Thursday, January 24, 2013
FAYETTEVILLE — Students may already be finding instruction under the new Common Core State Standards to their liking, educators said Wednesday.
Cost of Remediation
Tracey Selby Tucker, director of curriculum and instruction at the Arkansas Department of Education, said the state spends $18 million a year to remediate students who enroll in Arkansas colleges and universities but can’t immediately take credit-bearing courses because they didn’t score high enough on an the entrance exam. When first calculated several years ago, the figure of $60 million, she said.
Source: Staff report.
Speaking at a League of Women Voters of Washington County panel discussion on Common Core, Marsha Jones, Springdale assistant superintendent, said her 13-year-old grandson discovered a new love for reading is the choice he has in selecting reading material.
“Teachers are figuring out this more, choice is a catalyst,” Jones told about 75 people at the Fayetteville Public Library. “Some of the dysfunction in learning is the lack of choice. This is what Common Core can do.”
Jones was joined on the panel by Kay Jacoby, executive director of curriculum, instruction and assessment in the Fayetteville School District; Nancy Smith, a kindergarten teacher at Butterfield Trail Elementary School; Sean Connors, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas; and Tracey Selby Tucker, director of curriculum and instruction at the Arkansas Department of Education.
Jacoby concurred and said a group of seventh-graders in Fayetteville were asked how their literacy class was progressing.
Students reported their reading was “‘more engaging’ and that’s the word they used,” she said. “They said it was more relevant.”
The panelists touched on such topics as implementing Common Core in Arkansas schools, the financial burden and assessments. The audience was also able to ask questions at the end of the program.
“This is a change process,” Tucker said. “Administrators have to have different conversations with teachers, patrons and parents. The standards are taking teachers to new levels they have never done before. This is a way to think about teaching and learning that is vastly different.”
School districts face a financial burden to implement Common Core from kindergarten through 12th grade, Jacoby said.
Teachers need a tremendous amount of professional development, which can be costly in terms dollars and time, she said. Resources, such as the books for classrooms, add to the cost, although she didn’t have a dollar amount on what the transition is costing Fayetteville schools.
One of the major challenges for schools is the shift in math standards.
Course content in math is changing. Algebra I replaces what is now eighth-grade math, and Algebra II is now the tent for Algebra I and pre-calculus will be the focus in the new Algebra II class, Jones said.
“Historically, geometry was needed to graduate,” she said. “Common Core sets as a bar Algebra II which is Algebra III or pre-calculus.”
The rigor is being increased in an effort to reduce the number of students who have to take remedial classes in college, Jones said.
“It’s much smarter for kids to stay on track and not accelerate too fast to gain the depth of understanding they need,” Jones said.