Aliyya Swaby Photo
Cicarella and Alexander Tuesday night, agreeing adopting Common Core is a difficult, and worthwhile, process.
When Common Core came to New Haven, Garfield Pilliner told a gathering in Dixwell, his classroom changed.
Both he and his math students were forced outside of their comfort zones, he said. “My instruction had to change. I had to become a reading teacher … and understand what it meant to find a big idea in a problem.”
Now an assistant principal at Hillhouse’s IDEA Academy, Pilliner was one of several members on a panel Tuesday night who described the ongoing difficulty — as well as the necessity — of implementing Common Core, which began to be phased in to New Haven’s public schools.
Sitting together at a table in Varick AME Zion Church, educators, legislators, and advocates — who sometimes disagree with each other on other occasions — found they had more in common than not, as they discussed the future of the standards.
Director of Booker T. Washington Academy and event moderator John Taylor introduced the panelists: Pilliner, formerly a teacher at Engineering and Science University Magnet School; State Senators Gayle Slossberg and Gary Holder-Winfield; local Board of Education member Che Dawson; Dave Cicarella, president of the teachers union; Imma Canelli, deputy superintendent; and Jennifer Alexander, CEO of charter-advocacy group ConnCAN.
Connecticut is one of 45 states that have agreed to adopt the Common Core, national academic standards that set benchmarks in English and math for students from K to 12 — aligned to the standardized Smarter Balanced Field Test. The Achievement First (AF) charter network and New Haven Public School district decided to switch to Common Core two years before the state requirement of 2015.
Canelli explained to the audience of parents and community members that Common Core has “fewer standards” but ones that are “more rigorous and clearer” to prepare students for college and careers. For English, the new standards mean ensuring students read a mix of fiction and nonfiction and get used to analyzing complex passages using textual evidence, she said. Math instruction will focus on the standards, be more coherent across grade levels and increase in rigor, she said.
Common Core pushes “literacy in all content areas, not just language arts,” Canelli said. “What does it look like in art or music?”
For Pilliner (pictured left), it looked like increasing his collaboration with teachers of other subjects, to make sure his students were “well balanced.” Instead of teaching mathematics “discretely,” he asked students to integrate their algebra and geometry knowledge in word problems.
The beginning steps of adjusting to Common Core are tricky for any school, Cicarella and Alexander agreed. But Cicarella said that collaboration between teachers and the district has allowed for a smoother transition than in other districts.
After an early assessment last January, AF CEO Dacia Toll said students were struggling to pass the preliminary Common Core tests, which rely more on conceptual understanding.
Alexander said “huge bumps in the road,” including poor test results, are likely on the way to visible growth in achievement. But she urged the community in advance to accept the results as a “more realistic picture of where we are” instead of “rejecting the whole thing. We will weather the storm if we continue the pace we are at.” Older students will find it more difficult to transition than younger students.
“We’re not saying we ever want to have the scores go down,” Cicarella clarified. But new standards require teachers to be trained and children to get adjusted to a completely new system. “Long-term results will be there. In the short term, we may see that dip.”
Morrison, Holder-Winfield, and Slossberg before the panel.
Students must use computers to take the new test, unlike the Connecticut Mastery Test, done with pencil and paper. A $2.6M state grant allowed the district to buy 3,000 new computers and install wireless connections in all schools.
Canelli said she was worried students wouldn’t have enough time with the technology by test day. “We don’t want the scores to reflect that it’s taking them too long to type,” instead of an actual knowledge gap, she said.
Dawson said it was the Board of Ed’s responsibility to make sure resources and “proper equipment” were in place as Common Core goes forward.
And Holder-Winfield called on legislators to go back to their communities and educate people on their misconceptions of the new standards. Too many people think Common Core is a new nationally-mandated curriculum or examination, he said.
Abdul-Salaam.
Panelists fielded questions from several community members, including one Booker T. Washington Academy grandfather who wanted to know how teachers and students were dealing with the transition, how long the overhaul would take, and how parents could get more information.
Canelli said the district will give informational sessions for interested community groups.
Teacher Nadir Abdul-Salaam noted that the more difficult standards would require increased parental involvement in their children’s academics, but that many inner-city students lacked that support. “How do you make sure [those children] stay on pace?”
Holder-Winfield responded that it is “too easy” to give up on parents who don’t seem to get involved in traditional ways. He said his mother never went to his school, but did put pressure on him to academically succeed when he was at home. Teachers and administrators might have more success asking how to change school events to convenience those parents.
“Maybe you might come if we have dinner for your kids with someone watching them,” he said. “The vast majority of parents, I don’t care what community you’re in, care about their kids.”
Gary Holder-Winfield often speaks the truth to people who are either grandstanding, looking for white approval or simply unable to break from their narrow perspective to understand another.
Overwhelmingly, parents do care and support their children. I have heard more than enough parent-bashing from teachers.
It is simple - You are being paid to teach students. Your job is to engage them and pass on lessons. If you need excuses to detail why you can not do that, please find another profession.