duh from Flickr via Wylio

© 2009 Sarah Deer, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

A new report has has come out claiming that:

…about 4 in 10 assignments were [Common Core] aligned with their respective, grade-appropriate standard. In high-poverty schools, the average was closer to 3 in 10.

You can read more about it at Classroom Assignments Fail to Meet Common-Core’s Higher Bar, Study Says from Ed Week and The idea vs. the on-the-ground reality of Common Core standards.

After spending last year in a fairly serious effort – along with my colleague, Katie Hull – in figuring out ways to implement the Common Core in our classrooms, and after spending the summer writing a book about how to specifically apply them with English Language Learners, the study’s conclusions are certainly no surprise to me.

With all the money spent on creating resources to supposedly help teachers apply CCSS, I have been appalled at the lack of truly practical support that’s available.

Listen, I’m no big cheerleader for the Common Core (see A Collection Of My “Best” Lists On The Common Core). In terms of things that I think can help our students, their families and our schools, new standards are WAY down on the list – far behind adequate school funding, increased community services, etc. However, I’m also a big believer two adages:

One, being the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr

And the other, this saying:

When life gives you lemons, then make lemonade.

Given my belief in those two messages, I figure the Common Core offers a number of opportunities (see A Collection Of My “Best” Lists On The Common Core).

But until, and unless, districts start figuring out how to generate helpful professional development (see Stop The Presses! Report Finds Most Professional Development Waste Of Time) and realistic teaching ideas to apply CCSS to diverse learners, there won’t be any change in this report’s conclusions for years to come.

And I don’t think that’s necessarily a real bad thing for our students in the classroom.  I do think, however, it would continue to result in us teachers having to waste a lot of time attending unhelpful trainings and reading fairly useless books….