There's a lot of buzz about common core math and what everyone thinks of it. I am not going to try to pretend to be unbiased or to profess I know everything about it. My only contribution to the conversation is obviously merely my own experience and maybe it will help someone else going through the same thing a year behind me to at least understand what is happening to their poor kids education if not to help annihilate common core before more damage is done.
We started our fifth year at Flagstaff Academy in Longmont the fall of 2012. I had no other expectations than that we would continue to be as happy as ever there. I was entrenched in the school. It was the only school my children had ever attended. I was proud of the school. It was academically challenging and we had to work to stay on top of all of the homework and assignments and stem fair projects. I was the room parent coordinator for the school. I volunteered wherever allowed with my baby in tow. I had a fourth grader, a second grader and a kindergartener. I was in a carpool. It was going to be another great year of fantastic support for my amazing kids.
I had heard that the school was buying a new math curriculum a year early to stay ahead of a new national standard being implemented nationwide in 2013 but I didn't worry about it much, just sounded like mumbo jumbo to me and I was sure the kids would still learn everything they needed to. At Flagstaff, the kids are assessed at the beginning of a year and the end. The end scores determine which math group they will go into the following year. Eden had come off of a very good 3rd grade experience and scored very well at her end of year NWEA's so she was placed in the second from the top math group. Within weeks of some very confusing, obfuscating, redundant and time consuming math homework she came home with a sigh of relief and announced that she had been bumped down a group but she was happy and thought it was a better fit. The math continued to be ridiculous nonsense of hundreds of tally marks and purposely trick questions. Lord how I wish I had saved some examples to post here. Meanwhile she was being required to do advanced multiplication problems as well but was not learning her multiplication tables. Now I remember 4th grade. You had to be able to write the answers to all of the multiplication tables through 12x12 within 2 minutes or you missed recess every day until you got it. I started asking around about why the kids weren't required to know their multiplication tables. I was told that we needed to do that at home. Well, we couldn't because sometimes her math took so long it was 10 at night when we went to bed after tears, drama and my husband wanting to stick an icepick through his hand. Meanwhile with all of this going on, my 2nd grader was barely keeping her head above water and getting practically no attention or help with her homework. My kindergartener was so overwhelmed he had several "shut downs" in class and would not participate. We all dreaded school and wished for it to end. I could go on and on about the minute details of what happened in that semester at that school but the bottom line is, my fourth grader was being passed over, ignored and unsupported by a teacher who only liked gifted and talented kids and my middle child was treading water and my youngest was having a simply horrible experience. On top of that, my fourth grader was going to another classroom for math and failing there as well because of the new curriculum. It was a nightmare. I went through several steps to try to correct the situation but we were just falling further and further and the administration placated me with things that didn't fix anything. I was at my wits end so I wrote a letter to the school board telling them about my problems and that though it broke my heart I had to remove my kids from the school to salvage the second half of my daughters fourth grade year. We left school for Christmas break and I cried like a baby hugging all of those dear friends/teachers goodbye. I couldn't believe I was having to do this. The teachers were shocked.
I moved the kids to Aspen Ridge Prep in Erie around the corner from our new home. When my fourth grader started I had some great conversations with her new teacher and he supported her and believed in her and helped her believe in herself again. All of the students were of course far ahead of her in math. She was very ashamed and embarrassed and afraid she couldn't learn long division especially since we didn't have the multiplication tables down but she plugged away and finished out the year strong. The real victory was when she took the standardized test at the end of the year and owned it. Her horrible teacher at Flagstaff had said she was behind in writing but her scores came back advanced after just a semester at Aspen Ridge. By contrast, the scores for the poor kids who stayed at Flagstaff were not so thrilling. Just searching the school grades website and looking at the downward curve of Flagstaff over the last three years tells me that the common core curriculum is tanking a perfectly good school and wrecking some great kids education. Aspen Ridge was required to conform to common core standards this year but rather than buying a new unvetted curriculum, they have added supplemental things and maintained their proven curriculum. I'm happy but vigilant at this point, we have now completed two semesters at Aspen Ridge with nothing but wonderful results for all of my kids.
We started our fifth year at Flagstaff Academy in Longmont the fall of 2012. I had no other expectations than that we would continue to be as happy as ever there. I was entrenched in the school. It was the only school my children had ever attended. I was proud of the school. It was academically challenging and we had to work to stay on top of all of the homework and assignments and stem fair projects. I was the room parent coordinator for the school. I volunteered wherever allowed with my baby in tow. I had a fourth grader, a second grader and a kindergartener. I was in a carpool. It was going to be another great year of fantastic support for my amazing kids.
I had heard that the school was buying a new math curriculum a year early to stay ahead of a new national standard being implemented nationwide in 2013 but I didn't worry about it much, just sounded like mumbo jumbo to me and I was sure the kids would still learn everything they needed to. At Flagstaff, the kids are assessed at the beginning of a year and the end. The end scores determine which math group they will go into the following year. Eden had come off of a very good 3rd grade experience and scored very well at her end of year NWEA's so she was placed in the second from the top math group. Within weeks of some very confusing, obfuscating, redundant and time consuming math homework she came home with a sigh of relief and announced that she had been bumped down a group but she was happy and thought it was a better fit. The math continued to be ridiculous nonsense of hundreds of tally marks and purposely trick questions. Lord how I wish I had saved some examples to post here. Meanwhile she was being required to do advanced multiplication problems as well but was not learning her multiplication tables. Now I remember 4th grade. You had to be able to write the answers to all of the multiplication tables through 12x12 within 2 minutes or you missed recess every day until you got it. I started asking around about why the kids weren't required to know their multiplication tables. I was told that we needed to do that at home. Well, we couldn't because sometimes her math took so long it was 10 at night when we went to bed after tears, drama and my husband wanting to stick an icepick through his hand. Meanwhile with all of this going on, my 2nd grader was barely keeping her head above water and getting practically no attention or help with her homework. My kindergartener was so overwhelmed he had several "shut downs" in class and would not participate. We all dreaded school and wished for it to end. I could go on and on about the minute details of what happened in that semester at that school but the bottom line is, my fourth grader was being passed over, ignored and unsupported by a teacher who only liked gifted and talented kids and my middle child was treading water and my youngest was having a simply horrible experience. On top of that, my fourth grader was going to another classroom for math and failing there as well because of the new curriculum. It was a nightmare. I went through several steps to try to correct the situation but we were just falling further and further and the administration placated me with things that didn't fix anything. I was at my wits end so I wrote a letter to the school board telling them about my problems and that though it broke my heart I had to remove my kids from the school to salvage the second half of my daughters fourth grade year. We left school for Christmas break and I cried like a baby hugging all of those dear friends/teachers goodbye. I couldn't believe I was having to do this. The teachers were shocked.
I moved the kids to Aspen Ridge Prep in Erie around the corner from our new home. When my fourth grader started I had some great conversations with her new teacher and he supported her and believed in her and helped her believe in herself again. All of the students were of course far ahead of her in math. She was very ashamed and embarrassed and afraid she couldn't learn long division especially since we didn't have the multiplication tables down but she plugged away and finished out the year strong. The real victory was when she took the standardized test at the end of the year and owned it. Her horrible teacher at Flagstaff had said she was behind in writing but her scores came back advanced after just a semester at Aspen Ridge. By contrast, the scores for the poor kids who stayed at Flagstaff were not so thrilling. Just searching the school grades website and looking at the downward curve of Flagstaff over the last three years tells me that the common core curriculum is tanking a perfectly good school and wrecking some great kids education. Aspen Ridge was required to conform to common core standards this year but rather than buying a new unvetted curriculum, they have added supplemental things and maintained their proven curriculum. I'm happy but vigilant at this point, we have now completed two semesters at Aspen Ridge with nothing but wonderful results for all of my kids.
