California Educator

September 2013

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Learning she has "given up trying to make California Standards make sense," explaining that they are over-compartmentalized and lack "the more clearly matrixed K-12 vision of the CCSS." professional development related to the Common Core." CTA President Dean Vogel spoke, urging the NEA to take the lead in making sure that the CCSS are used properly and educators aren't abused by the new system. "Everybody's tired of this testing nonsense, and people are waiting for a voice to tell them the truth," Vogel told the delegates. "That voice is the National Education Association's, and the time is now!" In July Vogel posted the following to CTA's Facebook page: "The Common Core is a document, a set of standards that is actually comprehensive and comprehensible, and proper implementation of such allows teachers tremendous flexibility and the opportunity to use their best professional judgment. The proliferation of high-stakes testing started long before we'd ever heard of the Common Core. The tests are driven by the monied interests and their very skewed perceptions of the pedagogy. We must separate the two issues if we really want Districts are at varying levels of readiness for the change. CCSS concerns include high-stakes testing, teacher evaluations Still, there are concerns out there, a major one being the continuing push to tie teacher evaluation to student test scores and the crushing role of high-stakes testing in general. While the role of student assessment in evaluation is negotiable, some view the CCSS as just a new vehicle to scapegoat teachers and schools. The issue came to a head at the 2013 NEA Representative Assembly, where delegates approved a CTA-led new business item calling for a moratorium on "using the outcome of tests associated with the CCSS, except to inform instruction, until states and districts have worked with educators to create authentic, locally developed curriculum, assessments and the argument and debate necessary to reclaim and transform our profession. There is nothing inherently wrong or evil about standards. It's all about the implementation." Go Online cta.org/commoncore Over 400 educators received in-depth knowledge on implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the accompanying Smarter Balanced assessment at Summer Institute. CTA members can find session materials plus NEA's Common Core Tool Kit at cta.org/commoncore. SEP TEMBER 201 3 Educator 09 Sep 2013 v3.6 int.indd 51 www.cta.org 51 9/3/13 2:26 PM

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