FAYETTEVILLE -- Common Core standards for literacy and math left some people with an unsettled feeling that persisted five years after they were adopted by the state Board of Education, Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin said Friday.
The way the standards were adopted and implemented set them up to fail, Griffin said.
Governor’s Council on Common Core Review
Announced by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in February
Led by Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin
16-member council of educators, parents and business people
Heard testimony on standards in literacy, math in nine cities
In June, recommended replacing Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exams with ACT Aspire exams
In July, issued six pages of findings, recommendations on Common Core
"The process, the way it was done, automatically started everybody on the wrong foot," Griffin said. "People frustrated with the process were less likely to like the substance. This festered."
Griffin gave a lecture Friday in the auditorium of the Graduate Education Building on the University of Arkansas campus. He was a guest in a lecture series organized by the school's Department of Education Reform.
Griffin led the Governor's Council on Common Core Review from February through the end of July, when the council released six pages of findings and recommendations on the standards, which direct what children learn in math and literacy at each grade level.
The recommendations included leaving Common Core in place for a little longer while its standards are reviewed and revised. The council also recommended changes for state testing that the state board approved in July.
The next revision needs to have the support of parents, Griffin said.
"The kids are not yours," Griffin said. "Parents play a critical role here and need to be part of this collaboration."
Shannon Dingman, an associate professor of math education, said the former ways of teaching math led to a situation where nearly 60 percent of high school graduates in Arkansas were not ready for college algebra.
"My big fear is they'll scrap the whole thing and do something different," Dingman said. "People hearken back to the good ol' days. If you're struggling helping your second- or third-grade student doing math, something tells me your math education was not as good as you thought it was."
The math standards under Common Core balance knowing math facts with teaching students to think and reason through problems, he said. Students learn properties of math, which teaches them to break numbers apart to make problems easier to solve.
One common frustration was in the way math was being taught, Griffin said. Teachers in many districts were shifting to new ways of teaching math at the same time the standards were being implemented.
Parents didn't know how to help their children when they had questions on the math homework, Griffin said.
"'Dad, I need you to look over this,'" Griffin said, while giving an example of what might happen at home. "'You're drawing like 300 boxes. What are you doing? Congratulations. You're an artist.'"
Griffin said many parents never received an explanation of how math was being taught.
Tammy Guthrie, who supports classroom teachers in teaching math and science at Hellstern Middle School in Springdale, questions the need to revisit the standards.
"Why are all citizens given equal voice when experts did the research and standards are well thought out?" she said.
Guthrie said she felt equipped and supported by the Springdale School District, the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative and education advocates across the state during the transition to new standards.
The old ways require students to remember many steps when solving a multiplication problem, such as 0.25 X 187 X 4, Guthrie said. Rather than remember where to carry numbers, add in zeros and place decimals, students now learn to recognize that 0.25 is equivalent to the value of a quarter, four quarters equals $1, leaving 187 X 1, which equals 187.
Her colleague Rachel Carethers, who writes math curriculum for Springdale, said she thinks experts in mathematics should be the ones who write and revise the standards.
Griffin said with the immediate access people have to news and information on social media, people are used to communicating their preferences and want a voice.
"You can't force something on people and expect them to say, 'OK, I don't have a voice,'" Griffin said. "If you don't like it, you can put something on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram."
Metro on 09/19/2015