Judging education has always been a complicated idea for me. I don’t think that grades in High School are a good way to judge whether a student is learning because a big portion of grades in High School come from homework and this results in grades that just show how much free time a student is willing to sacrifice. This leaves testing as the only real way to measure learning, but as the article suggested this comes with its own set of problems. The previous standardized tests were atrocious and measured how well students could memorize facts. The common core is supposed to be the new test and is supposed to go away from this.
The two goals of the common core are to refocus classroom instruction on conceptual understanding and the development of higher-order thinking skills, and to create a measure of consistency across the United States. The author states that these goals are reasonably met, however points out several flaws still remaining. The big one for me is that no teachers were consulted when creating this test. How can you test education without consulting the very people doing this educating. It seems they should have some if not a large input on these test. If they would have consulted with teachers it is unlikely that the issue of lacking instructions or funding for teachers to change and better meet the common core would exist. Overall, the common core is a step in the right direction, but needs further improvement before it can be instituted efficiently.
When homework decides as large a portion as you made out for a grade, it seems like the common core should be addressing that issue as well. While I do think that a continuous effort for homework shows commitment, and that it does help students learn, I don’t think it should be accounted for a grade. At my high school, homework never counted for a grade. However, after a few short weeks I learned quickly that not doing it means not learning at all, which actually made me assign a larger value to it as opposed to if it were graded. That is a good point you bring up and it is a great talking point when discussing the common core. Perhaps you (or someone else) will bring this up at the discussion on November 20.