{"id":21372,"date":"2014-02-10T07:54:12","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T12:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=21372"},"modified":"2014-02-10T11:27:35","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T16:27:35","slug":"core-questions-how-does-common-core-address-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/02\/10\/core-questions-how-does-common-core-address-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"Core Questions: How Does Common Core Address Poverty?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"full_story\">\n<div id=\"attachment_21374\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 400px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Experts say they've seen a positive effect in school using Common Core standards. But critics believe the standards are a distraction from the real issues with schools.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-10-MathLesson.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21374\" alt=\"Experts say they've seen a positive effect in school using Common Core standards. But critics believe the standards are a distraction from the real issues with schools.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-10-MathLesson.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-10-MathLesson.jpg 400w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-10-MathLesson-300x167.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">freedigitalphotos.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Experts say they&#39;ve seen a positive effect in school using Common Core standards. But critics believe the standards are a distraction from the real issues with schools.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Chris Guerrieri is a Jacksonville art teacher who also <a href=\"http:\/\/jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com\/\">blogs about education<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Last month he sent us an email about Florida\u2019s Common Core standards.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My question was: How does Common Core affect poverty?&#8221; he asked.<\/p>\n<p>More than half of all Florida students qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a short-hand way to gauge poverty. Florida&#8217;s rate is about one-sixth higher than the national average.<\/p>\n<p>We took Guerrieri&#8217;s question to Paul Thomas. He&#8217;s a professor at South Carolina&#8217;s Furman University and has <a href=\"http:\/\/radicalscholarship.wordpress.com\/\">written a book about the effects of poverty on education<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/134052289&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_artwork=true\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Thomas said Common Core is a distraction from real problems with schools.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you\u2019re an African-American male student,&#8221; he said, &#8220;you are disproportionately likely to be excluded from advanced classes and you\u2019re also likely to sit in classrooms with teachers that have no experience and possibly no certification. There\u2019s absolutely nothing in Common Core that addresses any of those inequities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Besides, he said there&#8217;s no evidence schools have a problem with standards.<\/p>\n<p>Studies by the <a href=\"http:\/\/nepc.colorado.edu\/files\/pb-options-2-commcore-final.pdf\">National Education Policy Center<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/~\/media\/newsletters\/0216_brown_education_loveless.pdf\">Brookings Institution<\/a> predict the new standards won\u2019t improve academic achievement.<\/p>\n<p>But educators who have seen Common Core at work disagree.<\/p>\n<p>Florida is one of 45 states to fully adopt the standards.<\/p>\n<p>Baltimore City schools are a few years ahead of Florida in using Common Core.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edtrust.org\/dc\/about\/staff\/sonja-santelises\">Sonja Brookins Santelises<\/a> was Baltimore\u2019s academic chief before recently moving to D.C.-based advocacy group The Education Trust.<\/p>\n<p>She said Common Core charts a clearer course for educators on how to get elementary school students ready for college &#8211; something that wasn\u2019t happening before.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/01\/14\/core-questions-who-owns-the-rights-to-common-core\/\">Core Questions: Who Owns The Rights To Common Core?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/06\/19\/core-questions-what-do-the-standards-say-about-financial-education-and-co-teaching\/\">Core Questions: What Do The Standards Say About Financial Education And Co-Teaching?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/08\/23\/feedback-loop-what-readers-think-of-common-core-standards\/\">Feedback Loop: What Readers Think Of Common Core Standards<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/01\/2-20-CommonCoreApple.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/topic\/common-questions\/\">Send Us Your Questions About The Common Core<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe standards that we were setting across the country,&#8221; she said, &#8220;were very, very different depending on, unfortunately still, the ZIP code and the race and the ethnicity of the young people in question. And I think what Common Core does is really open up the black box. So what does the trajectory look like?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Also, Brookins Santelises said poor students are more likely to switch schools during the year. Common Core should mean those students are more likely to pick up where they left off.<\/p>\n<p>The new standards ask more of students. By the time Brookins Santelises left the Baltimore district, schools were improving.<\/p>\n<p>And before Baltimore, she worked in Massachusetts \u2013 the state whose standards are a model for Common Core. The Bay State is now one of the top-ranked education systems in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Common standards will allow districts across the U.S. to share tips, techniques and lessons that work best for low-income or minority students.<\/p>\n<p>In Florida, Common Core is already in place through second grade. At Sallye B. Mathis Elementary in Jacksonville, Principal Angela Maxey saw a difference too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo now we do not have, as an educator, an excuse for not educating all children the same way,&#8221; she said. &#8220;So I believe in this type of instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Florida is still using test results to measure student performance, grade schools and calculate teacher pay. And that\u2019s why Common Core critics like Chris Guerrieri doubt anything will change. He thinks test scores will be the focus \u2013 not poverty or social policies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd as long as we keep ignoring poverty that\u2019s all we\u2019re going to do,&#8221; Guerrieri said. &#8220;It\u2019s just going to be a cycle of the next new thing. It\u2019s new and not necessarily better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But if Common Core does improve U.S. schools, nearly everyone agrees a better education is the best long-term solution for poverty.<\/p>\n<p>StateIm\u00adpact<em>\u00a0is\u00a0answering\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/indiana\/tag\/core-questions\/\" target=\"_blank\">reader-submitted questions<\/a>\u00a0about the\u00a0Common Core, a new\u00a0set of expectations for what students should know and be able to do in math and English at each grade level. Florida is one of 45 states that have fully adopted the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/tag\/common-core\/\">Common Core.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Got a question about Florida\u2019s move to the Common Core? We\u2019re here to help. Reach out to us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/StateImpactFL\">Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateImpactFL\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:florida@stateimpact.org\">email<\/a>\u00a0and submit your question.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Guerrieri is a Jacksonville art teacher who also blogs about education. Last month he sent us an email about Florida\u2019s Common Core standards. &#8220;My question was: How does Common Core affect poverty?&#8221; he asked. More than half of all Florida students qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. It&#8217;s a short-hand way [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":21374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1157,788,136],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21372"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21378,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21372\/revisions\/21378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}