This morning, Delaware Governor Jack Markell went to Gauger-Cobbs Middle School. What was the occasion? Nothing less than celebrating the glory of Common Core and thanking teachers for “debunking” Common Core myths. And more college and career readiness and the school to wards of the state pipeline…
And he will be doing it again on Thursday at W. Reilly Brown Elementary School in the Caesar Rodney School District…
Today is Leap Day. Every four years, except for a millennium, Earth adds an extra day to its calendar. Apparently, it takes 365.25 days for Earth to revolve around the sun. To make up for that .25, we get an extra day every four years. It is also Superman’s birthday. I remember four years ago, when my son attended a Delaware charter school, a classmate of his had a birthday on Leap Day. He was turning two that year since he only had two birthdays. The things kids believe!
My first Leap Year was 1972. I was two, so I don’t remember anything. In 1976, I was in Kindergarten in Syracuse, New York with Mr. McKinney. I wanted to be a detective when I was older. 1980 brought us the Lake Placid Winter Olympics when the USA beat Russia. I didn’t watch the final game because I was salivating over my Wacky Pack stickers. I wanted to be a doctor when I was older. In 1984, I was most likely not doing what I was supposed to be doing: homework, studying, chores. What can I say, I was a rebellious young teenager! My dreams of becoming a doctor went up in smoke when I saw an elderly man have a heart attack in Stop & Shop one day. 1988 was my Senior year of high school. It was a good year, but also full of angst wondering what the future was going to hold. I was going to major in business. In 1992, I was in my final year at community college looking forward to transferring to Cabrini College in the fall. I was going to finish college by 1994 with an English/Communications degree. In 1996, I had just moved to Sweden. Literally. I had sold most of my comic book collection and lived in a small town outside of Stockholm called Tullinge. I didn’t work the first couple months I lived there. There was no leap year in 2000 because it was a millennium year, but I was working at Chase Mortgage doing loss mitigation work. 2004’s Leap Day was definitely full of curiosity. My wife was due with our son in a month and I couldn’t wait to see him! Still at Chase. In 2008, I was unemployed on Leap Day. Luckily, it didn’t last long. 2012, the last Leap Day before this one, I was working two jobs and rarely had time for anything outside of work. I was at my current job and also working as a paraprofessional at Campus Community School. Which brings us to 2016 and today.
My point behind all of this, nobody knows for sure what they want to do with their life. Some do, those who have exceptional drive and motivation. Not everyone has that. But our Governor and the Delaware DOE seem to think every child should know what they are going to do when they are “career ready”. If not, the test scores will determine that and they will make sure you are put on a fast track to that career. It isn’t right. People need the freedom to stretch their own wings and figure things out for themselves.
Delaware Governor Jack Markell gave the keynote address at a forum called “Making ‘College Ready’ Matter: College and Career Ready Policies in the States” this morning in an event sponsored by the corporate education reform non-profit called New America Foundation.
Markell looked visibly weary and tired. The speech began at 9:15am. He used the same line I’ve heard from him a few times this year: “There has never been a better time for someone with the right skills, but there has never been a worse time for someone with the worst skills.” Markell explained that states that have fully adapted the state standards have done better. He cited Massachusetts as the first state to adapt to new standards and how it has paid off for them.
He said Delaware is one of the only states still calling them the “Common Core State Standards”, but even if other states are no longer calling them that they are still the same. In talking about pushback to the standards, he blamed the original intent of supporters thinking it would keep federal intrusion at bay. He said the opponents have gained a lot of traction around the country. “Implementation hasn’t been very good in some places. We worked hard with the Delaware Department of Education to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Markell said it was “exciting to see educators so empowered with sharing information” across districts and “we have a responsibility to fix the implementation.” He believes the standards are “elevating the teacher profession.”
The Governor addressed the issue of opt-out and firmly stated he is opposed to opt-out. He “understands the concerns about parents and teachers about too much testing”. He dovetailed into the assessment inventory as if this is the answer to the Smarter Balanced problem. “Good assessments are critical, they add value to educators.” In talking about the Smarter Balanced Assessment, Markell said “It’s the best test we’ve ever made in Delaware”, it was “the right way for us to go”, “it’s more difficult than our predecessors”, and it is a “fair measure for parents and educators.” “In Delaware, our colleges and universities have agreed to use Smarter Balanced scores for college coursework.”
This brought up the subject of remedial classes. As Markell was citing figures, the camera panned to what looked like a classroom and several teenagers present. When Markell asked the crowd if they were still with him, the camera caught a teenage girl yawning. Markell bragged about getting 100% of college-ready seniors to apply to college which included sending volunteers to schools to help applicants out with college essays and financial aid. “We had 250 students who wouldn’t have bothered to apply.”
He stated college is not for everyone, and it is our (America) responsibility to make sure these students have a place and they get the necessary training to enter the workforce.
My biggest question concerning this speech was if the Governor receives revenue for these types of events as well as the travel costs associated with them. So I emailed the Governor’s Education Policy Advisor, Lindsay O’Mara with some questions just now:
The Season Of Myths 