My vexing and persistent problem at the high school level is an overabundance of standards to cover in too little time. As mentioned in my last post, there are 127 basic math standards required of the Common Core at the high school level. These need to be covered before juniors take the state assessment at the end of their junior year. (This current is the SAT's, but will soon (2015) be replaced by the Smarter Balance test.) Our performance as teachers, and as a district, are interpreted in light of these test scores. 127 standards equates to covering one standard about every four days. Since we use block scheduling, that means that every two classes, students should be covering another standard. There is no way to consider this mastery!
Searching out a solution from what other educators have to say about this left me with no clear cut answers. Some educators just acknowledge that there is no way for them to cover everything well, so they spend more in-depth time on some topics, and skim over others. Others said that they viewed the Common Core as having too little rigor, and should be much more demanding at the high school level.
Having to teach everyone, and not just those who excel in math, I gravitate towards agreeing with the first set of educators.
I did run into some interesting articles about teaching math in a more integrated fashion, as apparently 90% of the world does, instead in a "layer cake" fashion, where topics are separated into Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. Through integrating the topics, statistics and geometry are woven into algebra, and creative problem solving is more deeply encouraged. Real-life applications make much more sense by incorporating statistics and data analysis throughout the curriculum. Also, I think these would better mirror the approach of the Smarter Balance test items that we are soon to see.
I can only imagine how vexing this must be; that's an incredible amount of standards that allow no time for mastery if teachers are going to fit in each standard! I think it's a great idea to integrate the math subjects. Integration almost always leads to greater mastery because it becomes more meaningful and applicable to students.
ReplyDeleteThe closest I have taught to the high school level is 8th grade pre-algebra, and that was awhile ago! However, even then there seemed like so many things that needed to be fit into our math "block" that I couldn't work at a pace that the students needed- but rather what matched the curriculums pacing guide so everything was "covered".
ReplyDeleteWe had a number of articles and some discussion about education at the high school level and how the structure really needs to be revamped to meet the needs of our students so they learn as many of those standards as possible in real, meaningful and integrated ways. There is no solution to the problem until superintendents and administrators and school boards are willing to have the conversations, listen to ideas and actually do it.
I can tell you that the high school I went to was that "layered cake" you were talking about. The math subjects went in exactly that order. We only had to get to Geometry technically in order to be considered for college. It sounds as though your high school has a stressful amount of work. I'm glad I never had to go through that process.
ReplyDeleteTo try to understand your situation I compared it to 2nd grade. We have 26 standards to cover in a year. 127/ 4 years came out to 32 standards a year for high school. Although, you said they need to have them covered by junior year in which I got came up 42 standards a year. Wow! That is a lot. Is this going to be your first year using the CCSS or did you use them last year? I like the idea of integrating topics in order to cover more material as well as make the learning more relevant. I cannot see a downside of this.
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