The Real Story Behind the Facebook Common Core Math Problem...surprise ending!!!

The viral Facebook Common Core math problem posted by an angry father is no more. The background story is much deeper, and that dad? He now supports Common Core.

How could anything turn around like this? I've fine-tuned the story to the essentials. So much for the phony outrage. Edweek.

How it all started:

After a long and frustrating homework session with his 2nd grade son one day last school year, Jeff Severt dashed off a letter to the teacher. "I have a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. ... Even I cannot explain the common-core mathematics approach, nor get the answer correct."

A word problem about a fictional student named Jack had put Mr. Severt, of Cary, N.C., over the edge. Mr. Severt's wife snapped a picture of the "common core" math problem and the note to the teacher, and put them on Facebook. The post went viral.

Here’s interesting point #1:

The response from the lead writers of the common standards for math was perhaps the most interesting: The problem wasn't part of the common core, said mathematicians William G. McCallum and Jason Zimba. It was simply the product of a badly written curriculum.  The common standards for math differ from most previous state standards in significant ways. They are fewer in number, connect more broadly across grade levels, and emphasize conceptual understanding along with the procedural skills that schools have traditionally taught.
  ...what some see as critical misunderstandings about the common core—perhaps the most fundamental and widespread of which is that the standards are a "curriculum." The standards are intended to be benchmarks for what students should know and be able to do. Curriculum, on the other hand, "is the 'stuff' of learning, the content of what is taught in school—especially as embodied in the materials used in instruction."

Here’s the most interesting point #2 about the whole controversy:

Mr. Severt, of Facebook renown, eventually replied to the barrage of comments on his son's math problem. He explained that his son, who has autism spectrum disorder, "knew the math answer immediately in his head. But this problem required a narrative answer utilizing a number line. While he knew the math, he balked at the answer being a writing assignment—his greatest anxiety." Mr. Severt decried the focus on "next-level critical thinking" over basic operations with such young students. At the same time, he defended the assignment to a point, calling it "creatively valid." 

Walker's Tea Party attacks on Common Core gets Big "F" from Educators, general public.

With no alternative proposal waiting in the wings to replace Common Core, and not one suggestion about how they would make education uniquely Wisconsin, big government Republicans in Madison want to toss Common Core right out the window. It's big talk to the little minds in the tiny tea party base. 

Now even officials in a few conservative area's of the state are complaining:

AP: Officials in Janesville, Milton, Clinton and other districts say they oppose Gov. Scott Walker's recent call to abandon Common Core curriculum standards because doing so would cost them time and money. School officials in say they have invested time and money in creating curriculum based on Common Core, and abandoning it will be costly … spent an estimated $25 million on Common Core development.

Elkhorn School District administrator Jason Tadlock agreed: "By having a common set of general bench marks, such as Common Core, districts can leverage our efforts and resources by working with schools across the nation with an assurance that we are working toward similar levels of rigor." He said it was difficult to share resources and gauge progress before Common Core was adopted.

"I wish politicians would stay out of our way and let us do our job," Clinton Superintendent Randy Refsland said. "Politicians have enough of their own important issues they need to address."

The Cap Times may be liberal, but even they would have tried to create the image of balance in a recent question they asked about Common Core. Oddly, there wasn't one "man on the street" dissent.

Note: We should no longer tolerate listening to anyone claiming CC is a government takeover or that it's a curriculum, because it's neither. Even more moronic is the idea we should toss Common Core because so many people don't understand it. That's an answer? Just check out the comments section, and you'll see what I mean:

Walker was for Common Core, before he was Against It!!!

Scott Walker may regret he ever brought it up: Repealing Common Core.

First off, if you want to know what's happening in our public schools, check out WisSoapBox. It was there I found out Walker didn't just supported Common Core, he put it in writing (in red below).

Think about it: When Scott Walker announced he wanted to repeal the Common Core standards, he was essentially turning our educational system over to those low information, conspiracy laden tea party voters who have a penchant for misspelling the simplest protest signs. That's Scott Walker:

Whoopsie-doodle... Governor Walker stepped in it.

jsonline: Walker's statement calling for dumping Common Core comes after he has worked with the state DPI for the past several years on education reform issues that all hinge on successful implementation of the standards.

But, but what?! Oh, so Gov. Walker was for it before he was against it? (Oh 2004 Kerry campaign.) Seriously, if anyone wanted to know why he wasn't saying much about Common Core before now, this is why - He actually worked with them and utilized them in a lot of what he did with respect to school accountability.

In his 2011-'13 budget veto message to the Assembly, Walker wrote that his budget supported greater accountability and performance in K-12 education by "investing $15 million in the development of a statewide student information system and requiring the Department of Public Instruction to implement new pupil assessment based on mastery of Common Core Standards by 2014-15."

Will Mary Burke or the media run with this? 

Victory! Oklahoma restores Educational Freedom with repeal of Common Core, Europe’s sneaky attempt to dumb down U.S.

All the time and investment by Oklahoma public schools…down the drain. 

The tea party win means possible relocation of businesses looking for an educated labor force in other states: 

Fox News: Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill on Thursday to repeal the Common Core education standards, getting rid of the new guidelines for math and English scheduled to go into effect in Oklahoma schools in the upcoming school year ... requires the state to return to old standards in place before 2010 and directs new ones to be developed by 2016. 

And if you're looking for an outright conservative curriculum approved by a panel of politicians...

It requires all new standards and revisions to be subject to legislative review. The more rigorous standards were supported by the business community, including the politically powerful State Chamber, as a way to help better prepare Oklahoma students for college or the workforce ... more than 60 percent of the school districts in the state already have aligned curriculum with the new standards, according to state education officials. 

Looks like the business community picked the wrong group of friends to hang out with.

UPDATE: 6/6/14:  Goodbye Common Core: A few more states have decided to create their own "high standards," you know, where they can manipulate scores by dumbing down the politicized curriculum. Think these tests will look real good for the party in charge? That was easy. 

MSNBC: Oklahoma and South Carolina both passed laws removing their states from the Common Core initiative this week and last. since states began implementing the Common Core, conservatives have balked at what they see as government overreach and a pricey implementation of new educational standards and computer testing. Many have abandoned the idea of standardized, national assessments altogether, The Washington Post reports. 

The "pricey implementation?" Dropping something districts have spent time and money on since 2010 isn't pricey? Creating a whole new standard and corresponding tests isn't "pricey?" Republicans are real geniuses. The truth is, price isn't an issue, they just don't want to have anything to do with something that has Democratic fingerprints all over it.

Opposition to Common Core isn't about education, it’s pure politics.

It will be interesting to see how far the U.S. descends into the abyss before the public notices their government has completely collapsed. I also worry that Americans might get used to dysfunction, accepting their place in society as something they blame themselves for, and not their political party. 

Common Core is showing us all why we can no longer government ourselves like a real country, which makes me nervous as hell.

ObamaCore? Forget it. Leave it up to the states to prepare their kids for the global market, with 50 experiments going on at the same time, and no real way to know it’s working.

Because Common Core is a set of standards, and not a curriculum, it would seem hard to argue against it since each state can come up with their own localized plan. Common Core is dependent on each state taking the same agreed to tests, since that’s only way to measure the success rate of each state’s quality of education. Makes sense, right? Nope, not to some.

And opponents of CC know just how to kill what they consider a government takeover and a liberal propagandist curriculum; create their own test, lower standards and have higher scores. At least it will look good.

Teachers hate it too? But the media is also making things worse with headlines like this:

Chicago Union Passes Resolution Opposing Common Core

But that’s not true either…

…they support the standards themselves but think implementation has been lousy, with states and districts failing to provide enough teacher support or high-quality curricula. 

There’s nothing nefarious about Common Core, but you can't tell that to our paranoid right wing. Extremely conservative forces say no to reform, because it's a secret European plan to dumb down America. But we don’t need Common Core to do that, since we’re about as dumbed down as we can get. Proof? Check out this interview from WKOW's Capitol City Sunday, with losing DPI Superintendent candidate and Republican Rep. Don Pridemore, who thank god isn't running again. This is what we're up against:

Tea Party Demands End to Common Core, to Hell with Everyone Else...

Funny how a small minority of tea party fanatics think they can tell the rest of Wisconsin, the state department of public instruction, schools superintendents, school boards, teachers and parents that they can't have Common Core. Three years of taxpayer dollars funding the change, gone.

Teabillies seem to think one party rule means they can simply ignore everyone else. The arrogance and rabid authoritarian mindset that drives these control freaks should send a shudder down the spines of parents everywhere.

With no alternative in the offing, and a blind hatred of Obama and anything governmental, tea party members attending the Republican convention this weekend explained their irrational behavior by listing why they can't stand Common Core:

1. Nothing more than a continuation of the past failed programs of the federal Department of Education and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction that sought to indoctrinate students instead of educating them.

2. As a biased champion for Common Core in Wisconsin Sen. Luther Olsen has failed to withdraw his involvement in educational matters in which he has a conflict of interest.

3. Olsen and Rep. Steve Kestell do not seem to have the ability, inclination or commitment to represent the views and positions of their constituents ... the state and the Republican National Committee.

To be clear, the tea party is still worried about liberal/UN/socialist/union "indoctrination," allowing different viewpoints in developing educational standards and towing the supposed "district" and mostly party line.

When Republican Rep. Don Pridemore ran for state superintendent, he gave voice to the tea party lunatic fringe trying to bring everybody down to their IQ level. From WKOW's Capitol City Sunday:

Warning, Common Core not for Parents...

The title is true, in a way. Having gone through a pre-Common Core curriculum with my two boys, I never did understand what appeared to be a better way of doing math, but that's understandable- I wasn't in their classroom.

Bashing Common Core is easy, like the picture here posted by a frustrated father. Thanks to Vox.com, a great new service that explains these things, you'll see why parents don't have to be afraid. Check out all the links at Vox too, and send them to your idiot Republican legislator.

Remember, Common Core is all about understanding the how and why things work. Like the math problem below. You'll also see why we need teachers, and how important they really are:

One goal of the Common Core math standards is to make American students better at applying math in real life — a skill that's crucial for science and technology jobs, but one at which American students are particularly weak compared with peers around the world. The theory is that if students understand why they do math the way they do, they'll be able to apply their skills more flexibly.

The underlying lesson: "Numbers aren't these brittle, fragile things that break," Dan Meyer, a former high school math teacher. "They can play with them in fun, flexible ways."

Students will still learn what's known as the standard algorithm, the way that their parents learned to multiply, divide, add, and subtract. But they'll also learn other methods that try to make the underpinnings of the standard method more obvious.

"What we want to tell parents to do is they don't need to teach the math," says Briars, the president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. "What they need to help their children do is figure out, what is the problem asking you?"

Still stumped? Watch the video:

Rep. Robin Vos' Tea Party challenger one issue Common Core opponent, likes Secession too.

Despite coming in at half the rate of the public school system scores, Republicans continue to push the expansion of vouchers statewide.

But when it comes to an untested but encouraging concept like Common Core, kill it now before it destroys our children.

That’s what we’re having to deal with from conservative hardliners who just won’t budge from any part of their ideological failings. Their belief system is infallible, like the Bible, which is also part of their platform.

With conspiracies about Europe’s Common Core attack on American education, and claims secession is possible and not unconstitutional, Assembly wise ass Rep. Robin Vos has a primary challenger. Racine Journal Times: 

Bryn Biemeck of Mount Pleasant says she will run as a Republican against Vos, R-Rochester, to “bring new ideas and a fresh outlook to the party.”

The new idea and fresh outlook? Kill Common Core. This secession supporting “state’s rights” teabilly is just another sign Wisconsin is becoming the new most southern state…

Her primary issue is the Common Core education standards and eliminating them in Wisconsin … She said her opposition to Common Core is part of her strong support of states’ rights, also mentioning a secession resolution … as something she supports. The resolution “supports legislation that upholds Wisconsin’s right, under extreme circumstances, to secede,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Biemeck believes in “approaching states’ rights (with) that attitude. Ideally, Wisconsin should govern itself and should make its own decisions about its people.” 

Incidental Governor Walker hangs back, let's Legislature take heat over his own plan to Kill Common Core.

Killing Common Core gets the low information tea party vote at the expense of our kids. And isn't that worth the price of winning reelection? Scott Walker thinks so, to the point he had his staff write a new set of standards that puts public education in the hands its enemy, Republican legislators.

Unless Republican parents of kids in public schools are so repulsed by Walker’s actions that they vote Democratic, we’re setting ourselves up for decades of possible decline, partisan debates and the loss of taxpayer accountability.

This is all so unnecessary.

   

The Incidental Governor: Without publically pushing it, Walker isn't about to say anything controversial or divisive. As usual, he’s hiding his position from the public so his rubber stamp legislature takes the heat while still doing his bidding. It’s his MO.

And true to form, Walker will again ignore pubic opposition under the guise of “leadership,” where his decisions may not be popular, but he's doing it for our own good.

jsonline: District superintendents, university education professors, school board members and representatives of groups such as the Wisconsin State Reading Association are scheduled to hold a news conference in the Capitol to oppose Senate Bill 619 before it gets a hearing in the Senate Education Committee … Lawmakers could accept and amend standards the committee recommended, even if the state superintendent didn't agree.

The School Administrators Alliance organized the news conference, saying the proposal would throw out the expertise and expense the state has put into investing in new college and career-ready standards, which are tied to new state tests coming out this year.

Vukmir and Farrow say … Wisconsin can do better than the "one size fits all" expectations.

But isn't a statewide “one size fits all” Wisconsin standard, dictated by Madison Republicans, the same thing? 

What, who would ever politicize Public Education and Common Core, asks Tea Party Rep. Jeremy Theisfeldt.

What is it about Republican lawmakers writing sloppy laws? Aren't we all tired of hearing them say after the fact how shocked they were that people would use the laws in ways they didn't “intend?”

Well, here we go again. Tea Party Republican Rep. Jeremy Theisfeldt is ticked off the superintendent of public instruction would take the lead on education. Fancy that.

WSJ: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers unilaterally adopted Common Core. Legislation is now pending.

Theisfeldt wrongly believes Evers is actually more worried about losing power than improving education in Wisconsin. Everything revolves around “power”…if your Republican, not public service.

DPI is fighting a turf war to avoid its power being curtailed by SB 619.

And how about Evers worry that legislators will politicize education? Impossible?

DPI has particularly targeted the end of the proposed revision process in which legislators could potentially debate and amend standards. While conceivable, this would be unlikely. I don’t know a legislator who aspires to reach that point.

That’s right, the law would allow the complete politicization of education…but no one would ever do that, right? Forget about writing the law to prevent that. Who would do that?

State Schools Superintendent Tony Evers...Deer in the GOP Headlights, while GOP Sen. Luther Olsen warns of jobs and Business losses.

On WPT's Here and Now, Superintendent Tony Evers appeared stunned by the vindictive attack on education, and the irrational hatred directed at Common Core.

With no real solutions offered by the radical elements of the Republican state legislature, Evers has no idea what is coming next. After 3 years of preparation, along with college entrance exams geared to Common Core, abandoning the system now would just destabilize public education. Which might just be the point.

If you think Evers is just making things up, try to answer the same questions he's struggling with right now. Will the Tea Party Republicans get their way and turn our kids into low information voters?



Still not convinced, well check out Republican Sen. Luther Olsen's dire warning about the consequences of killing Common Core, and we're talking about jobs business in this state. Warning, if you have kids, this will depress you even more. From WKOW's Capitol City Sunday -Greg Neumann:



Wisconsin Soapbox tracked down the actual language of the proposed GOP reform law:

Remember when the Senator's went ape over how Sup. Evers said that the legislature would have the ability to rewrite standards? Sup. Evers today went to DPI's lawyers asking that they take a look into the matter. They did, and their letter was posted online today HERE. 

If the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (“JCRAR”) rejects the state superintendent’s model academic standards, the JCRAR is required to “prepare a bill that incorporates by reference” the standards prepared by the Model Academic Standards Board. Id. The bill is then introduced “in each house of the legislature as provided under [Wis. Stat. §§] 227.19(5)(e) to (g) and (6)(b)…” Id.   

While SB 619 provides that the bill must incorporate the Model Academic Standards Board’s standards by reference, nothing in SB 619 or Wis. Stat. §§ 227.19(5)(e) to (g) and (6)(b) prohibits the legislature from modifying the bill once it has been introduced. In other words, once JCRAR introduces the bill into the Senate and the Assembly, the Senate or Assembly could pass any amendment to modify the model academic standards contained in the bill.