District 107 Common Core Time LIE

District 107 Common Core Time Lie

November 17, 2010 - Board Meeting open forum:

July 18, 2012 – Board Goals proposed for 2012-2013

August 15, 2012 - District goals approved:

Implement alignment of Common Core standards for math grades k-8 and above level language arts in grades 5-8.

Letter to Parents and Guardians – Math common Core Standards to be implemented in 2012-2013

Fredisdorf announces “relatively minor changes were needed in our rigorous curriculum to align with Common Core standards.”

October 17, 2012 - Math Common Core Standards Update at BOE Meeting

October 26, 2012 - Letter to community announces math curriculum realigned to CCSS and being implemented!!

December 19, 2012  - Board majority approves generous new contract for Fredisdorf.

April 3, 2013 - Mark Mirabile (Candidate for BOE) states full math curriculum alignment in campaign literature.

April 5, 2013 - Facebook Parent Group P3 – Sharon Rak’s rebuttal to Mirabile/Fredisdorf’s claim:

I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry when I read in a recent email this quote from Mark Mirabile and Michael Hawbaker: “Specifically the entire math curriculum was aligned to the Common Core standards to start the 2012/13 school year.”

I would like to make clear our entire math curriculum was NOT aligned to the common core standards to start the 2012/13 school year! I am a Math Common Core professional development consultant for the Illinois State Board of Education as well as the Illinois Principals’ Association who travels the entire state instructing school administrators and staff on math Common Core implementation.

Common Core math requires three major shifts: FOCUS, COHERENCE AND RIGOR.

The first shift of the Common Core is FOCUS. There are a specific number of standards for each domain and grade level. For example, the study of probability does not start until grade 6. If your child is currently in grades K-5 and they have been taught any probability this year, then Pleasantdale’s current curriculum is NOT ALIGNED TO COMMON CORE. FOCUS means abandoning the mile wide, inch deep curriculum and therefore we need to eliminate many current standards.

The domain of Counting and Cardinality is solely a kindergarten domain and it has 7 standards. There are 22 math standards that kindergarteners must master and these will not be repeated in a first grade Common Core aligned curriculum. Between the numerous math and English Language Arts standards that must be learned in kindergarten, there is little chance it will be accomplished with a half day of instruction. Students will need more than a half day of instructional time, and this cannot happen during the extended day program since no new learning can take place. Good luck to our poor kindergarten teachers that must accomplish this in two and a half hours a day while staying true to the kindergarten philosophy of giving children instructional playtime as well.

The second shift, COHERENCE, arises from mathematical connections. The eight standards for mathematical practice should be connected to the content standards and embedded in classroom instruction, discussions, activities, and ASSESSMENTS. The eight standards for mathematical practice are NOT in our current assessments.

Trust me when I say, there is not a school district in the USA that is fully aligned to both the Common Core content and mathematical practice standards.

The third major shift, RIGOR, requires a balance of three things: solid conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application of skills in problem solving situations. These three things need to be embedded in curriculum, instruction and assessment. Standards need to be taught and assessed with all three parts of rigor.

This year my 8th grader has had algebra. His conceptual and procedural knowledge are very solid but the balance of APPLICATION is definitely not there. The common core documents state that pursuit of all three requires equal intensity in time, activities, and resources. We do have level 4 questions on our assessments, but there is not an equal balance of them.

The process of curriculum change will take on an average of at least 3 years.

A common curriculum development practice is using the Backward Design Method. The Backward Design looks at what the learners need first and targets assessment and instructional strategies around those needs. Both the Smarter Balance and PARCC assessments HAVE NOT been written yet and that is why it is IMPOSSIBLE for Mirabile and Hawbaker’s quote to be true.

In closing, I would like to thank Mark and Mike for their great quote. I will be using it in my next common core math workshop and I am sure it will get quite a few laughs!

Sharon Rak

Mathematics Common Core Professional Development Consultant for the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Principals' Association

           

            



Jacqueline M. You Rock Sharon! That email was ridiculous. Also not even sent directly from either Mark or Mike. I find it nice to hear directly from the candidates.

           

            



Linda M. As a parent, it disturbs me our curriculum is not prepared for Common Core (lies notwithstanding). This is exactly why we need a change and people who are FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE. The level of discontent among Pleasantdale parents with our curriculum amazes me. What amazes me even more is the denial. I am so thankful to have four candidates who see this and want to make a change. They have put so much time and effort into finding solutions and being forward thinking. I didn't need another reason, Sharon, to know my vote for Kim, Kristen, Doug and Greg is the right one. But thank you for this information and giving us the heads up. It will help me be better prepared to help my son. April 6, 2013 at 9:12am 

           

            



Alexis E. Sharon - thanks for taking the time to explain the Common Core standards. It is refreshing to hear information straight from an expert. Sometimes things get a little murky in the midst of all the rhetoric...especially now that the election is coming up. I always like to believe that our district has a lot of well-meaning parents, people and professionals whose main goal is to make sure our district provides a good education to all. I have my own reservations about putting all students on the same page at the same time but I will leave it to the experts to figure things out. I hear you when you say it will take several years for all the changes to take place. Now can somebody please address the No Child Left Behind program? Good luck with that...  April 6, 2013 at 10:41am 

   

            



Jolene C. Thanks for taking the time to explain it Mrs. Rak!! Very informative 
            April 7, 2013 at 3:12pm 

May 2013 – Curriculum Council Common Core Update

June 19, 2013 June Testing Report – Scores are down but will go up as district is aligned with Common Core and being Implemented!

August 2013 – Letter to School Community again stating CCSS were implemented last school year.

September 4, 2013 – Curricululm Night presentations announcing alignment/implementation to CCSS:

Mrs. Berwick 2^nd grade – Curriculum night presentation

November 18, 2013 – Common Core Parent Meetings

Dr. Fredisdorf audio track that D107 is completely aligned and implemented in Common Core in Math.

“What have we done? We started first with mathematics. That started a couple years ago and we began this school year fully aligned in mathematics to the common core standards.

Math was kind of the first one out of the chute and so we jumped on that pretty quickly and teachers received support, curriculum writing time, we had trainers come in…I’m not going to go into all the gory details of it, but our math right now is completely aligned with the common core. What does that mean? Because we already had a challenging curriculum, it wasn’t a wholesale change. It wasn’t like okay one day this, and one day something else. What happened was in certain grade levels there were like certain functions or whatever that were moved down like multiplication started down in second grade, the end of second grade, whereas before it that may not have been until sometime in third grade. That’s just one example. So we took what we did and common core and we aligned those and also we’re updating our materials…

Language arts, middle school language arts is aligned to the common core and we’re starting that process in elementary and by the beginning of next year we will be completely aligned there as well. What are teachers finding? When we look at what we have been doing and common core, it’s not like a momentous shift.”

Evening Session with Nan Ochs presenting

Mrs. Rak: “I just want to confirm, so you’re saying that in math, our instruction and our assessments are already common core math aligned?”

Nan Ochs response: “Yes.”

Following meeting Dr. Fredisdorf refuses offer of free help with Common Core, loses patience and refuses to allow Mrs. Rak to meet with himself and board member or colleague.

November 19 Email to BOE

From: Sharon Rak

Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 11:20 PM

To: <tegtmeier@board107.org>, <violante@board107.org>, <Houk@board107.org>, <gilman@board107.org>, <mirabile@board107.org>, <Scaletta-nelson@board107.org>, <barker@board107.org>

Subject: ITBS & CCSS Parent Meetings

Dear Board of Education,

By definition, ignorance is a state of being uninformed. “The word ignorant is an adjective describing a person in the state of being unaware and is often used as an insult to describe individuals who deliberately ignore or disregard important information or facts. 

Individuals with superficial knowledge of a topic or subject may be worse off than people who know absolutely nothing. 

Ignorance can stifle learning, especially if the ignorant person believes that they are not ignorant. A person who falsely believes he or she is knowledgeable will not seek out clarification of his or her beliefs, but rather rely on his or her ignorant position. He or she may also reject valid but contrary information, neither realizing its importance nor understanding it.” 

This definition epitomizes superintendent Dr. Fredisdorf.

On Monday evening I attended the ITBS/Common Core presentation put on by Dr. Fredisdorf and Nannette Ochs. As an educator that has traveled the country providing professional development, I work with a lot of superintendents and I have never come across anyone as ignorant as him.

His presentation was incredibly confusing, riddled with misinformation and false information. When questioned on the district’s math Common Core alignment, he became downright mean and unprofessional.

Board members Doug Gilman and Gina Scaletta-Nelson, in addition to administrators and other parents in the room, witnessed this demeanor.

If a staff member ever conducted himself or herself in this manner, Dr. Fredisdorf would undoubtedly put a letter in his or her file.

I would like this letter added to Dr. Fredisdorf’s personnel file as a permanent record of how disrespectful he was when I questioned his knowledge and offered to help our district with Common Core math alignment. 

It is disturbing to me that our school board would allow Dr. Fredisdorf to continue to behave in this manner with his lack of intelligence.  It makes me sad to think that the children of our community have this man making decisions that will impact their future.

Sharon Rak

"The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple." ~ S. Gudder

December 4, 2014 - Mrs. Rak sends second FOIA request for information. Few questions were answered completely.

December 18, 2013 - Open Forum:

Curriculum council begins to back pedal on former claims by Fredisdorf.

The Curriculum Council facilitator states staff did not want professional development…someone to tell them what to teach and how to teach. They just wanted time, time to do it on their own. Their greatest gift was time.

January 2014 - Board of Education approves scope of Common Core Math and ELA Audits and cost.

Audit begins but Fredisdorf misleads staff into thinking it is Professional Development. He then tries several times to stop audit while attempting to discredit Math auditor Jennette Winters on numerous occasions.

January 23, 2014

Dear Pleasantdale School Board,

I am writing to request that, if the audit of our math curriculum continues, some of the following concerns be considered. During the audit process, some of the teachers felt uncomfortable with the line of questioning and type of questions. One teacher expressed to me that she felt the method of questioning was leading to discredit the work she and our district had done. The teachers would like an administrator or teacher to be sitting with them when they are questioned. They would like the purpose and expectations of her visit given to them beforehand so that the time is used effectively. I want to reiterate that teachers welcome additional professional development and consultative services that would further successfully implement the Common Core State Standards. I hope we can work to ensure that, as a district, we are collaboratively moving forward.

Sincerely, 
Erin Berwick

President
 Teachers’ Association of Pleasantdale

January 24, 2014 

Superintendent’s Board of Education Weekly Update                    

Independent Math and ELA Common Core Auditors

Per my work with Mark Mirabile and Kim Barker, Jennette Winters was selected to conduct the math audit.  Ms. Winters indicated she was able to begin on Friday, January 17.  I met with her in the morning informing her of the Board’s desire to gain an outside assessment of the District’s progress in implementing math Common Core Standards.  I informed her that I would need a cost proposal from her, but that she could begin her work immediately given the Board’s desire to have the audit conducted as soon as possible.  Ms. Winters spent the remainder of the day interviewing teachers who serve on the math committee at both the elementary and middle schools. 

On Tuesday morning after the holiday weekend, several teachers approached me at the beginning of the Institute Day complaining about Ms. Winter’s interviews, which they described as being “pressured”, “interrogated” and  “drilled.”   The Teachers’ Association submitted a letter (see attached) expressing concerns about Ms. Winters.  

I received Ms. Winter’s cost proposal on Tuesday (attached) indicating she would require 10-12 days to conduct the audit at a cost of $20,000-$24,000.  I was very surprised by the cost, as I never expected the cost to exceed the $10,000 threshold that would require Board approval.   I immediately emailed Ms. Winter’s indicating I was not authorized to approve an expenditure exceeding $20,000 and that she should stop her work until further notice.  My email exchanges with Ms. Winter are attached.

I believe Ms. Winter’s costs for an audit are exorbitant and unjustifiable, particularly since no other cost proposals were solicited.  In retrospect, I should have required Ms. Winters to submit a cost proposal before conducting any work.  In addition, I should have checked references.   I sincerely apologize to the Board for this oversight.  I absolutely will not commit that mistake again. 

Regarding the ELA Common Core audit, Gail Bohnenstiehl is scheduled to meet with me on February 4.  Given my experience with Ms. Winters, there will be no charge for this initial meeting and no work will begin until a proposal is submitted.

At this point, the full Board needs to discuss how to proceed with the math audit and, perhaps, the ELA audit as well.  Spending $20,000-$24,000 without conducting an RFP process is inadvisable.  I believe the audit could be conducted at a much lower cost by a consultant of equal or higher quality.  I will be discussing next steps with Doug.

March 11, 2014

Jennette Winters presents audit findings to BOE.

See the live video here!

)