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Sunday, April 6, 2014

The Common Core: An Apple a Day May Keep Us All Away!









NYSUT voted No Confidence in the leadership of Commissioner King and his Common Core yesterday.  Will Tisch now say to all of us, "If you are against standards, you are contributing  to our decline"?
 


Under the APPR system, teachers are evaluated based upon the test scores of their students as well as those of students in the building who are perfect strangers, or imperfect, as the test scores will, doubtless, "prove."

Imagine if doctors were evaluated upon how their patients fare, without any regard as to whether or not the patients are following the doctor's orders and some of the patients even belonged to other doctors.

Well, teachers are evaluated without any regard as to whether students complete any assigned homework or study outside of class...or even, indeed, whether the students have a house or not and they are evaluated, in part, upon the test scores of students whom they have never chanced to meet.


Imagine the unintended consequences of such a plan for doctors, potential patients and society.  Teachers, students and their schools face similar adverse repercussions compliments of educational deformity. 


1.  If doctors were evaluated based strictly upon how their patients fare, they would regard it as risky at best to treat the sickest patients or the most complicated cases.  Patients may be turned away.  Some may be left to die in the streets.


Some charters schools claim 100% graduation rates.  Yet, the pristine stats fail to tell the story of students who are turned away for failure to follow a very strict set of rules and/or for their sub-par performance.  These students are thrown back into the overcrowded public-school population.  They bring the numbers down and, in the Bloomberg era, led to the dismantling of public schools in favor of charters, despite their highly discriminatory practices, resulting in increased segregation.


2.  Given this imaginary situation, talented, young people will turn away from the profession.  Experienced physicians may retire early.  Some may leave to practice in other countries in which they will not be so unjustly evaluated.


Teacher attrition rates have been abnormally high since the implementation of policies of educational deformity, including the APPR and CCSS.  If you favor TFA or believe teachers do not need significant experience to reach their potential, then you may also want a cheaper doctor who skipped medical school and an extended internship for only five weeks of training.

3.  Doctors would, doubtless, suffer high rates of stress if this new system were to be implemented.  They may take ill themselves.  They may be incapacitated and unable to help others.

When teachers experience stress, some of the same will inadvertently rub off on students.  The reform is unhealthy for all involved.  If an apple a day is the Common Core and all its attendant policies, we would all do well to keep a safe distance and say, "no, thank you!"





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