Garvey vs Barrios: The Common Core debate
5th October 2015 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
The most contentious issue this election season, dividing Republicans and Democrats alike, has centered around the issue of the “Common Core,” and in particular whether Louisiana should continue the adoption of the multi-state PARCC standards to guide its academic tests.
The debate has dominated the two New Orleans area seats on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. In this edition, The Louisiana Weekly sponsored a debate between the BESE District 1 candidates, incumbent Jim Garvey, a supporter of Common Core, and challenger Lee Barrios, an opponent, to discuss this issue—and the future of Louisiana Public Education.
Mr. Garvey, what is the Common Core? What is the truth, and what is the mystery?
JIM GARVEY: What is Common Core? Let me start with the briefest description I can think of—and it’s actually one of heard to the first time yesterday when I talked to an elected official from Jefferson Parish who supports Common Core.
He was describing how his daughter had been applying for colleges around the United States, and they were talking at a lot of these interviews about Common Core and these colleges in particular were supportive of it. And, wanted students that were trained in the Common Core methodology.
Anyway, the old system was asking the question “what”, The Common Core is asking “why”. For English language arts, for example, let’s get into some detail. Under the old system, you would read a passage or a few paragraphs or a book depending on what grade you were in, and at the end, you would get asked the question what happened. That’s under the old system.
Under the new system ,what we’re calling the Common Core right now, the question is “why?”
Why did what happen? First, you start with what happened; who did what? The ‘what’ happened. Then the question [progresses to] “why”?
Why did the lead character do what he did? Why did the lead character do what he did AND what message was the author trying to get across?
With math it’s similar. The way I describe it, going into the old method, you had multiplication, division, subtraction… that’s the ‘what’.
Under the new method it’s more of a ‘why’. Which in word problems [asks] why do you need to know addition and subtraction? How does it apply to the real world and everyday situations? Why do you need to know what 2+2 is?
The very simple example is if Johnny has two apples and finds two apples, how many does he have at the end of the day? Well it’s four, so that’s the way. How does that apply at the end of the day? That would be my summary.
And you had mentioned, “What is the Common Core curriculum?” Common Core is a very common misconception. Common Core is not a curriculum. It’s the standards.
It’s how much should a child be able to read in grade 1? Should they be able to read two paragraphs or three paragraphs or a book? That’s the standard. Should they be able to add two-digit numbers or three-digit numbers or four-digit numbers? That’s the standard.
Now, how do you teach a child to add to a two-digit number to a two-digit number, that’s curriculum. And, in Louisiana we have 69 parishes, and I would say 69 different curriculums.
There’s maybe five or six or seven main curriculums, but each parish has taken those main curriculums—or some people describe it as textbooks—and customized them to make 69 unique different curriculum’s.
Ms. Barrios, What is your perspective on Common Core?
LEE BARRIOS: Well I’ll start by building on what James said…in that it’s not a Common Core curriculum, it’s a set of standards.
It’s an initiative, in addition to a set of standards, which by the way is not a national initiative…It’s not the same for every state because there are states that have not adopted the Common Core, and there are states that have dropped Common Core. Not that they had an opportunity to look at it because [the implementation of] it was so rushed.
But, in addition, it’s a high-stakes standardized test which serves as the accountability factor for the initiative, and it is the accountability factor that the federal government has mandated for schools.
So in order to have one single standardized test for a set of standards you have to have a curriculum to ensure that all students are being taught the same. Basically the same material—and in basically the same way. Otherwise that test would be invalid.
That’s where your curriculum comes in…[Common Core] was just a model. Parishes and district schools could rewrite or tweak it or adjust it—which we did in St. Tammany the highest performing large district in the state. But the state determined they didn’t have the time, the facilities, or the money, and after an outcry about local control, BESE decided that each district was going to be allowed to write their own curriculum.
And that has NOT been accomplished in many of the districts. In St. Tammany, we don’t even have our own textbooks yet. So my conclusion is this tests will be deemed invalid because there was no standardized test. The test will be deemed invalid and unreliable because there was no curriculum.
Both candidates had follow-ups to each one’s responses to the initial question, which were:
JIM GARVEY: Well, no there’s actually three different tests that are being used in Common Core states. There’s the PARCC Test, which is what we have. Roughly 10 to 12 states that I think are using it.
Also, there is the Smarter Balance Test, which I think maybe 20 something states are using. And the ACT Company is creating their own test, and I think several states have signed on. It looks like it is expanding the best, and I think as time goes on ACT is signing on more states. Which kind of test makes it hard to describe one as a national test.
The huge sales pitch for the PARCC Test for us—that’s the consortium we belong to—is that it tests critical thinking skills as opposed to just simple answers to questions.
LEE BARRIOS: But if you have a standardized test and students where they had no curriculum (and even if they did say in English language arts for instance where there are hundreds of books that a teacher could choose to teach from)…If you have a high-stakes standardized test, you have to have questions that have one correct answer.
That does not involve criticalthinking skills. That involves a student at some point having been exposed to the question or the concept and the answer. Critical-thinking skills involve questioning: When a student asks a question and has to solve the question either with an old solution or a new solution that’s using critical-thinking skills .You cannot do that on a standardized test. For one thing it would be impossible or nearly impossible to fairly grade.
Some English teachers have complained to The Louisiana Weekly that the Common Core Standards prevent them from teaching fiction in their classrooms, including the classics of American and World literature. Is this true?
JIM GARVEY: I would answer that no. I think that that’s a big misconception: Mark Twain is still being taught in the classrooms today in Louisiana during this past year where we have had the Common Core in place. Other classics such as Shakespeare have been taught in Louisiana during the past year, while we’ve had Common Core in place.
But a lot of people keep saying that Common Core prohibits the teaching of these books and it’s just not bearing out. It’s just not true. It’s not happening. The opposite is happening they’re still being taught.
LEE BARRIOS: First of all I would have to agree with James on the issue of not being able to teach. Common Core saying you can’t teach certain literature and things like that because isn’t a curriculum. It’s a set of standards. Where the confusion comes in is the balance of informational texts as opposed to classic literature, and the Common Core does stipulate that, I believe, it’s 50 percent to 75 percent depending on the grade level should be from informational texts.
Which means you’re reading a text. You have a question. You pull the answers from the text. Now there’s very little critical thinking involved with doing that. Whereas with literary analysis that is a different story.
But, it is up to teachers and school districts to choose from approved reading lists, so it really doesn’t limit the selection.
JIM GARVEY: I would disagree with that in describing technical literature as not involving critical thinking. If you were to pull a physics book off the shelf and start reading it, I think you would see there’s a lot of critical thinking involved in learning physics and applying physics to the problems that are in the physics book.
I think what Common Core is saying is that we ought to teach children not only how to read not only Shakespeare and Mark Twain, but we should teach them how to read physics books—and books like that. If you can’t read them, you’re not going to do well in physics. Even if you could conceivably do physics well, if you can’t read the physics book, you aren’t going to be able to do physics.
Early Voting starts October 10. The primary is October 24.
This article originally published in the October 5, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
