The writers of these standards clearly have some serious problems. They would be good candidates for that T-shirt that reads “Do you spell anal retentive with a hyphen?” Why otherwise would they be requiring kindergartners to be able to count forward _and_ backwards starting at _any_ number from 1 to 100? What’s the purpose of that, other than to torture children and their teachers?

This post was mentioned on Twitter by JoanneLeeJacobs: New blog post: Standards at the core http://www.joannejacobs.com/2010/03/standards-at-the-core/...

If, as Lightly Seasoned says, 9th graders need literal material, I think statistics might be right for them. They could have fun fact checking some of the assertions adults make.

I’ve looked at the high school standards, as well, and I think that they are not developmentally appropriate in places. Yes, our brightest students are capable of inferential thinking, but the AVERAGE 9th grader is still operating on a literal level (this is why algebra is so hard for them — symbolism isn’t clicking for them yet). It is great to reach for this level with all students (and I do — that’s how I know the rough level at which it is attainable), but of course the new tests will mandate that all get to this level of abstract thinking or I will have failed (not the students). The little hard research we have in education centers on the brain, and some of these standards don’t reflect what’s been learned there.

Not to worry. In ten years of teaching I’ve spent enormous numbers of hours realigning things for two different tests (one more year and I’d have done 3). I figure I have three or four more sets of standards to go before retirement.