Too demanding too soon?

Do the Common Core Standards ask too much of 5- and 6-year-olds in reading? asks Liana Heiten in Education Week. The debate is heated, at its heart the standard stating kindergartners should be able to "read emergent-reader tests with purpose and understanding." Experts agree it's a more advanced expectation than previously, but have less agreement about whether it's an overreach. Critics argue the standard is not "developmentally appropriate," and that kindergartners should be in play-based programs, whereas the standard encourages "drill-and-kill" teaching. Proponents, however, say these arguments misread the standard, that it doesn't demand mastery of foundational skills, merely requires kindergartners to show progress. The standard is compatible with play-based experiences, they say, and contains a note encouraging them. Yet while the standard itself may be developmentally appropriate, instructional methods teachers use to tackle it may not be so. However, this is an instructional issue. "It's important to understand that drill-and kill is not the right way to teach almost anything," says David Liben of Student Achievement Partners. "That doesn't mean we should eliminate the standard because some people are implementing it incorrectly." More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.