PBS (4/25) reports that “many elementary schools...have dropped cursive instruction altogether as increased testing, the implementation of Common Core State Standards and computers in the classroom take more time and resources.” A total of 45 states and the District of Columbia adopted the English Language Arts standards outlined in the Common Core, but several states including California Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee have mandated cursive instruction. Marilyn Zecher, a former teacher and certified academic language therapist , related a conversation she had with a bank manager, who said that “there is an appalling number of high school students transitioning to college ...[who] don’t have a signature...That’s a problem.” Steve Graham, a Professor of Education at Arizona State University, said “We now have electronic signatures. We don’t use the signature in the same way that we did 20, 30, 50, 100 years ago.” The article concludes by noting that there are still “devotees who slowly and methodically create beautiful characters.”
Education Week Explores Four Years Of Common Core
Education Week (4/22) runs a package of articles titled “Vision Meets Reality: Common Core in Action,” with the articles exploring how the Common Core Standards have impacted education policy and practice in the US over the past four years. The focus of the package is how the standards’ original conception has “bumped up against reality” as educators work to implement them.
Editorial: STEM Topics Important For Students
An editorial in the Rocky Mount (NC) Telegram (4/14) notes that students at Englewood Elementary School participated in various activities “to expose them to science, technology, engineering, art and math in a fun way.” The paper argues that students exposed to STEM fields at a young age “will be more likely to develop an appreciation for those” subjects. The editorial also notes that Nash Community College will also host several science and technology themed events over the summer for middle school and high school students. The Telegram concludes that it is important for students to have “knowledge and appreciation of STEM topics” in order to participate in the global economy.
States Consider Adding Cursive To Common Core
The Washington Post (1/25, Chokshi) reports in its “Govbeat” blog that Indiana’s Senate approved a cursive requirement in a vote on Thursday and that it is one of seven Common Core states considering a cursive requirement. Arguments for the cursive requirement include studies showing that it is helpful in cognitive development because “the movement tasks are more demanding,” and “the visual recognition requirements create a broader repertoire of letter representation.” In addition, it is “faster” than printing and offers “a better sense of personal style and ownership.” One study found that children in grades 2, 4, and 6 “wrote more words, faster, and expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand versus with a keyboard.” States considering a cursive requirement include: California, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Utah.
California Districts Develop Assessments For Common Core
Education Week (1/10, Gewertz) reports on efforts to implement the Common Core by the ten California Office to Reform Education districts. The story notes that ED “recently granted eight of the CORE districts a waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act that essentially allows the group to set up its own accountability system.” As a result, the group has “created performance assessments that are intended to be complex, nuanced gauges of how students are doing as they’re learning, and to serve simultaneously as instructionally valuable exercises in and of themselves.”