NY state technology standards

I've just heard from a parent here....

My district is considering cutting French, Latin, and Greek --- and adding a technology teacher to K-5 in order to meet NY state's "technology standards."

I had no idea we had "technology standards," but come to find out, we do.

I do remember, back when David Steiner had first been appointed Commissioner of Education, attending a lecture at which he told us that the Board of Regents considered 'technology' very important. I think he may have said that he'd had some debate on the subject with one particular member of the Board, but I'd have to check my notes to make sure. Since checking my notes would entail finding my notes, that may not be happening. (Was I still using my AlphaSmart then?)

Does Common Core have "technology" standards?

New York State Technology Standards

Elementary and Intermediate Grade Levels

Standard 1 – Analysis, Inquiry, and Design
Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering
design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.

Standard 2 – Information Systems
Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using
appropriate technologies.

Standard 5 – Technology
Students will apply technological knowledge and skills to design, construct, use,
and evaluate products and systems to satisfy human and environmental needs.

Standard 6 – Interconnectedness – Common Themes
Students will understand the relationships and common themes that connect
mathematics, science, and technology and apply the themes to these and other
areas of learning.

Standard 7 – Interdisciplinary Problem Solving
Students will apply the knowledge and thinking skills of mathematics, science,
and technology to address real-life problems and make informed decisions.

The whole megillah

Should We Be Worried? (YES)

Core Standards Are Very Different
The new standards are supposed to be internationally benchmarked. Yet Common Core’s eighth-grade math standards don’t match Finland (0.21), Japan (0.17) or Singapore (0.13), primarily because these countries stress performing procedures. On language arts and reading, alignment ranges from 0.09 with Finland to 0.37 with New Zealand.

Should we be worried? Common Core Standards represent “a change for the better” when it comes to “higher order cognitive demand,” Porter concludes, but the “answer is less clear” when it comes to the topics that are covered.

Personally, I would say the "answer" is perfectly clear!

How Big a Change are the Common Core Standards?

Common Core [National Education] Standards

I don't agree with Fordham's analysis of Common Core Math Standards. I believe that they are much too weak at the high school level to prepare our children for competitiveness in a global economy. With that said, I thought that readers might be interested to see the Fordham Institute's new report comparing each state's mathematics and ELA standards to Common Core.

The State of State Standards--and the Common Core--in 2010

New York Times Room for Debate Blog, July 21
Will National Standards Improve Education?
[The answer to this question seems to be "NO"]
Contributors
Equalizing Mediocrity, Sandra Stotsky, University of Arkansas
Common Standards Are Helpful, Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation
Making a Bad System Worse, Neal P. McCluskey, Cato Institute
At-Risk Children Will Benefit, Michael Goldstein, MATCH Charter School
Uniformity Is Not Equality, Alfie Kohn, author
Understandable, but Wrong, Bruce Fuller, University of California, Berkeley

palisadesk on 'standards'

It's all relative, though. As Elizabeth pointed out, in a low-performing school 60% (or more) of first-third graders will be non-readers or close to it. RTI will not single out 60% of the population for Tier 2; only the most extreme cases will get that specialist help. For others it will be business as usual. Everything depends on local school conditions and populations.

We occasionally get a student transferring in who has been classified LD, mild cognitive delay, or some other exceptionality. In some cases these students perform above average for our non-classified, general ed students. They get As and Bs without modifications or accommodations.

It serves as a reminder that "standards" are very flexible things and what is "low" or "high" depends on the school context.

Right you are.

upstate New York

from lgm:

Here (upstate), the norm is that homework or classwork is checked by the teacher, but if it shows lack of concept/mastery understanding, there is no reteach unless student qualifies for specialist help. If the parent doesn't and the child is unclassified, the child will be dropped in to a lower section at the end of the unit (gr. 4-5) or the year (K-3). When he falls behind far enough he'll qualify for specialist help via RtI. The in-the-know parents just hire the tutor or do it themselves rather than let the student fall that far behind.

Also, is Scarsdale teaching for excellence or 'for the pass'? I notice here that the info needed in math to perform at the '4' level on the grade level state exams is not taught in class. One has to afterschool with a quality curriculum.

Here, 3rd graders do write a 'research paper' in class. The topic is 3rd grade friendly and most can do it. It reminds me more of a five paragraph essay than a paper.

I would like schools to teach kids how to write book reports.

Then I'd like schools to assign book reports.

Thank you very much.

math class in the 1970s

from Robyn:

I went to school during the 1970's. Back then, children did not have tutors in elementary school. Parents did not reteach at home. But I learned math and am proficient with everyday math.

Today, suburban schools depend on educated, affluent parents to pick up the pieces from failed curricula.

Robyn is right. Our district just took a "math survey" of K-5 parents. That's a good development, but the questions weren't what I would have wished, including this item:

"I am able comfortably to assist my son/daughter with math homework."

Ed and I told the new assistant super that this question on the survey shows that the district relies on parents to reteach math at home.

She said it didn't.

I said: "Assist" doesn't mean "give your child a quiet place to work." It means "know math well enough to reteach when necessary."

She didn't agree.

She herself had to hire a math tutor for her son in high school and pointed out that one-on-one teaching is far superior to group teaching.

That observation is a heads-up for all of us.

Is it the case that administrators now universally assume parents are hiring private teachers for math the same way they hire private coaches for soccer? (I'm certain the superintendent believes something of the sort.)

If so, I'm going to have to do a lot of spaced repetition to dispel this notion, which confuses tutorials with tutoring.

The distinction is simple.

tutorials: good

tutoring: bad

If Christopher had spent this year learning algebra 1 from Carol Gambill with zero "help" from me he'd know a lot more algebra.

Yeah, sure, he'd probably know more algebra if Carol Gambill gave him private lessons than if Carol Gambill taught him algebra in her class. But the choice between a good teacher working with a good curriculum and an ineffective teacher working with a bad curriculum remediated by mom is no choice at all.

We did manage to point out that for many, many years kids took math at school and succeeded with no help from parents. We said that Ed took calculus in his high school, then took calculus at Princeton.

He had a tough time of it at Princeton because he was placed in the engineering course which was over his head. Nevertheless, he passed the course.

He did well in his high school calculus course with no help with homework and no tutoring.



on the Today show:

This morning on the Today Show there was a special regarding parents hiring Internet tutors from overseas locations due to the fact local tutors were so expensive. One mother was interviewed saying, “I believe teachers should be paid well. I just can’t afford them.” I couldn’t believe my ears. There was no hint of why aren’t the schools teaching our children or why is there this huge need for tutors. Needing tutors was a given. The story was what people are doing to secure tutors. What a nightmare!

in California

The Today Show post showed up at almost the exact moment I had looked up the CA Mathematics Framework 2005 and found this:

Whether students are underachieving, average, gifted, or in need of individual attention, parents should recognize their own and their children’s role in learning mathematics and achieving optimal success. They should know the specific academic standards their children are to meet at each grade level, and they should be able to monitor their children’s performance and provide extra help when needed. Parents should be responsible for obtaining information regarding their children’s progress and know how to interpret that information appropriately. Above all, they should encourage a positive attitude toward mathematics.

Parents are their children’s first teachers. A child’s early experiences with mathematics at home can provide an important foundation for learning the content standards for kindergarten (Saxe, Guberman, and Gearhart 1987). Parents and other family members can nurture and stimulate mathematics development in their children and, for many children, will need to be involved in their children’s mathematics program at all grade levels (Stevenson et al. 1990).

However, schools must take greater responsibility to support the early mathematics development of children who are less fortunate and do not benefit from an educated, supportive family environment. Such support may require after-school homework, transportation services to bring children to school early for extra tutoring, extended tutoring support, and similar kinds of programs.

(Chapter 7: Responsibilities of Teachers, Parents, Administrators)

This is remarkable. Here we have the state of California officially telling parents they must:

• "know" the specific standards for each grade level
• "monitor" their children's math performance
• "provide extra help when needed"
  
• be "responsible" for getting info from the school about how their child is doing (hah!)
  
• "know how to interpret" that information
• be prepared to do this until he graduates from high school

This is bizarre.

What parent apart from a person working in a math-related field can do this?

And how many parents working in math-related fields can do this? Pedagogical content knowledge is different from domain knowledge.

Next question: are parents expected to be able to do this for every subject their child will be "learning" at school?

I'm obsessed with my child's math education, and I can't do these things. I don't know what C. knows and doesn't know; I don't know how to assess his knowledge or when to assess his knowledge or how frequently to assess his knowledge; I don't understand the wording of the state standards; my ability to reteach math at home may not extend to helping with proofs in geometry (unless I can get there first & teach them to myself well enough to "assist"); barring a miracle I'm not going to be able to reteach calculus at home.

If I can't do these things, there aren't many parents out there who can.



where does this come from?

Why would these paragraphs appear in any state DOE document?

I have to assume we're seeing the effects of the past 25 years of ed school constructivism. This list isn't constructivism; it's the absence of instructivism. When educators spend all of their time in graduate school and professional development learning false theories of human learning..... and it comes time to write a Mathematics Framework..... maybe this is what you get.

Send in the parents.


CA Math Framework: responsibilities of parents
why do we have so many tutors?
parents are the problem