The Last Laugh: CA loses again...

Yesterday the feds announced the second round winners of Race to the Top and CA lost again. This is hilarious to me because we sold ourselves out when we adopted the new national standards back in August. And when the discussion came up educators were saying the new national standards weren't as rigorous as CA's. Heck even CA said, we don't need to adapt them, ours are just fine by themselves."

So now we lose again and what about those great standards we have to adopt now? Does anyone realize how much money it is going to cost to buy books that are aligned to the new standards? We just bought new books 3 years ago to have them aligned to CA standards. It is going to cost millions of dollars per district, that they don't have!

California looks pathetic. Here we are this huge state that if we were a nation, would be the 8th richest in the world. But you wouldn't know it because we are billions in debt and can't come up with a budget. We do so much to impress Washington to get their approval, the climate bill, the new standards, green jobs...and for what? Obama is laughing at us. Heck, CA put him in the Whitehouse and he won't even look at us. Great job CA!

Thoughts Without Words: CA adapts common core standards

Super-duper.

I can't say I am sure how this will affect us, but I do know that the whole 8th graders enrolled in Algebra 1 isn't going to be pretty. I teach Algebra B (second half of Algebra 1) and I have seniors that can't add fractions, factor, graph, or any other basic math. Worst part...I come from a school that has an API over 880, unheard of in CA high schools.

How are the poor performing schools going to do now? I like this quote from Ontario-Montclair's assistant superintendent Jill Hammond;

"If you give the teachers the foundational knowledge, and the district does a good job of building it, then the students are going to be more than ready with this challenge," said Jill Hammond, OMSD assistant superintendent of learning support services.

I like how there is so much emphasis on teachers being the key. Once again where is the focus on the students and the parents. Remember we only see these kids 55 minutes a day. I doubt the common standards will do anything new...what a waste.