DAVID COLEMAN CALLS WHAT TEACHERS DO IN K-12 READING CLASSROOMS BULLSHIT

SO ARE HIS COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS

Patrick J. Finn In last week's essay I discussed the reason we are having yet another set of standards for k12 language arts and mathematics. New standards are the occasion of full employment for curriculum departments all over the country and more importantly, the occasion for a bonanza in the publishing industrynew teaching materials and tests, a multimillion dollar business supported by tax dollars at the national, state, and local level. Instead of using the money that will go into this enterprise to reduce class size or for teachers aides or for social services for children in low income families (poverty being the chief impediment to school achievement), the money will go to a professional class of stock holders, publishers, editors, salespeople, and central-office board of education employees. In order to keep the system working just as it has always worked, the Education-Corporation Complex is always in search of a new gimmick. The new gimmick for the Common Core State Standards is mastering complex texts as measured by text-based comprehension test questions. David Coleman, a leading proponent of the Common Core State Standards and principal author of the standards for Language Arts and Reading, came to the project, not from a school or university or state department of education, but from the world of business, consulting, and entrepreneurship. In a 2012 interview Coleman remarked, Im scared of rewarding bullshit. By bullshit, Coleman means asking students what they think about or how they feel about texts that they are assigned to read. He told a group of educators in New York, As you grow up in this world, you realize people dont give a shit what you think. Coleman means to get tough with American teachers and students, and he shows it by using words like shit and bullshit. Well, Im scared. But speaking of bullshit, lets have a look at the some of material New York State (until very recently a strong backer of the Common Core State Standards) has posted on its website listing Common Core Curriculum & Assessments. In the assessment materials, a passage is presented and followed by a series of multiple-choice questions (a comprehension test format that is at least 50 years old). Each question is followed by a discussion of a. which standards are assessed by the item, b. how the item addresses that particular standard, c. how the reader presumably arrives at the correct answer, and d. why the incorrect answers are incorrect.

Here is an example: The Passage JASONS GOLD BY WILL HOBBS When the story broke on the streets of New York, it took off like a wild fire on a windy day. 5 "Gold!" Jason shouted at the top of his lungs. "Read all about it! Gold discovered in Alaska!" The sturdy 15-year-old newsboy waving the paper in front of Grand Central Depot had arrived in New York only five days before, after nearly a year spent working in his way across the continent. 10 "Gold ship arrives in Seattle!" Jason yelled. "Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Prospectors from Alaska! Two tons of gold!" Jason wanted to shout, Seattle is where I'm from! But instead he repeated the cry, "Gold ship arrives in Seattle," all the while burning with curiosity. Beyond the fact that the ship had arrived this very day this momentous July 17, 1897 he knew nothing except what 15 was in the headlines. He hadn't even had a chance to read the story yet. [The story continues for 48 lines.]

The Questions 1. Based on the entire passage, what just what is the meaning of the word "momentous" in line 14? A. Causes much happiness B. Creates a great disturbance C. Occurs simply by chance *D. Becomes historically important The Discussion The question assess mastery of the Common Core Learning Standard LA48A which is the ability to determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from the range of strategies such as the use context (e. g., the overall meaning of the sentence or paragraph; a words position or function in the sentence) as a clue to the meaning of the word or phrase. Continued on next page.

The question measures LA48A because it asks students to determine the meaning of the word, including the nuances of it's connotative meaning, using the context of the story. To answer the questions correctly, students must determine the relationship between the word "momentous" and the story. Students who choose D demonstrate the ability to tell meaning of the word and story using both contextual clues and range of strategies, including analysis of words. A student may use the analysis of the words moment (a point in time) and -ous (full of or possessing) to arrive in understanding of momentous to mean a point in time that is full of meaning, importance, potential, emotion, or power. Students may also use contextual clues like burning with curiosity" or arrived at this very day" and the details provided by the author showing the excitement over the discovery of gold, to arrive at the idea that the definition of momentous has to do with time, and significance, importance, meaning, emotion, potential, change, power, or other related ideas. By additionally comprehending the historical significance of the events of the plot in their relationship to the authors word choices, students choosing D understand that the unfolding events have a larger consequence then what is immediately happening to the prospectors, newspaper readers, Jason, and others. Choice A is incorrect. Students who choose A show a general understanding of the main event of the story: finding gold is a happy occasion, evidenced primarily by the accounts of the goldladen, newly-rich prospectors arriving in Seattle. However students choosing A show they do not understand the connotations or nuances of the word which take into account Jason's conflicted emotions in the larger context of the discovery of gold as an event of broader historical significance. [Similar discussions follow of why B and C are incorrect choices.] [5 more questions and discussions follow.]

What the authors of this discussion deliberately miss is the most obvious reason why a student would choose Dhe or she recognizes the word momentous and knows what it means. And the most obvious reason the student would not choose A, B, or C is that he or she knows that those are not what momentous means. Further, the fact that one would expect a student to determine the meaning of a word like momentous from the meanings of its parts (full of moment or possessing moment) is absurd. And so, one wonders, how is this text based. I believe that most of this palaver results from the fact that backers of the Common Core State Standards have made a huge point of insisting that their reading standards are new (they are not), 3

that they are based on comprehension of increasingly complex texts (which has always been the goal for reading instruction over the school years k-12), and that their test items are text-based. Their questions are, in fact, no more text based than were the items on the GatesMacGinitie Reading Tests first published over 50 years ago. The Common Core State Standards are not bullshit per se. They are bullshit because they are being presented as new, and they are not.