Education Next – Robert Pondiscio
“At Inside Schools, a website for parents covering New York City schools, reporter Lydie Raschka visits a dozen elementary schools and comes away concerned. “[I] saw firsthand how hard teachers are working to meet the new Common Core standards for reading,” she writes. “I also saw precious time wasted, as teachers seemed to confuse harder standards with puzzling language.” A striking example: At the teacher’s prompting, a kindergartner at PS 251 in Queens tries to define “text evidence” for the rest of the class. “Test ed-i-dence,” says the 5-year-old, tripping over the unfamiliar words, “is something when you say the word and show the picture. “Text evidence?” What’s with this incomprehensible jargon in kindergarten? What indeed. Raschka is absolutely correct to criticize the use of such arcane language and the practice of asking five-year-olds to toss around phrases like “text evidence” in kindergarten. Where I think she’s mistaken is in attributing it to Common Core.”(more)