Common Core: Is it adding up?

Writer: James Combs

Common Core is designed to raise the standards of learning and increase the challenges to ensure growth in education. But is it working?

Lory Baxley never met a math problem she couldn’t solve. Math was her favorite subject in school, and she even served as a tutor while attending Lake-Sumter State College in the 1990s.

Several years ago, while helping her fourth-grade son with his homework, math finally left her feeling bewildered. Not because she couldn’t come up with the right answer. Instead, she was angry that Cole, 10, had to solve a two-step algebra problem involving variables.

“He is a bright kid, but children his age are concrete thinkers rather than abstract thinkers,” said Baxley, a resident of Eustis who works in the business development department of Advanced Nursing Concepts. “Asking someone his age to solve that problem is like asking a fish to climb a tree. He became emotional and frustrated because he could not understand what finding a variable meant. He even asked me if he was going to fail fourth grade.”

Baxley conducted research and felt the new methodologies and curriculums being taught in public schools are, pardon the pun, rotten to the core. Like so many parents across the country, she became a grassroots activist dedicated to fighting Common Core.

Common Core represents the biggest widespread change in America’s public schools since former President George W. Bush signed “No Child Left Behind” into law in 2002. Initiated by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, Common Core creates tough new nationwide standards for what students in grades K-12 should know and able to achieve at each grade level—and difficult tests to go along with them.

The first stage involved implementing rigorous new standards in English and math by emphasizing critical thinking, reading complex materials, and learning core math concepts through context and application rather than rote memorization. Forty-five states in the U.S. have adopted Common Core.

But many parents like Baxley adamantly oppose the program. Its biggest liability, she said, is that students must meet a set of untested, unproven academic standards.

“The Federal Drug Administration would never approve the use of a drug without a clinical trial. So why was Common Core approved with no concern for possible harm or adverse consequences? There’s no evidence that it enriches education or improves student achievement. It is an unbelievable governmental monster forced on our children.”

She has worked diligently to slay the monster by speaking against it to legislators in Tallahassee, officials from the Department of Education, and the Lake County legislative delegation. She has even appeared on radio shows and is active in an increasingly popular Facebook group called “Lake County Against Common Core.”

“Our Facebook page typically grows at the beginning of each school year,” she says. “That’s when parents who have children in elementary school see the kind of math problems their children are being asked to solve. They become shocked and frustrated.”

Baxley has also discovered that Common Core politics make for strange bedfellows. Everyone from tea party conservatives to teacher’s unions has rallied against it.

“It’s a nonpartisan issue. Liberals and conservatives alike hate it.”

Of course, not everyone is ready to kick Common Core to the curb. Proponents often cite statistics from Kentucky, which, in February 2010, became the first state to adopt Common Core standards. The state’s college and career readiness rate improved from 34 percent in 2010 to 62 percent in 2014.

Kentucky’s success does not surprise Stacy Johnson-Proctor, a seventh-grade language arts teacher at Tavares Middle School. A supporter of Common Core, she says that teaching students challenging curriculum such as writing argumentative essays, research papers, and thesis statements better prepares them to succeed in high school and college.

“The language arts standards are very good because students today are learning about things that I didn’t learn until I was in high school,” says Johnson-Proctor, a resident of Fruitland Park. “For the ones who go on to college, I think they’ll be more prepared than the generations before them. I also like how Common Core encourages students to read more in subjects such as science and social studies. Being a good and enthusiastic reader is vitally important and helps them better comprehend what they are supposed to be learning.”

Other proponents argue that the new standards will make U.S. students more competitive with their international peers. So far, that hasn’t been the case. In 2012, U.S. students ranked 36th out of 65 countries after taking the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, which is administered once every three years to 15-year-old students throughout the world. When U.S. students took the test again in 2015, average math scores declined, and students showed no signs of improvement in reading.

Those declining math scores, critics say, reflect how Common Core uses complex methods to solve simple math problems. For instance, students are no longer taught mathematical shortcuts like cross-multiplying when dividing fractions.

With Common Core, arriving at the right answer to a math problem is only half the battle. It is equally important for students to understand the mathematical concepts used to solve a problem. But do second- and third-grade students have the cognitive skills required to demonstrate a deeper understanding of math concepts?

Absolutely not, says Jaennae Riley, a frustrated parent who says Common Core is the reason she transferred her daughter from a public school to First Academy-Leesburg.

As a third grader, Kierstyn Riley, 9, struggled to understand and complete her math homework, leaving her feeling demoralized. Evenings in the Riley household were often filled with tears and frustration.

“Kierstyn would bring home D’s and F’s on her math tests,” says Jaennae, a resident of Fruitland Park. “She would have to figure out difficult math problems where there were several right answers. Even if she figured out one right answer it would still be wrong if she didn’t choose the other right answers. And points were taken off if she came up with the right answer but didn’t solve the problem according to Common Core standards. She would literally sit there and cry at nights because she became so frustrated.”

To compound problems, Jaennae had an equally difficult time grasping Common Core math, rendering her helpless in assisting her daughter with homework.

“I tried Googling and texting other parents—all to no avail. We had no idea how to help our children. It was the worst nightmare ever,” she says. “She despised every ounce of math and began telling me that she was not smart.”

Her fortunes have changed considerably as a fourth-grade student at First-Academy Leesburg, where traditional methods are used to teach math. She has made A’s and B’s on all her math homework and tests.

“For me, it’s a big sigh of relief to see her going from crying two hours every night to understanding and enjoying math,” Jaennae said. “Now, if she’s struggling with something, I can help her.”

The struggles with advanced coursework and having to take numerous state-mandated standardized Common Core tests are taking the joy out of learning, according to opponents like Baxley.

“I’m all for challenging our kids, but I want our children to be taught what is appropriate for their age level so they can continue to love learning.”