Saturday, January 28, 2012
Board of Education
The Board of Education Curriculum meeting on February 8th will be discussing Hirsch's Core Knowledge. This is coming from the Board of Education, not the superintendent. One member of the Board appears to be leading nine on curriculum changes. Lyons seems to know quite a lot about curriculum without having the certification of a superintendent. What are your thoughts on Core Knowledge (a controversial issue at the very least), the process, and even the Board?
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Let's be honest and admit that it's good to have someone on the curriculum committee who's working. The committee died two years ago when Haynie quit. We have to give Lyons some credit.
ReplyDeleteEverything I'm hearing is that his ideas are pretty outdated. It seems egocentric (TSTL) to push some pet curriculum project when the school dept. is struggling with what the state will require for the COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS.
IMHO the two biggest curriculum issues are SPECIAL ED and the ACHIEVEMENT GAP. Lyons isn't doing anything to help the crisis in those areas.
You are correct. He deserves credit for trying.
DeleteLots of critiques of the Hirsch Core Knowledge-- it has been around since the late 1980's. At the time we wanted to teach every kid in the U.S. like they did in Japan-- something which is easy in a relatively culturally homogenous population like Japan but fraught with problems in multi-cultural U.S of A.
ReplyDeleteYou can read some of the critics yourself: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/index_sub4.html
-and-
http://www.batesline.com/archives/2009/05/classical-core-knowledge.html
I think the big question is what is the BoE doing trying to force an outdated theory on our students when they need to be getting prepped for the tougher state standards that are coming down the pike???
Exactly. The outdated Hirsch knowledge needs to go. The Board Chair needs to take leadership and stop Lyons in his tracks.
DeleteAs a retired secondary educator (Norwalk resident who taught elsewhere), I hope to clarify some misperceptions about the research undertaken by E.D. Hersch and his common core.
ReplyDeleteNothing has ever been published to indicate that the program was racially or ethnically biased (although those charges have been made); it does reflect the Western European foundations of American colonization and nation formation and does emphasize literacy in the English language.
The program made sense- actually tremendous sense- at the time it was proposed.
Since the early 1990's, the research has been eclipsed by several new theories of how children learn, and of what children should master. The Common Core State Standards borrows from Hersch's underlying tenet- that a unifying curricula in the fundamental educational subjects will promote student achievement by allowing for truly national standards of best practices and student assessment. However, the Common Core State Standards provides for a much different progression in literacy and numeracy. As our students will be assessed vis-a-vis state testing as to their advancement along the Common Core State Standards, then that is the curriculum which should be the subject of study by a committee of the Board of Education.
This is clearly an area in which well-intentioned lay people need to be appropriately guided by the City's educational leader, who should be unashamedly mindful of promoting student achievement more so than offending a new member of the Board of Education who is not as expert in curriculum formation as she is.
Listen, I don't doubt that these people realy want to do the right thing. I don't envy the tough job they have. But seriously- shouldn't there be a little balance, or at least someone wtih the some teaching experience on that committee? You have a Curriculum Cmte made-up of 2 confirmed Apples (Haynie and Barbis) with 1 pseudo-Apple (Lyons) against Rivas (to represent every non-Apple in our community). WTF????
ReplyDeleteHow could the chairman pick such an unbalanced committee?
Norwalk needs a real leader. This recent mess is just another indication that a leader is nowhere in sight. Board of Education, Norwalk's future is up to you.
ReplyDeleteSlow down, Conspiracy-Theorists!
ReplyDeleteWe elect BoE members to do the best job they can do (admittedly, a tad limited for some, but I shouldn't complain because I wasn't on the ballot this November!)
Let's let them do their jobs.
It is up to Supt. Marks to figure out if their ideas have any merit and to implement them or reject them, but most importantly to WORK WITH THEM.
Dear Name Caller,
DeleteDon't criticize others by calling them names. It doesn't do much for your credibility. We've got one group of people here who are judging others by calling them names. Both groups are doing the same thing. Just state your feelings without judgement.
I've said my piece!
I for one, want to comprehend or get a bit more understanding on the Common Core Standards - let alone the 'Hersch' theory. Some schools don't even meet the basic standards for anyone to start talking about other 'theories' of learning. Everyone wants to help but no ones wants to deal with the underlying problem - leadership. How does expect teacher to grasp new ideas, formats and procedures when their is so much Chaos within the system. Within the past few months there has been little to no discussions on the Budget, GE came to the district and little was shared with parents, Common Core has yet to be shared and fully explained to parents, positions are being filled with friends that actual competent individuals - yet there was a 'hard' freeze put into place, little to no updates on the workgroups that were put into place the minute Dr. Marks got here...and so on. I can't sit on another presentation to what 1 person may consider a great idea when the ideas we have in place are not being executed effectively.
ReplyDelete"CHAOS" was how our universe began, so it might be time for the Norwalk Board of Ed to embrace its own 'BIG BANG'.
ReplyDeleteDon't they say that empty barrels make the loudest noise????????
Before we replace chaos with more chaos, it is my feeling that we have to recognize the void and who should be leading us out of it. Marks has failed to lead. How do we move on without a leader?
ReplyDeleteListen to what many of you are saying--- "We need a leader".
ReplyDeleteWell then why the heck did you put people on the BoE who blindly support Susan Marks? We don't need haters- but we do need a few more independent thinkers.
If you live in District D, you re-elected Jack who has never voted against the superintendent. If you live in Rowayton or Fox Run area (District E), you actually voted for someone (Barbis) who had a freakin' Facebook Fan Page to suppor Supt. Marks. Nice move from the voters of that quaint seaside village. The good people of District A returned Rosa Murray to power- yet, she was never known to stand up to former Supt. Sal Corda and was pretty quiet when it came to challenging Susan Marks when she got back on the Board.
If you want to make a difference, tell the BoE to evaluate Supt. Marks openly and honestly. Tell the BoE to praise her when she's accomplished something, but critique her when she hasn't quite lived up to standards.
As far as I can tell, the only thing that's changed with all the new BoE members is that the budget is fixed without the lousy scare tactics.
ReplyDeleteBut, IMHO, worrying about some old way of teaching when the state still has us under their control, and we have NO MONEY to work our way into the latest state program (this fakafka Common Core State Standards) is why we don't have faith in the Board of Education. Listen, you're in a crisis- we're in a crisis- worry about the big hole that's causing us to sink and re-arrange the deck chairs later. O.K.?
Oh, and Jan 30, 2012 09:12 AM is 100% on the money. BoE are you reading this? Care to educate us about the Common Core?
Maybe it's a good sign that very few posters are writing that they dislike the Board of Ed members. Then again there doesn't appear to be a heck of a lot of confidence in the BoE or their direct report either.
ReplyDeleteWe need accountability from the top. BOE, start holding Susan Marks accountable.
ReplyDeleteAmen to accountablity from the top down.
ReplyDelete