The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Teachers: Curriculum has varying results
Since Connecticut adopted the Common Core State Standards in 2010, teachers have been teaching the same curriculum at the same time, but they have been having very different experiences in the classroom.
CCSS is a set of educational standards detailing a curriculum for English and mathematics for children in kindergarten through grade 12.
In more than a dozen interviews, Connecticut’s public school teachers indicated a range of both complaints and accolades for the controversial curriculum but a common observation emerged — the curriculum that was introduced to create consistency does not work equally for every child, every teacher or every district.
Teachers across the state indicated that Common Core is less effective for lowerincome districts, children who are young for their grade, lower-performing children who do not qualify for specialeducation services and teachers who feel the rigidity of the curriculum has stifled their ability to be creative and incorporate play into the classroom.
Lowerincome districts
Glastonbury Public Schools spend an average of $16,578 per student and the percentage of students who qualify for a free or reducedprice lunch is 13 percent as compared to the state average of 42.1 percent for the 201819 school year, according to edsight.ct.gov.
“In Glastonbury, we were really lucky because we already had such a strong curriculum, so when Common Core came in we were pleasantly surprised that we only had to make some minor changes,” said Michelle Rose, a veteran first grade teacher in Glastonbury.
Rose said that she thinks the Common Core standards are working well for most children in Connecticut because Connecticut as a state already had strong standards.
Linda Tomaiuolo is an elementary art teacher in New Britain public schools, who formerly taught kindergarten for the district. They spend $13,990 per student — 168th out of 169 municipalities — and 75.4 percent of students qualify for a reducedprice lunch. Tomaioulo said in her experience, the Common Core does not work for her district.
“Not to make a sweeping generalization, but when children start in more affluent towns like Glastonbury they know shapes and colors and numbers, they can count,” Tomaiuolo said. “They can sit and listen to a story. Many of our kids, they don’t even know how to write their own name or hold a pencil.”
Tomaiuolo said that the Common Core forces kids to do things they are not “developmentally ready to do” such as subtract with regrouping in first grade rather than in second grade where it used to be introduced before Common Core.
She said these developmentally inappropriate skills are a side effect of a curriculum developed without teacher input. Peter Yazbak, director of communications at the Connecticut Department of Education, said that educators were involved in the development of the Common Core.
“The CCSS were developed under
the leadership of governors and chief state school officers with participation from 48 states,” Yazbak said in an email. “The process included the involvement of state departments of education, districts, teachers, community leaders, experts in a wide array of fields and professional educator organizations. The process relied on teachers and standards experts from across the country.”
Yazbak said the Common Core does not dictate how teachers have to teach the curriculum, but rather it serves as a ‘roadmap’ for what students of all backgrounds should have to know. Therefore, teachers in less affluent districts could still cover the curriculum, but it might be taught in a different way than teachers in more affluent districts teach it.
“The CCSS provide consistent learning goals for all students to graduate college, career and civic ready, regardless of which district in which they live,” Yazbak said in an email.
Children who are young for their grade
Connecticut is one of only four states in the nation in which children enrolled in kindergarten do not have to turn 5 years old until Jan. 1, so some children entering the classroom are significantly younger than their peers. When it was commonplace for kindergarten to be halfday, these 4yearolds were able to flourish. With the introduction of Common Core and nearly universal fullday kindergarten, these 4yearolds are expected to sit and focus for hours on end.
Lowerachieving children
For children who aren’t able to keep up with the fast pace of the Common Core curriculum, going to school can be frustrating.
“You see behavior — kids really frustrated, parents really frustrated because they want to help their kid but if they’re not developmentally ready, they’re not developmentally ready,” said Laurie DiMauro, a retired kindergarten teacher from Portland Public Schools.
DiMauro explained that for some kindergarteners who aren’t ready to read yet, trying to keep up with their
highachieving peers can be discouraging.
“It just gets so hard for some kids,” DiMauro said. “They look at their neighbor and their neighbor appears to be reading, but they aren’t and they’re like, ‘Wait a minute, I’m not able to do that,’ so I’m just going to throw my book, or make noise or walk around, because they’re bored. They just can’t do it.”
Longtime special education teachers like Sue Nolin said it is up to the teacher to make modifications to fit all children.
“Your job is to teach the children in your room,” Nolin said. “I hear the teachers complain, ‘Oh I got all the low learners in this class. They’re never going to be able to do what I’m asking them to do.’ Then you have to change what you’re asking them to do.”
Chelsie Giegerich, a first grade teacher in Portland, said the behaviors she sees in the classroom have become more severe in recent years. She said these behaviors are influenced by several factors, one being the expectations placed on the kids in the classroom.
“Personally, I think health,” Giegerich said. “Kids don’t eat well anymore. Parents aren’t able to be as involved due to having to work and all that and so they aren’t as involved in their lives, helping them do homework, making sure they get enough sleep, all that kind of stuff. And then they come to school and there are these really high standards and they have to sit there like this when maybe they didn’t get to play at home and be themselves and be a kid at home. Having those really really high standards doesn’t necessarily help a child who has issues already.”
Teachers who thrive on the creative aspects of their career
Laurie DiMauro’s 36year career as a kindergarten teacher in Cromwell, Middletown East Haddam and finally Portland schools was marked by creativity.
“What kid doesn’t like to make chocolate lollipops?” DiMauro said. “In the meantime you’re working on the concept of liquid versus solid and heat and melting and all that sorts of lessons within that lesson.”