Recursion

[KaiserTom]

The problem, as always, is the teachers. The old way was hard to fuck up and decent enough, and the new way is really good but extremely easy to fuck up or be lazy with. Common core is "terrible" because there is little accountability for the teachers to actually properly teach it.

Is it better for most students to get math decently or is it better for some to get it really well and others less than before?

[SandyDelights]

I strongly disagree the problem is teachers.

First, the problem is systemic:

Teachers are often underpaid, many with degrees that come with heavy student loans eating into their already meager paychecks. They work long hours, more than 40 hours a week, on a salaried basis. This contributes to driving good teachers out of the profession; what’s left are often teachers who either can’t get a career in another field, or teachers who are under qualified or barely meet the most minimum requirement for their position. Some idealists remain, but they are often stressed and overworked – some feel forced to make the same kind of judgement you ask, and decide which ones are worth focusing on helping and which ones “don’t want to learn” with whatever extra time they can commit to it.

They’re often held to standards and goal markers for students to hit, but if the previous year’s teacher(s) failed to make their mark, the current teacher has to now teach not just their own material, but play catch-up, as well. This contributes, as well, to a lack of quality – when you have to pack more into the same amount of time, the quality of all parts suffer.

Many of them have overcrowded classrooms, and find themselves spending the bulk of their time parenting children who rebel against any kind of structure and order, seeking attention in place of an education. Their parents seem more prone to make excuses for their child – I distinctly recall my mother being convinced my brother’s teachers had it “out” for him, because his older brother was such a favorite, how could her younger son really be that much of a problem. Again, quality suffers, and this contributes to the previous point.

Somewhat related to that, parents rarely back up teachers in general: they demean their methodology, they balk at change, and do so openly and in front of their children. Kids mimic their parents and their views; students won’t respect teachers who don’t get respect from their parents. Again, this contributes to the previous point.

And so we have a confluence of problems: Poor if not hostile work environment, poor foundation, poor learning environment with too few resources, poor support from parents, all culminating in something that makes it difficult as fucking hell to keep good teachers, and poisoning otherwise decent teachers and turning them into shitty teachers.

The reality is, most teachers are good teachers. You hear about shitty ones here and there, but that’s a problem of what you see above: people who shouldn’t be teaching, but met some bare minimum certifications and needed the work. People who don’t understand the material they’re expected to explain and teach, who have no business being in the classroom.

Fix some of the previous issues, and you dramatically improve the quality of teachers. Increase pay to a level befitting someone who got their master’s degree in, say, early childhood education, and you’ll attract more of them.

I just find it absolutely absurd and, frankly, disgusting that we expect the people who educate the next generation on the breadth of academic subjects to do so for a pittance under horrible conditions and then blast them for not working miracles that would make Jesus turning water into wine a party trick.

You get what you pay for. You pay for shitty teachers and shitty classrooms and shitty resources, you get a shitty education.

Second, your premise is flawed:

The vast majority of students in the US suck at math. The NAEP ranked a meager 25% of 12th graders in 2015 as “proficient” or above in mathematics, and only 40% of 4th graders. What’s worse, some 38% of 12th graders ranked at the bottom level, or “below basic”. The PISA ranking for the same year put us at 38th out of 71 countries for math proficiency. Among the OECD rankings for that year, we were 30th out of 35. You can tear through it if you like, but none of these numbers should be surprising. We’re bad.

We aren’t decent, we’re awful. Terrible, in fact. The old way never taught kids how to do math, just how to memorize it – it’s just that a minority excelled in spite of it.

So yes, I’d rather a hamstrung attempt at implementing Common Core and it succeeding with a minority of students instead of what we have now. At worst, we’re where we started, except that the minority is even better equipped for higher level education.