Georgia students return to school and to new Common Core Standards
From the state Department of Education today:
Educators across Georgia will begin teaching the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS) in mathematics, English language arts, as well as literacy in science, social studies, and technical subjects, when they return to school this year.
The CCGPS are part of the Common Core State Standards, a state-led initiative developed two years ago in conjunction with the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The goal is to establish a uniform set of expectations for what students will learn no matter where they attend school and to ensure that students are ready for college and careers after high school graduation.
“These standards will better prepare our students for success beyond high school and allow us to see how we measure up against other states,” said state School Superintendent Dr. John Barge. “Also, because we are such a transient society, these standards can help ensure some level of consistency in what is taught from state to state.”
The standards have been adopted by 46 states, the U.S. Department of Defense’s education programs and three U.S. territories. Georgia formally adopted the standards in July 2010.
In Georgia, educators have been training on the new standards since March 2011. The GaDOE has offered numerous resources, both online and in person, throughout the state.
School administrators from across the state will gather at the Centreplex in Macon on Tuesday for a summit on Common Core. Speakers at the summit will include Bill McCallum, head of the University of Arizona’s mathematics department and a lead author on the math standards. It also will include Cheryl Dunkle, president of the Colorado Association of Elementary School Principals.
For Georgia teachers and students, the move to CCGPS won’t create drastic changes because the state’s curriculum already closely matched the standards outlined in the Common Core.
Below are some examples of changes students will see under Common Core:
• Third-graders will learn how to multiply and divide large numbers. They also will learn the function of adverbs, which was previously taught in fourth and fifth grade.
• Fourth-graders will tackle adding and subtracting fractions, which was not taught until fifth-grade under the former curriculum.
• Eighth-graders will be taught the Pythagorean Theorem, rather than learning the concept in ninth-grade.
•Under Georgia Performance Standards, students were taught pronoun-antecedent agreement in seventh-grade. Common Core will teach that grammar rule in third-grade.
Explore more about the CCGPS at the links below:
-From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Scho0led blog
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68 comments Add your comment
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
11:24 am
Catlady, speaking of rote memorization, I agree with rote memorization, particularly when it involves multiplication tables “to the twelves.”
Just curious, do you do any interesting activities to encourage math?
I use my measuring cups at home to teach fractions. One half a cup of this plus one half a cup of that equals one cup — using water and measuring cups.
I use playing cards to teach math as well. We play black jack at home to help my children learn to memorize sums.
Yahtzee and dice are also good and cheap ways to sneak math into the curriculum.
I have my kids roll the dice. They get a six and a two. I ask them to multiply six and two. I’ll then get two di with a six showing on each and have them count it, then punch it in on the Dollar Store solar calculator to check their work. They like it. They get it.
Just wondering what you do in the classroom.
No
July 27th, 2012
11:26 am
@ Jerry
Can’t agree about Barge. Especially after he just supported and endorsed the award to Chip Rogers of all people the “Education Reformer of the Year Award” in conjunction with Rhee’s Student First.
It’s all about the money and power.
Ole Guy
July 27th, 2012
1:40 pm
So Ga Teach…I’m not sure if I should interpret your question, as to my work status, as insulting or merely one of curiosity. For the record: no, I do not/would never associate myself with an organization which has demonstrated, over the years, the unique skill of achieving less than nothing while expending millions…and keeping a straight face the whole time. I am retired, both from commercial enterprise, and from the services of the Red White and Blue; I currently serve, in a consultative basis, for that very same flag. I’ve “been there; done that”, and I’ve seen what “organizational blindfolders” can do; the effects these lead weights have on output, whether it’s producing widgets or conducting military operations under trying conditions. Judging from the dismal “products” of the current educational systems, both in Georgia, and across this great land, it is all too apparent that education has become infected by the very same organizational impediments which history has shown to be the best guarantee of organizational breakdown, systems failure, and ultimate disaster.
While we, as a Country have, over the years, watched our global posture diminish on economic, political, and educational fronts, we are constantly bombarded by the “new and improved” mantra; all our leaders (our so-called leaders) know how to do is take the same ole approach to the challenges and label this approach “new and improved”. Meanwhile, those who occupy the “front lines” of education simply stand by and await further instructions from the bridge, even when they know that the bridge is manned by “Daffy Duck leadership”…unlike social (in general) and (specifically) educational challenges of the past, no one, within those trenches, seems truly interested in taking the initiative in assuming a leadership role in correcting the many “anomalies”, within education, which have come to be accepted as…par for the course.
While my comments have probably bordered on “teacher bashing”, the hard, sad reality remains…EVERYONE remotely associated with education…teachers, administrators, parents, politicians, and, yes, even the kids themselves, have become so damn lazy. REAL…and I mean REAL change can be both tough and extremely unpopular, but that’s the ONLY…and I mean ONLY way we AND that which we euphamistically refer to as THE FUTURE can possibly realize real achievements. Otherwise, everyone’s simply fooling everyone else.
Truthbetold
July 27th, 2012
3:31 pm
To Mikey D.
July 27th, 2012
9:43 am
Title I funds can no longer be used to purchase food. If this is the case, at your school, someone is in violation of misappropriating federal dollars.
catlady
July 27th, 2012
4:20 pm
Ole Guy and Patricia: I swear! Can’t use timed tests, can’t use flash cards. I guess it is someone’s thinking that having those basics established by rote is not important to being able to do more complex math problems. And when I said that kids who don’t master those facts should be held back, you would have thought I suggested hanging!
Parent/Teacher
July 27th, 2012
5:53 pm
Math is not fun or enjoyable if you don’t understand the basic facts or concepts of numbers. The best way I have found to reach my students is to incorporate throughout the school day. Students do need rote memorization and they get it whether someone says not to. It may be as x-tra credit for timed test or competition. Fractions, geometry, money, time and place value can all be taught during the day whether it’s in the pacing chart or not. Students want to feel non-threatened about math and making it a constant has really helped my students.
Patricia Tomlinson
July 27th, 2012
6:38 pm
@ catlady As I said in my earlier posting I have never taught where rote memorization was not part of the package when teaching basic facts. Flashcards, timed tests, etc. was and is a part of the package as well as any other system such as TouchMath. There is no one way for all to learn, so lots of different strategies must used to build understanding of the fact as well as memorization of the fact whether it is through pictorial representations or the use of manipulatives to build concrete examples of the fact as well as real world examples such as a parking lot.
@Pride and Joy Every manipulative you mentioned I have used in my public school classroom when teaching math concepts.
@ Ole Guy I don’t necessarily think we should tear the entire system down, but perhaps you might want to find one of your local schools volunteer some of your time.
Prof
July 27th, 2012
6:48 pm
@ EduKtr. You’ve repeated your same post here 5 times, at 9:44 am, 9:49 am, 9:55 am, 10:32 aqm, and 10:36 am. Are you trying for the gift card offered by the charter school movement for blog entries? See this post on the blog about Parent Trigger laws which favor charter schools by Caroline Grannan, July 27th, 3:43 pm:
“Students First offered me a gift card if I post a positive comment about the parent trigger. Way to buy support, corporate ed reformers!
From: Catherine Robinson
> Date: July 26, 2012 9:58:12 PM EDT
> To: Catherine Robinson [Grannan]
> Subject: rapid responses needed – and a contest!
>
Hi all,
… starting right now, there will be a monthly contest for the best rapid response. The more comments you leave on blog posts, the more times you can enter! Post a polite and persuasive pro-reform comment and email me the link so I can check it out….”
Ole Guy
July 27th, 2012
11:47 pm
Excellent thoughts, Cat…timed tests, flash cards; anything which transposes the educational process from (what I have witnessed as…) passive lecturing to the “on-your-toes keep your head in the game” pattern of question/response/question/response, etc.
There is a concept known as MATH SENSE…the process by which basic quantitative relationships are “engrained” into the gray matter. The kid, for example, should not have to start counting fingers and toes in order to view quantitative data in easily manageable groupings of ten, rather than multi-digit numbers. As applications move along the progression from elementary arithmetical concepts to the advanced mathematical disciplines, the kid develops “mathematical maturity” by which these basic relationships are applied to the Xes, Ys, and Zeez…the unknowns; the tans/cotans, etc, and THEIR relationships to the strange concepts of advanced mathematics. The entire process is predicated on developing that MATHEMATICAL MATURITY which can only be attained through the DISCIPLINED approach to the very basics. So if it takes flash cards, tarot cards, or ju ju beads…just ensure it gets done. Those who can hack it…GREAT! Those who can’t/don’t care to expend the effort…GIT EM OUT SO THEY CAN’T INFECT THOSE WHO WANT IT. THIS, Cat, is where YOU, the entire teacher corps, can affect good things…ONLY if you’ve (collectively) got the guts.
This NCLB crap is/was, perhaps one of the worse forms of trickery/chicanery the educational elite ever pulled on a generation. In 4th grade, we all had to EARN the title “master multiplier” by reciting the tables…2 thru 12…clickety clickety click…failure/the slighest hesitation was met with Sister Mean Face’s scowl of disapproval followed by a few “reminders” of why we were sitting in that class; why we had better pull our heads out of warm dark recesses and get with the program. FAILURE WAS NOT AN OPTION! Oh, I’m sure there were some who, somehow, failed to fully grasp this basic concept. However, remedials, within the collegiate environs, was an almost unknown factor, MOST-CERTAINLY not known among scholastic scholarship (ie HOPE) winners. Conversly, we seem to have developed, through the educational systems, a generation of LOOSERS, simply because the teacher corps has been brainwashed into thinking that they cannot teach as they see fit…ie your example of the employment of flash cards.
I gather, by your remarks, that the use of flash cards is not well-received…just exactly WHO balks at the possibility of holding back those who fail flash card mastery? The kids? Parents? Principals?
If my Commander ever gave me a hard time (which he never would have) because I wouldn’t allow a student to solo, do you think I would be inclined to bow to the “pressures” of parents, students, or even “the brass”? NO FREQUIN WAY! Either they had failed to acquire the basics of “aeronautical adventure”, or they simply “didn’t have it”…NO GD NCLB…and these were, for the most part, kids not too many years from that high school graduation stage.
So you can either flunk em’ now, and they just might find it within themselves to “recover”, get with the program, and meet standards, OR they WILL have a great opportunity at achieving dismal lives.
YOU, the teacher corps, know what to do.
Tomlinson, thanks for your suggestion. I only “tear the entire system down” based on the “system output”. Ever heard of the Lemmon Law? If the new car, despite repeated trips to the fixit shop, persists in a “systems failure”, the car is considered a lemmon. The sooner you, the educational community, drops the notion that ALL kids are teachable; that ALL kids must pass, and start the unpopular process of GETTING TOUGH ON THESE KIDS, we just might start seeing the glimmers of generational INCLINE. Rates of college graduation, INTELLIGENT consumerism, and SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY just might start showing signs of recovery.
I’m on the road a good deal of time; I still have ample time to enjoy retirement, as well as volunteerism at a few local entities. I have been in a few local schools, though not recently. To be perfectly honest, I do not care to aid and abete in the travesty imposed upon these kids. I’ve had more than a few “head-knocking sessions” with educational idiots up and down the educational echelons; I DON’T LIKE WASTING MY TIME ON LOST CAUSES. I defer that to you, the professionals. Unlike me, YOU have invested a great deal of time and professional energies in “the game”. If YOU, the teacher corps, can’t/won’t take the initiative, than I’ve got a whole lot of better targets for my time.
Prof
July 28th, 2012
12:23 pm
@ Ole Guy. Then why do you spend your time attacking “the teacher corps” over and over on this blog?
Ole Guy
July 28th, 2012
2:14 pm
Good question, Prof; what the hell do I care? MY pawprints have been left upon the Earth, as have the footprints of those who followed me. The teacher corps simply cannot help it; despite their collective “love” of the profession, and of the kids who, it would seem, need their help…alas…they must contend with far too many overpowering outside influences. Perhaps, rather than label kids “at risk”, the entire teacher corps should be labeled thusly. At least they would have, like those kids, an “official” reason for sub-standard results.
You’re absolutely right, Prof…we should all just all give up on teachers, give up on any real educational reform, and while we’re at it, let’s just give up on kids. They all deserve all the slack; all the understanding and patience the demands of the 21st century can muster up.
Prof
July 28th, 2012
3:26 pm
@ Ole Guy. My question was about you, not the teachers.
ccgps
July 28th, 2012
10:10 pm
I personally like some of the ideas behind the common core.
I don’t like the fact that there is no such thing as state standards and that we are all under the guidance of the feds.
Will these kids and parents rise to the challenges set forth by these new standards? Doubtful. Who wants to read when you can play games, go to little league all the time, and so on.
Lulu
July 28th, 2012
10:47 pm
From those who have been in GA about 15 min. the obvious question for your headliner is: GA’s schools have standards? Those of you who have been here the better part of a long lifetime as I, can answer: yes, we once had standards. Time will tell if we return to them. History is abandoned because people have not always been politically correct, whatever that is in relationship to truth. It is as important as language and science as a discipline. And forget the ridiculous math mess of the last decade. The person(s) responsible for that need to be sent to the principal’s office and their parents (if they have any who admit to it) called in for a serious conference. Then there is the ridiculous test cheating by teachers, principals, high paid administrators and superindindants!!! What looked like it might produce justice and punishment is more and more becoming a ‘we didn’t really mean it’ exercise’ as they’re remaining in their posts and escaping by the so-called tribunals. Where is Madame LaFarge when you need her? Don’t expect the ‘educators’ to get the last reference as it requires an education..
Ron Hyatt
July 28th, 2012
11:39 pm
If teachers were Auto Makers, Cigarette Companies, or any other Fortune 500 company, they’d already have been sued out of existence for producing such a defective and dangerous product as the youth they disservice each and every day.
Ole Guy
July 29th, 2012
12:58 am
Prof, we appear to be heading for the “circular discussion” on this one. My reply WAS about me; in stark frankness, I really shouldn’t care what goes on within the educational circus. I’ve traversed two careers, somewhat successfully, and I can now look back and say I gave it my all. It wasn’t always easy; it wasn’t always fun but, dammit, I ALWAYS took an aggressive stance in gaining and maintaining at least a semblence of career control. I can only hope that those who I mentored have enjoyed at least the same level of career satisfaction as those from whom I was priveleged to be mentored. In both of my careers, I ALWAYS held firmly to the belief that my individual efforts, miniscule as they may have been to the overall picture, counted for something. SOMEHOW, both through first hand experience (albiet, somewhat limited) and through media, I am left with the unmistakable impression that the teacher corps, which the younger generation must look toward for that mentorship, simply ain’t up to the task. Are the problems, within the educational community, exclusively THEIR fault? YES and NO…yes (repeating my worn-out drumroll), they have not taken the interest in their “calling” to truly commit self to actively addressing AND rectifying those “professional landmines” which are sure to crop up in any worthwile endeavour. I would seem that, as a whole, teachers, while professing love of this and love of that, are simply “along for the ride”; not willing to “get muddy”. On the other hand, there have been so many “outside influences”…parents, administrators, yada yada yada…which have infiltrated the very classroom which the teacher, once upon a time, was in charge; was lord and master of the universe known as the classroom.
We’ve all heard the ole saw, “You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution”. It would appear, Prof, that the teacher corps had adopted a somewhat neutral ground of being neither problem nor solution, but simply waiting for the inevitable organizational storms to clear.
I hope, Prof, my reply is clear enough. I also hope that, rather than await the “good fairy of REAL educational reform, some educator out their has the professional guts to pick up the ball.
Lovestoteach
July 30th, 2012
12:17 am
Where do you teach “loves to teach, hate what it’s becoming”?
In Cobb, our classrooms are overflowing with math manipulatives and great literature. I don ‘t need to buy anything new for the common core. We also have lots of leveled book sets. You need to advocate for educators in your county and get the materials and resources you need!
Best of luck!
Common Core Curriculum Comes to Cobb | Acworth
August 8th, 2012
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[...] adhere to the new standards. According to a Georgia Department of Education press release found at The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, some of the following changes will be [...]