All Kids Are Not the Same

All Kids Are Not the Same: What Common Core Standards Fail to Do | Alternet

There's nothing wrong with standards, or goals, per se. It makes sense to establish a certain level of mastery for children to achieve, and to determine what students should be able to do and know over the course of a particular period of time - a school year, for example. But the standards should be realistic. It should be possible for the majority of students to achieve them, each at her or his own pace. That means the standards must also be developmentally appropriate and based on the principles of child development - designed with actual children in mind.

This is not a problem so much with setting learning standards such as the Common Core (or any core for that matter), but rather a problem with clinging to our century-old model of K-12 education that no longer serves the expected outcomes for our students (all students college and career ready, regardless of where they are when they start or how they're wired for learning). We keep trying new ideas but instead of fixing the problem at its core (pun intended), we merely layer a new innovation on top of an outdated structure. Sort of like new wine in an old wine skin. It won't work. 

If you want the Common Core or any learning standards to succeed for EACH and EVERY child, you have to start over by re-imagining and re-designing a system of schooling around their needs and dreams, and not for the convenience or satisfaction of nostalgic memories in the adults. Stop clinging to a dead horse.