At the beginning of last school year, teachers at East Cobb Middle School had their students paste sample problems, study guides and homework assignments in composition books and entitle each one “Math Survival Guide.”
They hoped it was a stop-gap measure to get them through a year without textbooks, a complication created by a change in the curriculum. But it looks like teachers will face the same problem this fall.
A groundswell movement against Common Core, national standards for public school testing that were adopted by Georgia in 2010, led to Cobb’s school board voting against buying new textbooks. The local tea party organization along with several other residents complained to the board that the textbooks are too closely affiliated with Common Core, an initiative they say amounts to a federal takeover of education.
While the takeover argument has gained traction all over Georgia, it appears no other county has rejected the textbooks associated with Common Core. It just so happened that conservative-leaning Cobb County was scheduled to vote on buying textbooks just as tea party groups across the nation were targeting Common Core.
Many teachers say without textbooks, and the resources that come with them, they will be forced to piecemeal together lesson plans using free websites. And, they warn, since Georgia education officials are basing this year’s statewide tests on the new standards that were adopted, scores will suffer.
“What are (students) supposed to do when we’re not there?” Farrah Gamel, a Cobb teacher, asked board members. “You’re asking us to keep the highest standards. You’re asking us to do it with less class time. You’re asking us to do it with more students in our classes and with less pay, and now you’re telling us to do it with no resources. Enough is enough.”
Those against Common Core — meant to “provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so that teachers and parents know what they need to do to help,” according to the curriculum’s mission statement — say it creates an undue financial burden on taxpayers and would “dumb down” students.
They also dismiss arguments that each state voluntarily adopted the Obama-administration-supported standards, noting that federal grants are tied to states’ accepting Common Core.
“Under Common Core, everyone will be equally stupid,” said Susan Stanton, a Cobb resident and grandmother of a recent Cobb graduate.
Several politicians and prominent education figures have spoken out against the measure, which has been adopted by most states. A bill was introduced in the Georgia legislature late in this year’s session that would pull Georgia out of the Common Core, but it didn’t pass. That bill is expected to resurface during the next session.
Earlier this month, Governor Nathan Deal signed an executive order affirming Georgia’s rights to educate its children without federal interference. Despite that, he said he still supports Common Core.
In Cobb, on the night of the vote to renew the textbooks, dozens of residents, carrying signs and dressed in patriotic clothing, protested the proposed textbook purchase, which would have been paid for with $7 million raised in a special sales tax.
“Textbooks are only one resource,” said Cobb County School Board member Kathleen Angelucci, who voted against the proposal. “In the past, administrators have told us, ‘We don’t always have to have them. Teachers use all kinds of resources to instruct students.’ We need more time to know what this is about and where the state of Georgia is going.”
The board didn’t buy textbooks for any grade.
At May’s meeting, at least 20 math teachers told board members that they were “politicizing math.” Textbooks provide sample problems, step-by-step explanations to complex math concepts and are used to build lesson plans, they said. Georgia’s standards are so similar to Common Core’s that the proposed books would be useful with or without the new standards, they said.
But board members didn’t budge. It’s unknown when or if board members will vote on the issue again.
“If teachers have textbooks as a resource, then they can take the time thinking about how they can adjust lessons for advanced children or children with learning the English language,” said Dina Sherwood, who coaches teachers at Cobb schools with a high proportion of low-income students. “By having that in place, teachers can meet the needs of all their kids instead of spending all their time asking,’Where’s the basic resource for this lesson today?’”
Textbooks are critical learning tools, several Cobb parents and tutors said.
“From my experience, textbooks are the foundation,” said Chris Millett, a Cobb County resident and math tutor. “The masses of students are totally dependent on teachers and the resources they give them. They’re now dumping the onus on the teacher to come up with a methodology to share information with the masses in an effective way. I really think it’s not going to happen. Some will get it, but the majority of them are really going to struggle. We’ve taken a critical resource out of their hands.”
Math curriculum has changed several times in recent years and state test scores have dipped as teachers struggled to amend their lessons.
Michelle Mikes, Cobb’s math supervisor for middle and high schools, said teachers likely will build their daily lessons using a hodgepodge of material from free websites, teacher blogs and internal district websites. That could lead to outrageous printing costs, possible copyright infringement and an access gap between poor students and their peers, Mikes said.
But that’s not the only problem, said Sherwood.
“Most of the free stuff on the Internet has no real world application,” said Sherwood. “It’s just practice problems, just numbers —kill and drill. Kids will be just drilling on problems instead of thinking about the problems. With the new assessments that are in place, you won’t see just basic computation, there will also be application and critical thinking.”
Reponzell Morris said her son who, will enter ninth grade at South Cobb High School next year, asked how administrators could guarantee equity between the schools.
“Every math teacher is not the same,” Morris said. “You’re going to have math teachers who know what they’re doing, get everything they can to get their students a quality education without textbooks. But what happens when you have teachers who don’t have that level of dedication?”
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