This is a first had account of the recent meeting hosted by school administrators of the Hollis Brookline Cooperative School District. The meeting was held on Wednesday, January 29th. The Hollis/Brookline Administrators put on a presentation tonight on how they were implementing the Common Core standards in the district.
The presentation started at 6pm and ended around 7:10. The meeting was scheduled to end at 7:30 so that left about 20 mins for questions.
There were about 4 or 5 questions asked by the audience. Many left without being able to ask their question.
When parents arrived, one gentleman was at the door with a petition to stop Common Core in the district.
When the questions began, the petitioner read a statement on why the Common Core Standards were not good for the kids in the district. He cited many factual critical points on Common Core that were never given in the presentation.
One parent said that the presentation should have been given 3 years ago when they decided to implement the standards in the district.
Another parent commented that the transition has his daughter repeating the same math in 8th grade that she did the year before.
One parent commented that the Superintendent seemed to be on the defensive with his answers. The Super. kept telling the audience to become more involved in the process. HE was basically doing what he’s been guided to do.
Another parent brought up the 5 step process of the Common Core and asked the question, is the the best they can do?
No parent that was allowed to ask a question, came out in support but it was obvious many were against it.
There was a request by one parent to offer a debate on Common Core in the district. IT will be interesting to see if they follow through on that.
During the presentation, NO critical information on Common Core was offered. However the Math teacher kept telling the audience how the Common Core, through the new skills they would be teaching (Collaboration, etc.) the kids would be taught critical thinking skills. This seemed odd since the district didn’t display any critical thinking or analysis on Common Core.
THe audience was told that 21st Century skills were embedded in the Standards. (These are non-academic soft skills) NO critical analysis of incorporating soft skills in the standards was offered.
They mentioned how they had to use existing resources to fund Common Core. One parent gave me a figure of $390k or new technology that taxpayers would be required to pay. One has to wonder why the Superintendent didn’t mention 28-a of the NH Constitution that prohibits unfunded mandates.
The Math teacher explained how she was going to get kids to work in groups and collaborate on math problems. This is now sold as a way to get kids to critically think. No one mentioned how to get kids to master math facts/basics since that seems to be one of the biggest problems in math education today. From her presentation, there’d be less focus on practicing math problems and focusing on real world problems. They didn’t mention this study out of Ohio State The findings run counter to what Dr. Kaminski said was a “pervasive assumption” among math educators that concrete examples help more children better understand math.
The audience was given the standard talking points about how these standards were internationally benchmarked but no countries were cited.
One parent wanted clarification on opting out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment since they were told there was NO opting out. Then they conceded that one could opt out if the child is sick. The Administrators were unsure if kids could opt out based on HB542 which allows parents to opt out of objectionable materials at their expense and replace it with something they approve of with the approval of the Administration.
Another presentation by another school in New Hampshire that failed to offer any critical analysis on Common Core.
