How My Warrior Mom Common Core Crusade Began...

I am a domestic engineer, mother of two, and wife transformed into a passionate educational common core warrior because of previous experience coping with these standards. We lived in Colorado and my children attended various different schools but primarily they attended a K-8 and P20 Aurora Public School in Aurora, Colorado. After major struggles, heartache, agony and lots of tears wondering why my two children began to hate school at the early age of 5 & 6…I interjected myself into the classroom as a permanent volunteer.

We moved several times in order to attempt fixing our educational nightmares. We first began blaming our own children, then the teacher, then the principal, then the school district before we ever realized after 3 LONG devastating years that it was a national education reform and curriculum that was causing us so much misery.

Some of my initial warnings signs included: less recess, less time to eat lunch, MORE time sitting at a desk with worksheet after worksheet, self-directed collaboration of group efforts as opposed to individual needs and learning, children teaching other children, five and six year olds expected to write “personal narratives” and “progressive poetry,” vague and subjective standards-based grading 1’s, 2’s and 3’s, PP, P, U, S and M’s?!  Or “approaching grade level” but NOT “at grade level” which seemed alarming although the teacher told me not to worry about it. Little to no phonics and whole language instead, abstract subjective reasoning and time spent focusing on processes instead of objective lessons in right and wrong or correct answers. My son would receive unsatisfactory or partially proficient for reading and yet score 100’s on reading comprehension, in reverse my daughter would somehow manage to score 100’s for reading and yet zero’s for reading comprehension…quite frankly I was confused and angry because I did not understand the expectations. More importantly neither did my children. I noticed after a couple years class sizes were growing rapidly into the mid-to-high 30’s, GREAT teachers were leaving in mass quantities, principals not quite ready to retire were retiring and getting out, superintendents were bailing too, it was major turnover in every aspect from all directions at schools district wide. Learning through play with centers and fun engaging activities turned into MORE and MORE boring worksheets, MORE writing, inappropriate expectations on what and how the students were expected to write. My child knew a whole lot about other foreign countries but barely knew the first letter of the name of his street or city; he could perform a CO2 science experiment with clouds, speak many different words in other languages, had memorized the definition of communities, picture walks, could brainstorm central ideas and narratives with beginning, middle and end’s, but could hardly write his full name and had little to no concept of traditional basic reading, writing, or math!! We skipped ALL of the basics and went straight to high school. How many five and six year olds do you know that can write lengthy detailed personal narratives with full and complete punctuation and precise capitalization in chronological order as the events occur? Well neither of mine could. And I admit my kiddos are pretty normal, run-of-the-mill average kids. They are not gifted & talented nor do they have any specials needs, but they could NOT understand and neither could I as their parent why school was so difficult.  I did have one rowdy energetic boy that we knew school would be a challenge, but I also had a daughter that was a “natural learner,” school came very easy to her and she naturally picked things up with ease. So, why were they BOTH already failing or practically failing Kindergarten and First Grade?!  

After volunteering immensely in the classroom I realized ALL of the students in both classes were not engaged, they were all glazed over, overly rowdy, behavior problems were increasing, small attention spans became smaller and I couldn’t help but wonder why? Then it dawned on me, the teacher of course, she has no clue how to teach, that or every single kid in this class is stupid and has major problems. Actually, it must be the leadership or lack thereof, so the principal must not be enforcing rules. Our school or the school district is definitely the problem! But then I began to set-up one-on-one meetings with these specific people, in that order. I attended PTO meetings, City Council meetings, school board meetings, and even a parent class on how to do 1st grade math in order to actually be able to help my child with front end estimation integrated math. I was invited to join the accountability committee and discuss (AYP) adequate yearly progress, quantifiable data graphs, CSAP/TCAP results, and I proctored many tests with all the headaches and nuances.  I was officially a “helicopter” mom trying to figure out the source of our education frustrations. I discovered there were 32 failing kindergarteners, which turned into 35 failing 1^st graders, which turned into 38 failing 2^nd graders. And a whole lot of failing teachers! Why? Where was the support? Where was the leadership? What was going on here?

Again, I began to look for alternate solutions; I toured other neighboring school districts, private schools and charter schools. Charter schools wait lists were in the hundreds minimum because parents were signing their children up when they were born, unfortunately I did not know to do that and quite frankly after attending some of the Charter school meetings we realized they were run as businesses and were certainly NOT a solution to our education dilemma. Every person in our family is “Type A” so home-schooling would be a last resort, and private schools were extremely expensive so instead we decided to hire an in-home, one-on-one tutor in order to supplement.

Over the course of those few years, the school atmosphere and environment became more and more chaotic. Nobody had answers. It seemed as though the entire school had been turned upside down.  Tension grew, extremely upbeat positive teachers with pleasant attitudes turned cold and negative, open doors turned into closed doors, more teachers left in mass exodus, gym became more time for class instruction and academics NO LONGER fun according to my children, warm and friendly principals turned into authoritarians demanding authority of “do this or else”, and quite honestly we wanted out, IMMEDIATELY! This was not the nurturing educational environment that we desired for our children.  I hated seeing the simple joy for learning vanish and I was depressed watching what was transpiring inside the building. If I heard the words rigor, data, or test scores one more time I would have a panic attack. It was a miserable place for everyone that entered whether they wanted to admit it or not. It was an obvious transformation that began instantly and slowly progressed into pure misery in less than 3 years.

Finally, an answered prayer, my husband’s job was going to relocate us, and we didn’t care if it was to Egypt. We were ready to move far way. We began to do research, I asked both of my children’s teachers more and more questions about what to look for and how to make sure we get our kids into the right school district once we moved. It wasn’t until right at that moment the 2^nd grade teacher gave me a sheet of paper with my son’s assessment data and said, “Here, it may not look like it but he’s doing great in school, don’t worry about him. Here is an old-fashioned report card which shows what I mean for your own peace of mind before you move. It’s NOT a common core assessment or standards based grading, I am giving you an old report card like the ones I used to do. And she handed me a hand-written old fashioned A,B,C,D report card.” That was the first time anybody had ever mentioned the words common core, and I went home and spent all night researching it. The light bulb went on and after 3 miserable years I finally understood what the problem was, NOT the teacher, NOT the student, NOT the school, NOT the principal, or even the district. Although it was a major issue, I realized it was NOT the root cause creating this ripple effect. It was actually a secretly implemented and mandated national curriculum, a copyrighted public policy called common core standards. It was the new top down approach to education. An outcome based approach, a transitional method to teaching and not a traditional method to teaching and learning.

By this point, I was glad to be packing our stuff and was even more eager to move on and forget about everything we had just lived through. My research into common core ended there, the light bulb came on and I was only looking toward the future and hope that the new changes would be the end to all these problems. Within a month we transferred to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We did some serious school searching which included touring miles worth of school districts, we asked all the tough questions, and we chose Owasso School District based on many different reasons.

Immediately the school district got me in contact with a summer tutor who tested my children and we decided to retain our oldest child because he was struggling drastically with reading. Once school began that fall our children came home for the first time ever with spelling lists, (AR) Accelerated Reader book programs with incentive for reading, normal math mixed with some (but very little) fuzzy math because primarily the teacher was still teaching her old traditional approaches, and they were excited to begin learning and reciting the pledge of allegiance which was not allowed in Colorado. They were allowed to have their first ever Christmas party, they earned rewards for going above and beyond, they were disciplined and received consequences as needed, they were held accountable for the first time to a black and white standard, and they grew dramatically in academics, character, and in responsibility. My son for the first time ever had to learn how to manage and maintain the responsibility of keeping his very own desk neat and tidy, as opposed to the group effort at his table of 6 classmates sharing community supplies. Both of my kids were engaged, excited, and eager to learn again…their delight in learning which was stolen away had returned and it was a HUGE relief. My daughter came home one day and said she felt like school was a lot more fun here, she was glad we had moved because people weren’t always mad and this new school had more rules. An interesting perspective from my first grader. I noticed the hallways were cheerful and sometimes loud but always within reason.  The classrooms were full of a variety of activities and hands-on learning, one of their teachers used m&m’s to teach math as opposed to another boring worksheet, they engaged rotating through centers, students gave the announcements and managed the school store, it was realistic genuine, traditional education at its best. The students here in Owasso were smiling, they were having fun, and they were enjoying school, most important they were learning life skills but they didn’t even realize it. It was a pleasant change and I left daily in tears grateful my kids finally had the opportunity to experience it!

However, this year, only one year later after many teachers left, and our principal retired I was back to feeling a dramatic shift in the atmosphere. I continued on my weekly copy schedule for teachers and I began to see a whole lot of common core stuff again, and I also received another standards-based progress report. NO!! It couldn’t be, these standards were haunting me, and this can’t happen to these amazing Oklahoma schools. Our schools here in Owasso are exceptional, why would they choose to implement common core? And my journey began again, but this time I had something AMAZING to compare them too. Before I was a new school-aged parent with newbie’s entering the education arena. But now I knew for sure what the warning signs were, I had been on this train wreck before…I could see the danger up ahead. God had granted me wisdom and knowledge and now I am here to spread awareness about what is looming around the sharp curve. I refuse to allow any other parent or child to experience what we experienced without at least an educated decision, a vote, or a fight. I do not choose this, for whatever reason, it chose me. But I understand now how this top down approach of outcome based education (OBE) really works and I refuse to not share my story. 

Students and teachers are far more valuable than any given test score or quantifiable data statistic!! And some character traits such as creativity, responsibility, perseverance, determination, resilience, compassion, honesty, authenticity, teamwork, respect, dependability, originality, and individuality cannot be measured by any given test. And most important there is a huge difference between knowing and learning, between knowledge and wisdom.

Here is the blog I started in order to track my efforts on this unexplainable journey of spreading awareness. I was determined to get some sleep in 2014 so I decided to start blogging my thoughts and emotions, as well as, share my research and experience.  This is my new temporary solution to get my brain to shut down and stop spinning a million miles per second long enough to acquire a good night’s sleep!