This week the board of the New York State teachers union (600,000 strong) pulled back its earlier support of Common Core.
Politico described the NYSUT position in this way: "It wants more time for teachers to review the Common Core lessons the state has been promoting, and it's demanding more input on whether they are grade appropriate. Parents and teachers have complained that the standards push the youngest kids too fast, demanding so much work from kindergarteners that there's little time for the play that's deemed essential for young children's development."
For more information see
Valerie Strauss' article in the Washington Post and an in-depth
NPR report.
When the Common Core State Standards were being written in 2010, the Alliance for Childhood called for the removal of the K-3 standards so that they could be approached from a more developmental perspective. Our statement was signed by leading educators. The standards were adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia but many are rethinking their support. This has become a bipartisan issue and the kindergarten standards are one of the key concerns.
Students May Be Disadvantaged by Starting School at 5 Years OldIn related news, an Australian newspaper reports that the countries that did best in the much-respected PISA test started formal teaching at 6 or 7, not 5 as we increasingly do in the U.S.
The article quotes David Whitebread, a Cambridge University expert in the cognitive development of young children, saying ''overwhelming evidence suggests that 5 is just too young to start formal learning." He adds that children should be engaged in informal play-based learning until about age 7.
