----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Sarles Patricia (18K500) <PSarles@schools.nyc.gov>
To: "aaslforum@ala.org" <aaslforum@ala.org>
Sent: Tue, April 17, 2012 8:20:22 AM
Subject: [aaslforum] SHARE: Choosing Blindly: Instructional Materials, Teacher Effectiveness, and the Common Core
This is hot off the presses. In New York, we are being cautioned not to jump the gun and purchase instructional materials, which would include books for the library, that claim to be aligned with the common core. It will probably take a while for quality materials to be developed as the Common Core is still too new.
"Not only is little information available on the effectiveness of most instructional materials, there is also very little systematic information on which materials are being used in which schools. In every state except one, it is impossible to find out what materials districts are currently using without contacting the districts one at a time to ask them. And the districts may not even know what materials they use if adoption decisions are made by individual schools. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which has the mission of collecting and disseminating information related to education in the U.S., collects no
information on the usage of particular instructional materials.
"This scandalous lack of information will only become more troubling as two major policy initiatives—the Common Core standards and efforts to improve teacher effectiveness—are implemented. Publishers of instructional materials are lining up to declare the alignment of their materials with the Common Core standards using the most superficial of definitions. The Common Core standards will only have a chance of raising student achievement if they are implemented with high-quality materials, but there is currently no basis to measure the quality of materials. Efforts to improve teacher effectiveness will also fall short if they focus solely on the selection and retention of teachers and ignore the instructional tools that teachers are given to practice their craft."
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2012/0410_curriculum_chingos_whitehurst/0410_curriculum_chingos_whitehurst.pdf____________________________________________
Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS
Jerome Parker Campus Library
100 Essex Drive
Staten Island, NY 10314
718-370-6900 x1322
psarles@schools.nyc.govhttp://www.scoop.it/t/help-with-the-common-core-state-standards/http://paper.li/psarles/1332609247The Internet may be the world's greatest library, but let's face it - all the books are scattered
on the floor. - D.C. Denison, Boston Globe
Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. - Mitchell Kapor
To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction ... The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. - Martin Luther King, Jr. The Purpose of Education