As my children went through growth spurts, they would wake up at night, complaining of aching legs. I assured them they were feeling “growing pains.” Growing encompasses hard work, awkward stages and often a good dose of pain, but that is what it takes to grow.
Georgia is going through its own growth as we implement Common Core; we must accept that growing pains are inevitable. The bigger the change, the bigger the pains, but this is an opportunity to grow the achievement of our students, and Georgia teachers are working hard to move in the right direction.
As a teacher for more than 20 years, I remember classroom life prior to the Quality Core Curriculum and Georgia Performance Standards and the accompanying accountability of Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests and End-of-Course Tests. Education before the standards allowed tremendous freedom to teach with deep focus and critical thinking, but this also came with an often disjointed curriculum and little accountability. Then, our early standards and the first rounds of standardized testing came. Teachers, myself included, struggled to find the balance of covering all of the standards in the given time while still providing opportunities for problem-solving and inquiry.
As these standards and assessments came into play, many teachers became more focused and engaged in order to make sure students had opportunities to learn all the expected skills and content. However, this was a double-edged sword, as many teachers felt the pressure to shift into a role of disseminating information rather than facilitating more rigorous learning.
Common Core is a needed bridge between these two extremes: teaching critical thinking and deeper understanding within a frame of coherence across the grade levels. This year has produced many challenges as teachers across the state have worked to build the bridge to implement Common Core.
I have seen much growth in English Language Arts and reading informational text across disciplines. I cannot say the success was immediate; there were growing pains. However, many of those same teachers are now celebrating the successes of their students who are blooming as critical thinkers as they articulate what they are learning. I still hear real frustrations across all grade levels from math teachers; there are often deep gaps in students’ prior knowledge that need to be filled. This is far from easy, but so needed.
I truly support the initiatives in math as Common Core pushes toward discovery learning through real-life applications. I simply think we have expected too much too soon; this is a huge paradigm shift in teaching in this discipline. Teachers need patient support and effective professional development if this is going to be successful.
Common Core is a positive change that will benefit our children, but it can be tempting to ditch change when the work gets hard. Let’s face it: What we have been doing in Georgia has not been working. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2011, our eighth graders performed better than only 10 states in reading, and better than only eight states in math. In both cases, we were below the national average. Our old standards clearly were not measuring up, and Georgia students deserve the best!
This is not easy. I am thankful for the strong support in my district. We need all stakeholders to understand that this takes time. We need resources, professional development, support and time to get this right. Georgia has had a bumpy start. Early data on student achievement this year leaves room for improvement, particularly in math. There are those growing pains. We will get there, but growth takes time.
As we work to adopt Common Core in our classrooms, we will all feel the growing pains. This is part of change, and these pains are worth it.
With the continued support of policymakers, administrators, community partners and parents, Georgia’s teaching force will foster a growth spurt in the minds of our children.
Pam Williams, the 2011 Georgia Teacher of the Year, is an instructional support specialist for grades 9-12 in Appling County High School.
