You got all that?
Common Core is about reforming standards, AchieveNJ is about reforming evaluations and tenure, and PARCC is about reforming test taking/assessments.Wait, you don't? Well neither do a lot of other people. Their are many proponents and opponents To clear the air (and to better clarify why in the world they want to do all three of these at once), the NJ Department of Education held a seminar on all three of these. The crux of the meeting was devoted to how great all three of these things were and how they were all inter-related; and more specifically, how you couldn't have one without the other... and the other.
They were, as Chris Cerf so aptly put it:
To be clear. I am not against changing standards. I do like the fact that these are about mastery instead of coverage and I do like the fact that they are vertically aligned from K-12. As for changing assessments and test taking, I am in agreement with the folks who say that we need to test using online assessments. In the next decade or so, many tests will be online and it just makes common sense to change it. And as for the evaluation system, yes, it does need changing as well. Some teachers have only been visited once a year by administrators and that is not enough. What the DOE are proposing and have been are decent changes.
But let's be clear. It's not about doing these. It's about doing these NOW and all at ONCE! +Eric Sheninger had many great tweets about this, but he summed it up best by stating:
We need time. We need to focus. We need to understand what is coming at us. If we truly decide to do all three at once, our teachers, students, and admins are truly going to be stretched thin. We are racing to get all of these things in, like we are perpetually stuck in the month of June trying to cram things in at the end of the year.
While worrying to get students to understand all new concepts and standards, teachers will also be worried new test assessments which are tied to their overall evaluations.
There is still too much unknown. We don't push our students through to the next concept unless they have truly learned the one before. Shouldn't we get the same treatment? The DOE treated this seminar like a giant PEP rally for these three things. And that stuck out. I felt bad for educators. I felt bad for students. Where were their voices? Did anyone ask them what they wanted? While more and more businesses (and some schools) are moving to 80/20 time, why are we focused on THREE monumental pieces of legislation?
My good friend, +Jay Eitner, had spoken about all three of these things as a TIDAL wave crashing down on educators.
We need to FOCUS.
If we focus on one of these things a year, it would have a much better outcome. It would give everyone a chance to catch their breath, at least for a minute or two.
I have faith in our teachers. I have even more faith in our students. The NJDOE should share in that faith and give us time to get it right.
Let's focus on the most important thing here: helping students grow as individuals. Helping them reach their passions. Helping them through the formative years of their lives.
WE ARE EDUCATORS. And we need to be there for them. So, let's shift the focus.
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