can then use that process to get other answers. There is an old proverb: give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach him to fish he feeds himself the rest of his life. Let's look at this as education. The fish is the answer and fishing is the method. You can get an answer right but if you show your work and learn the method and it becomes ingrained and habititual, you're far more likely to get every answer correct. It also shows people aren't just using calculators.
Let me correct you if I may. You wrongly worded the question to which 65 is the answer to. The question is: 'There were some people on a train. 19 people get off the train at the first stop. 17 people get on the train. Now there are 63 people on the train. How many people were on the train to begin with?' x-19+17=63 x-2=63 x=63+2 x=65
I don't know how I could have possibly figured it out without you. Thanks. Didn't read the rest of the thread, did ya?
To continue my own post, we don't use common core over here. We use common sense instead. It's of course important to get the correct answer, but the answer alone isn't going to do any good. We're not teaching kids what the answer is, but how to get to that answer. The actual answer is in many ways irrelevant. It's one think to teach them what 63 - 19 + 17 is, but what's the use if they can't figure out the answer if we switch the numbers around? If we only teach them that the answer is 61, what will they do if we ask them what 17 - 63 + 19 is? The answer can't be 61 all the time. That's why it's so important for them to show us how they came up with the answer. It not only tells us they know the math involved and how to solve it, but it also allows us to step in and correct them if they get the math wrong. So on a test, kids usually get full score if we get the answer correct, but we can give half a point if they take their time to explain how they came up with the answer. That doesn't mean they have to do it the exact we tell them to. As long as the math is correct and answer is correct, it doesn't matter if they do 63 - 19 + 17, (17 - 19) = -2 and then add 63 or whatever. The order of the numbers don't matter. And again, the whole point is so we know they have actually learned the math. Teaching them the answer alone isn't going to do anyone any good.
For those of you who are arguing only getting the right answer... Why teach your kids math at all, just hand them a calculator and call it a day.
I can't speak to specific tests, as they are made by different companies and individual states can (in many cases) incorporate their own questions and criteria. As for the wording of the tests, quality test creators constantly test and measure question responses to ensure that the questions are properly worded and avoid misinterpretations. As for scoring, I have scored English tests and this may help. You need to step back a few paces and see the test as a whole. The rubrics (scoring rules) given are very specific as to what counts for each point given; and individual test items are carefully structures to measure a specific ability. Here's an example: A student needs to write a short response based on a passage he or she read. The question specifically states something like 'show at least one specific quote from the passage to support your point of view." If the student doesn't answer the question, nor even provide a quote, then no points. If the student understands the passage enough to provide a reasonable answer without a quote to support, partial credit. If the student provides an answer plus a supporting quote, then full credit. Providing an in-depth response with multiple quotes, then extra credit. So that's what' meant by statements like "as long as the student used the correct method." It means for that item, they fulfilled (possibly minimally for partial credit) the criteria for a specific, basic concept that was being measured. Now here's the interesting part: For that test question, spelling, punctuation and grammar do not matter. Anyone looking at that one question would say, "what are you crazy? Ignore spelling and grammar? No wonder we're behind." But that's because you're ignoring the test as a whole. That one question was carefully designed to focus on reading comprehension only - understanding the passage and the question. Adding other factors would make the scoring of that one question complex and prone to error. More importantly, there are other questions and sections of the test, that are constructed to measure competency in vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. precisely. This means the entire test is pretty much dissecting English comprehension and usage into individual constructs and measuring each. The sum total of the test provides an overall measure, while looking at groups of specific questions can show strengths and weaknesses in specific areas. Again, I can't speak to that test (it could indeed be poorly made), but, as with so many things, plucking one item and taking it out of context can lead to a misunderstanding of the whole.
Fishing may be the method, but what type of fishing? Besides the people who use normal fishing poles there are those who use spears, nets, bare hands, and other methods to accomplish the end result, which is to get the fish. Just as in fishing, there may be many methods to solve a math problem, and who is to say that someone's way is better for a person than another's, except by testing those other ways. Common core doesn't do that. It's all about doing it the one way, and no others.
I never said anything about teaching them the answer, or that the process wasn't important. What I said was that "answer itself is more important than the process'." I do agree that the process is still important though. I just feel those who reward points to students who use the right process to get the wrong answer are rewarding mistakes instead of helping them figure out what went wrong.
How do you know? Have you actually given yourself time to really learn the method other than the knee jerk reaction most people have? Remember, children's minds grasp things much faster than adults so what takes them a few months to learn could take us significantly longer. Unless and until you have thoroughly versed yourself with common core, you can't hate or love it you're just making opinion based on second hand opinion and a lack of personal knowledge. To be fair, I haven't had time to go thoroughly through it but what I have forced myself to learn is intuitive and easy to use along with much more efficient.
I can't state all the reasons for each state, but the two most common reasons are: 1. Politics - This is unsubstantiated because it's never given as an explicit reason, but some states seem to be falling along party lines and/or not thrilled with having the big population states (e.g. California and Texas) dictate many of the standards (from their point of view) 2. Time and resources - Very substantiated. Common core tests are taking up way too much time and focus in the classroom setting. Teachers and administrators have been very vocal about needing: shorter tests, faster scoring, more informative results (information to help guide the teacher for student remediation), better supporting classroom materials, some flexibility in the curriculum. The race is on among test vendors to provide adequate, low-cost solutions to item 2. I got most of this information from a couple of articles published early in the year (January/February?) and I honestly can't recall where - I read a ton. But I'm sure a quick poke on line would uncover a few, but be warned to look for media/publishers that specialize in education and present verifiable data. There are a lot of people publishing unverified, biased information to support their own agendas.
To answer the question, yes they're trying to keep kids stupid so they grow up stupid. The reason for doing so is a subject that is against TOS here so I will refrain from mentioning it. But I will say that no matter what these proponents of common core say, I always fight back at them with the fact that there is no gray area with math. Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, Statistics, etc maybe but with simple mathematics there is no close but no cigar. It's either right or wrong. If you tell my child who answers the problem 6 X 4 as simply 24 and tell her she's wrong, I'm going to punch you in the face. It's this very notion is why I am home schooling my daughter.
