{"id":10,"date":"2017-02-07T22:47:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T22:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2017-03-15T01:09:48","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T01:09:48","slug":"essay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/essay\/","title":{"rendered":"Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Source: Wikimedia.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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Teachers\u2019 Confusion about Common Core and Possible Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore anything else, preparation is the key to success.\u201d ~ Alexander Graham Bell<\/p>\n

Above, Bell illustrates the importance of preparation when trying to achieve success.\u00a0 Unfortunately, with the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS), teachers are not prepared to teach the new curriculum which will lead to unsuccessful teachers and students.\u00a0 This situation can be applied to Bell\u2019s claim that success is the result of preparation such as teachers are not prepared to teach their students the new curriculum which will lead to the failure of students\u2019 understanding of the concepts.\u00a0 By not being prepared, teachers and students cannot achieve success with the new CCSS curriculum.\u00a0 Common Core State Standards are quickly being implemented into schools across the country.\u00a0 The CCSS curriculum brings a new way of thinking and teaching into our schools.\u00a0 Teachers do not understand this curriculum, and this is negatively affecting students\u2019 learning and test scores.\u00a0 This paper answers the question: are teachers getting the support and resources necessary for them to fully understand the new curriculum and effectively teach their students?\u00a0 In this essay, I explore the possible different methods that try to help teachers transition to fully incorporating CCSS into their classrooms. \u00a0I determine that teachers are adequately prepared in CCSS for English language arts.\u00a0 I also conclude that teachers are not provided with enough training in CCSS for mathematics and that math specialists are the most effective way to resolve this issue and improve students\u2019 test scores.<\/p>\n

With the implementation of CCSS, many administrators, teachers, and parents are confused about the process of incorporating CCSS and principles in general.\u00a0 According to Chestnutt and Swars (2016<\/a><\/u>), University of Georgia education professors, as of 2015, 43 states had adopted CCSS and expected teachers to use a slow path to transition to CCSS within a few years.\u00a0 In 2010, states adopted CCSS which was followed by communication about CCSS\u2019s transition process and its curriculum and standards between administrators, teachers, and parents.\u00a0 The following year, teachers began to prepare for the new curriculum.\u00a0 CCSS started emerging in classrooms in 2012, and full implementation of CCSS was expected to occur in 2014. \u00a0However, within these four years, even though there was plenty of time for the transition, teachers were not given enough training and resources to be fully prepared to teach CCSS in a classroom (Chestnutt & Swars, 2016).<\/p>\n

During the implementation process, many questions rose about CCSS and its importance.\u00a0 Council of Great City Schools (2011<\/a><\/u>), a council that bring together the US\u2019s largest public school systems, explains that CCSS equalizes school standards among states and nations.\u00a0 Before CCSS, states set their own personal standards for what students should know at each grade level, and no two states had the exact same standards.\u00a0 There was no way to adequately compare students in different states, which made it difficult to decide which students were prepared for college and future careers.\u00a0 Because teachers were unable to decipher which students were best prepared for the future, CCSS was created.\u00a0 Council of Great City Schools emphasizes that CCSS creates \u201cconsistent, strong, clear benchmarks for English language, Arts and Math\u201d (p.1) in their three-minute video explaining CCSS. \u00a0With new standards come new curriculum, the CCSS curriculum focuses on critical thinking in both English language arts and math (Council of Great City Schools, 2011).<\/p>\n

The new curriculum and standards for English language arts have created a smooth transition for teachers and students while the new math curriculum has created many problems for both teachers and students.\u00a0 The Mercury News <\/em>(2016<\/a>), a well-known news outlet, states that the transition for English language arts was easy, and many students enjoy the CCSS curriculum, but on the other hand, the transition for the CCSS mathematics (CCSS-Math) was and is difficult.\u00a0 The CCSS-Math curriculum has created many problems for both teachers and students.\u00a0 Pat Wingert (2014<\/a>), an education reporter for The Atlantic<\/em>, explains that the new CCSS-Math textbooks highlight critical thinking much more often than memorization. \u00a0Wingert also explains that the new curriculum includes word problems that highlight critical thinking and focus on learning the topics which helps lay a stronger foundation for future learning (Wingert, 2014).\u00a0 In an interview between Luba Ostrashevsky (2016<\/a>), a reporter from The Hechinger Report<\/em>, and Juli Dixon, a math education professor at University of Central Florida, Dixon explains the new curriculum as \u201ca change in thinking. We used to teach procedural math, but now students have to understand the \u2018why\u2019 as much as the \u2018how\u2019\u201d (p.2).\u00a0 CCSS-Math take a new approach on how to teach students and includes ways for students to solve math problems by encouraging students to find their own way to solve problems.\u00a0 Most teachers can agree that CCSS-Math is very different from the previous state standards.\u00a0 In fact, Chestnutt and Swars (2016<\/a><\/u>) report that there is only 20-35% overlap between CCSS-Math and previous state standards.\u00a0 Due to the major differences between previous state standards and CCSS-Math, teachers are confused.<\/p>\n

It is assumed that teachers are fully prepared to teach after they receive a solid education in college and graduate school; however, teachers are unprepared for CCSS-Math.\u00a0 According to Pat Wingert (2014<\/a>), this is result of many undergraduate programs focusing on language arts and only requiring students to take a few math courses.\u00a0 By having little math training to begin with, teachers are already uncomfortable with teaching math.\u00a0 In fact, University of Central Florida requires future teacher students to take an additional class that explains how to teach CCSS-Math curriculum.\u00a0 If taught well, this class could be incredibly useful for future teachers.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it does not help current teachers who have already graduated from college.\u00a0 When interviewing teachers, Luba Ostrashevsky (2016<\/a>) learned that because many teachers were not taught CCSS-Math when they were in school, they feel as if they need \u201cto \u201cunlearn\u201d math and relearn it again\u201d (p. 5) in order to be able to successfully teach it.\u00a0 In other words, teachers feel they need to ignore all of their previous learning and completely start their education over and begin with CCSS-Math.\u00a0 This is another reason why teachers want more resources to help them understand and implement CCSS-Math.<\/p>\n

There are many different ways of educating teachers on the best possible approaches to teach CCSS-Math.\u00a0 Many people suggest professional development (PD) which can be in the form of a class or a workshop that focuses on a topic or an issue and offers solutions or tips.\u00a0 One downfall with PD is that there is only a limited amount of time, and therefore, one can only cover a limited amount of information.\u00a0 In order to create the most effective PD program possible, Bostic and Matney (2013<\/a><\/u>), education professors at Bowling Green State University, implemented a research project which attempted to learn the specific areas that teachers wanted more PD. Bostic and Matney also wanted to guarantee that the areas in which teachers desired more PD would most positively impact the students.\u00a0 They tested this alignment by comparing students\u2019 failed test scores with the potential support areas teachers pointed out. \u00a0After their research, Bostic and Matney learned that teachers wanted more PD on a range of topics but specifically \u201creasoning and making sense of math including operations, algebraic thinking, numbers, operations \u2013 fractions, measurement and data\u201d (p. 6). \u00a0The authors learned that these areas aligned with the concepts that students failed on their tests (Bostic & Matney, 2013).\u00a0 For PD to be effective, it needs to cater itself towards the teachers and students.<\/p>\n

Many schools have offered PD in order to help teachers transition to CCSS-Math. \u00a0Chestnutt and Swars (2016<\/a><\/u>) states that teachers described PD as \u201ccollaborative planning time with colleagues, structured and formal setting (seminars, workshops, conferences), and Professional Learning Communities\u201d (p. 4).\u00a0 These methods all seem to be effective teaching and learning strategies.\u00a0 However, in the same survey only 7% of teachers strongly agreed that their PD had prepared them to teach CCSS-Math.\u00a0 This statistic shows that PD is not working the way administrators assume it is and needs to be changed to better prepare teachers.\u00a0 The same survey also asked teachers what they believed would be the most effective way to design PD.\u00a0 They said PD should involve \u201cmodeling of lessons, unpacking the standards, and understanding differences between same lesson taught using CCSS-Mathematics and not CCSS-Mathematics\u201d (p. 5).\u00a0 These methods not only give teachers ideas on how to teach these concepts, but it also allows them to understand the concepts and the differences between CCSS-Math and the previous state standards.\u00a0 The survey goes on to find that to better prepare teachers, PD should emphasize: \u201cbuilding mathematical knowledge for teaching; developing abilities to interpret, analyze, and respond to children\u2019s thinking; learning ways of facilitating productive classroom discourse in mathematics; and addressing the needs of a variety of learners via the CCSS-Mathematics\u201d (p. 10).\u00a0 This survey conducted by Chestnutt and Swars (2016) has produced large amounts of information that are influential when planning PD for teachers.<\/p>\n

Researchers also needed to learn if PD could be effective if done correctly.\u00a0 Polly et al. (2013<\/a><\/u>), who are all education professors at different universities, implemented PD for a group of teachers, surveyed teachers, and tested students to see if their PD program was effective.\u00a0 While the authors do not give any specific descriptions of their PD, their research found that all but one of the teachers in their research project either stayed at or switched to a student-centered teaching style which makes everything about and for the students.\u00a0 Even more importantly, they also discovered that students\u2019 test scores rose after teachers had completed the PD program.\u00a0 This research suggests that if done correctly PD can be effective in not only helping teachers understand the new CCSS-Math but also in raising students\u2019 test scores and understanding (Polly et al., 2013).<\/p>\n

However, Pat Campbell, a University of Maryland math education researcher, argues that research has shown multiple times that PD is not an effective way to train teachers especially if administrators are trying to make major changes and improvements (Wingert, 2014<\/a>).\u00a0 Campbell emphasizes that a few short days with a specialist will not make the necessary, major, long-term impacts that are crucial for the understanding of these concepts for both teachers and students.\u00a0 As an alternative option, Campbell suggests a math specialist instead of PD.\u00a0 A principal from Springhurst, Julia Drake, agrees stating, \u201cA couple of days of professional development is not the same as someone in-house who really understands it\u201d (p. 2).\u00a0 Having a math specialist on-campus year-round is gaining more support as the best way to train teachers in CCSS-Math (Wingert, 2014).<\/p>\n

Having a math specialist always on a school\u2019s campus is a newer approach to helping teachers and students with CCSS-Math.\u00a0 According to Pat Wingert (2014<\/a>), a math specialist can work closely with teachers over a long period of time in order to make them feel 100% confident in their understanding and teaching.\u00a0 Math specialists typically help teachers create lesson plans and teach multiple ways of how to approach a problem.\u00a0 Both teachers and math specialists find it helpful if the math specialist sits in on their classes, gives feedback, and teaches some lessons for teachers to observe.\u00a0 In addition to this one-on one work, math specialists have the opportunity to provide long-term personalized courses for teachers in order to drill down concepts.\u00a0 Math specialists have shown to be incredibly successful at helping teachers and students with CCSS-Math; National Science Foundation (NSF), which is a government agency that supports research and education, conducted a study to see if students\u2019 test scores were affected by having math specialists at their school. The research study concluded the students from schools with math specialists scored much higher than students who went to schools that did not have a math specialist – this gap in test scores grows every year.\u00a0 Math specialists are proving to be an effective way of guiding teachers in understanding and teaching CCSS-Math.\u00a0 If studies continue to be positive for math specialists, as national math education expert, Phil Daro, once said, \u201cusing math specialists may be the only practical way\u201d (p. 6) to seamlessly transition teachers to CCSS-Math (Wingert, 2014).<\/p>\n

Although math specialists have positive evidence showing that it is an effective way to help teachers implement CCSS-Math, Pat Wingert (2014<\/a>) continues to report that math specialists can be expensive, and many schools cannot afford a math specialist and need alternative ways to help teachers with CCSS-Math. \u00a0There are other possible solutions for low income schools to help the transition.\u00a0 Chestnutt and Swars (2016<\/a><\/u>) state that some teachers explain that all they need is some more time to review the CCSS-Math curriculum; others suggest more opportunities to collaborate with their peers and more communication with administrators.\u00a0 Luba Ostrashevsky (2016<\/a>) offers another solution explaining that one school requires their teachers to take a 2-week math intensive where they are taught multiple skills to help them transition.\u00a0 All of these methods are good alternatives to a math specialist.\u00a0 An additional PD program can also help teachers transition if it is conducted correctly and efficiently.\u00a0 In the end, administrations need to be committed to helping their teachers transition to CCSS-Math and need to provide all of the support and resources necessary for a smooth transition.<\/p>\n

Common Core State Standards were created and implemented to standardize education benchmarks nationally and internationally.\u00a0 CCSS for English language arts transitioned seamlessly into schools, and children love the new curriculum.\u00a0 On the other hand, CCSS for mathematics has been harder for teachers to incorporate into their lesson plans.\u00a0 Teachers have argued that the resources schools have put into place to help teachers transition are not successfully helping teachers.\u00a0 Teachers also stated that because CCSS-Math\u2019s curriculum is very different from previous state standards many teachers do not understand the new curriculum.\u00a0 Research shows the best way to transition to CCSS-Math is to hire a math specialist to help teachers.\u00a0 However, this is an expensive solution so other possible solutions are more collaboration, more PD, and more time for the teachers to fully understand CCSS-Math.\u00a0 Although, there are some kinks to work out in the system, Common Core State Standards have the possibility to make many positive impacts on our education system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Teachers\u2019 Confusion about Common Core and Possible Resources \u201cBefore anything else, preparation is the key to success.\u201d ~ Alexander Graham Bell Above, Bell illustrates the importance of preparation when trying to achieve success.\u00a0 Unfortunately, with the implementation of Common … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1864,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1864"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/mason17lbst80\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}