This post ran at Forbes three weeks ago. Anyone notice anything happening since then that would change my mind? Didn't think so.
Newly-elected Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced last week that he will, via executive order, remove every "vestige" of Common Core from the state.
Unless he changes his announced plan, he probably won't.
Unless he changes his announced plan, he probably won't.
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| Yeah, probably not. |
Florida is unique in the US when it comes to education reform; they have embraced almost every idea to come down the pike. According to a report issued by the pro-choice, DeVos founded and funded, American Federation for Children, $2.4 billion was put into the three major types of voucher programs in the US, and $956 million of that was spent in Florida. They have generally ranked only behind California, Texas and Arizona for total number of charter schools. But they have never warmed up to the Common Core Standards.
When Rick Scott was governor, he promised that the state would have its own Florida standards to replace the Common Core. It was a cheap political stunt. As was the case in many states, the change was largely cosmetic with the actual substance of the standards remaining largely unaffected.
Governor DeSantis is promising a much more thorough purge. He announced that he has directed newly appointed education chief Richard Corcoran to get the whole business ripped out and replaced within a year. That's a problematic choice; Corcoran is seen as someone whose main educational interest has always been dismantling public education and selling off the parts; the St. Augustine Record, mincing no words, called him a hack. The notion that he will be in charge of designing that standards that public schools must live by is concerning; certainly, if I wanted to cripple public schools, sticking them with a sudden need to replace all their English and math textbooks would be one way to do it. But it's not the reason that DeSantis's plan is likely to fail. That can be found in this quote:
DeSantis said his executive order also calls for Corcoran to “streamline some of the testing”
Along with its love of other reform ideas, Florida has long belonged to the Cult of the Test. This is the state that refused to give a testing waiver to a dying child. This is the state that went to court to keep a third grader from passing on to fourth grade because although she had demonstrated mastery of reading, she hadn't done so on the Big Standardized Test. This is also the state that has had repeated problems getting a test adopted and functioning. But most importantly for DeSantis's initiative, this is the state where every school gets a grade based on its Big Standardized Test score (currently, in Florida, the FSA).
In Florida, as in all states, it is not the standards that drive curriculum--it is the Big Standardized Test. For example, the Common Core language standards include standards that address speaking and listening, but nobody worries about aligning to those standards because they won't be on the test. The standards about reading literature could be met by doing deep dives into complete works, but that's not how most schools are teaching those standards, because that's not how they're assessed on the Big Standardized Test.
If DeSantis and Corcoran do nothing except "streamline some of the testing," it will not matter a bit what they do to the standards. Florida schools live and die by the results of the FSA, and they will continue to teach to that test, the Common Core infused test, regardless of what the standards say.
If DeSantis really wants to rip out every last vestige of Common Core, here's what he needs to do.
End the test.
Don't streamline it, modify, shorten it or edit it. End it. Cancel it.
Then, completely change the way Florida evaluates schools. No letter grades, and certainly no school assessment based on student scores on a single standardized test.
Once teachers and schools no longer have their fates tied to that single standardized test, they will feel free to pay attention to a new set of standards or even--crazy idea here--use their professional judgment to chart a great curricular course for the children of Florida. But if DeSantis intends to leave the FSA and the school grading system essentially intact, then all his big talk about the Common Core is just another cheap political stunt.
When Rick Scott was governor, he promised that the state would have its own Florida standards to replace the Common Core. It was a cheap political stunt. As was the case in many states, the change was largely cosmetic with the actual substance of the standards remaining largely unaffected.
Governor DeSantis is promising a much more thorough purge. He announced that he has directed newly appointed education chief Richard Corcoran to get the whole business ripped out and replaced within a year. That's a problematic choice; Corcoran is seen as someone whose main educational interest has always been dismantling public education and selling off the parts; the St. Augustine Record, mincing no words, called him a hack. The notion that he will be in charge of designing that standards that public schools must live by is concerning; certainly, if I wanted to cripple public schools, sticking them with a sudden need to replace all their English and math textbooks would be one way to do it. But it's not the reason that DeSantis's plan is likely to fail. That can be found in this quote:
DeSantis said his executive order also calls for Corcoran to “streamline some of the testing”
Along with its love of other reform ideas, Florida has long belonged to the Cult of the Test. This is the state that refused to give a testing waiver to a dying child. This is the state that went to court to keep a third grader from passing on to fourth grade because although she had demonstrated mastery of reading, she hadn't done so on the Big Standardized Test. This is also the state that has had repeated problems getting a test adopted and functioning. But most importantly for DeSantis's initiative, this is the state where every school gets a grade based on its Big Standardized Test score (currently, in Florida, the FSA).
In Florida, as in all states, it is not the standards that drive curriculum--it is the Big Standardized Test. For example, the Common Core language standards include standards that address speaking and listening, but nobody worries about aligning to those standards because they won't be on the test. The standards about reading literature could be met by doing deep dives into complete works, but that's not how most schools are teaching those standards, because that's not how they're assessed on the Big Standardized Test.
If DeSantis and Corcoran do nothing except "streamline some of the testing," it will not matter a bit what they do to the standards. Florida schools live and die by the results of the FSA, and they will continue to teach to that test, the Common Core infused test, regardless of what the standards say.
If DeSantis really wants to rip out every last vestige of Common Core, here's what he needs to do.
End the test.
Don't streamline it, modify, shorten it or edit it. End it. Cancel it.
Then, completely change the way Florida evaluates schools. No letter grades, and certainly no school assessment based on student scores on a single standardized test.
Once teachers and schools no longer have their fates tied to that single standardized test, they will feel free to pay attention to a new set of standards or even--crazy idea here--use their professional judgment to chart a great curricular course for the children of Florida. But if DeSantis intends to leave the FSA and the school grading system essentially intact, then all his big talk about the Common Core is just another cheap political stunt.
Given that the timeline is one year, it is unlikely that a major overhaul will take place. Expect a few to change: the ones parents are complaining about like new methods to add and subtract in second grade.
ReplyDeleteFlorida has opened a site where people can comment on the standards and the changes they want to see. In response, someone on Facebook asked, "We're now crowdsourcing our standards?"
As for the textbooks, we are in an adoption year for math. School districts have to risk buying books for five years that may be obsolete next year, or they may delay new books for two years (FLDOE announced this a few weeks ago.)
Whatever they do, this old geometry teacher will continue on as good teachers do: utilize the mediocre curriculum materials as much as possible, supplementing with other materials as needed to provide a level of excellence in learning for the students. I have had to write my own material to fill in the gaps of the textbook that I cannot find anywhere.