Common Core Not for the Common Good

Adopted by forty-two out states in 2010, the Common Core State Standard Initiative strives to provide an educational structure which details what English language arts and mathematics should be taught from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The initiative is the federal government’s attempt to ensure all students who graduate from high school are adequately prepared to enter a two or four year college or the workforce. Despite their intentions, the Common Core has caused much controversy in the education community. The thought behind Common Core is very valid and has the potential to help students, however changes must be made to unrealistic standards and wordy statements. Common Core must first be rewritten so that the language is clear and can be easily understood by the general public. Next ask experts on childhood development and elementary school teachers to review the standards and rewrite standards they see as unneeded or irrelevant as well as unrealistic.

The lack of educational benchmarks and standardization in the United States of America, USA is disjointed and subpar leaving students ill prepared to enter the workforce and college. As evidenced by the persistent problem of students graduating and passing required exit exams in high school; yet, they still needed remediation upon entry to college. The Common Core is good because it provides a set of age appropriate learning goals and sets a national high-quality academic standard for Math and English to prepare students for college and career readiness. In essence, the Common Core defines what a student should know and be able to do at different grade levels.

Changing the method of learning across a nation is an incredibly large undertaking and it must be thought out impeccably to work. The way the Common Core has been enforced in schools has had some issues, causing it to be unsuccessful. One problem with it is that it was not made to adapt to different students, for example some students that might have learning disabilities cannot learn the same ways as students without that disadvantage and the Common Core can’t be adapted for each individual student. In the article “Common Core: An International Failure,” the author says, “Instead of choosing a one-size-fits-all approach to education, education policy makers should turn to the people who actually know their pupils: parents, teachers, and local school districts” (Asbenson 1). Asbenson is saying that teachers must have some say in what and how they teach. The way the Common Core is now, they do not have the luxury of changing the curriculum if they find it necessary. The fact that the Common Core leaves no room to accommodate different students and the ways they learn, makes it difficult to see why it is a better choice than having curriculum differ across the country.

Common Core State Standards is being heard throughout the education world. Many cringe when the words are spoken and many fight to support what the words stand for. Common Core was introduced in 2009 by state leaders. Common Core State Standards were developed to prepare children for the business world or the reality after grade school. “The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy, also known as ELA” (About the Standards, n.d.). The goals for the standards outline what students should know before leaving his or her current grade level. “The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live” (About the Standards, n.d.). This is an ambitious goal, but with much support can be accomplished. According to Common Core State Standards Initiative (n.d.) The Common Core has been adopted by forty-two states already and is accompanied by District of Columbia and Department of Defense Education Activity. Common Core was developed to improve the academics in society’s schools. Academics in the past years have not been successful and the United States has fallen behind international education. “One root cause has been an uneven patchwork of academic standards that vary from state to state and do not agree on what students should know and be able to do at each

Education in the United States is in an abysmal state. It continues to spiral downward as students and educators fail to meet standards. The standards are then altered on a patchwork basis throughout the states. The goal is no longer to have a high standard educational system. The goal now is to maintain the status quo, allowing students and educators to strive for the minimum. There is no common approach to achieve success. Incipit Tragoedia, in comes the Common Core, agreed upon by educators, politicians, and

Our country has been falling behind in the academic aspect compared to out international peers. Our remediation rates in college have grown over the past few years. The main problem is because our states vary in what they believe students should be able to do in each grading level K-12. So, technically Common Core Standards is giving students a better education. Based on my research from English Language Arts Standards, I found that the Common Core Standards are built off of these five standards:

Common Core advances equity. If students from all parts of the country-affluent, rural,low-income or urban- are held to the same rigorous standards, it promotes equity in the quality of education and the level of achievement gained. (Moiser1) Every school is still struggling with equality and schools don’t know how to handle the demands of Common Core, they won’t be successful. While the goal of Common Core may be cut testing costs, help get kids college ready, and promote equality in education, it actually causes teachers and parents to have less say in their child’s education, stresses kids out too much to the point that they won’t want to go to college, and causes struggling schools to struggle even

While in theory having a national standard for education sounds like a progressive scheme full of possibilities, it has actually lowered our betterment as a society. Reality is not every nation should be taught CCS, studies show that not every nation with Common Core Standards do well at testing - Canada does not have standardized testing and as a nation does very well. This proving that standardized testing cannot be tailored to the diverse nation we have today. The challenge that the Federal government cannot seem to grasp on is that states have a firmer idea on what is needed for their individual

Today, 43 states have voluntarily adopted and are working to implement the standards, which are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to take credit bearing introductory courses in two- or four-year college programs or enter the workforce.” Common Core provides a benchmark for each grade which shows teachers what areas they need to work on with their students. Common Core advocates learning and implementing concepts using real world experience rather than memorizing facts. There are separate standards for both K-12 grade and high school graduates. Another main idea of Common Core is that all state will be have the same standards, which should level the playing field by making sure that every student that graduates is on the same page regarding academics. The website also gives a concise list of the characteristics they want Common Core to achieve: “The standards

“Without Common Core we (America) are not where we want or need to be.” The New York Times reported this in August, 2013. Currently, every state sets its own curriculum for its schools. The result is that the United States ranks “25th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading compared to students in 27 industrialized countries.” Without national standards, students depend upon the luck of where they were born or schooled to get a comprehensive education that will prepare them for life. If the United States is

For starters, Common Core is defined as an academic outline that specializes in Math and the English Language that every student should know before moving on to higher grades. Common Core has various downsides. In order for states to recieve funding from the government they must adhere to the system guidlines. A brief note on Education and the government: education is a state right and not a federal right. Education has no right to be regulated by the government; in fact, it underminds the Tenth Amendment. The Tenth Amendment states that any power not delegated by the Constitution is delegated to the states or to the people.

Anyone would be hard-pressed to find a politician in recent years who has been elected to a national office without promising to improve education and focus their efforts on the betterment of their constituents’ children. Many of these politicians have succeeded at passing legislation to do so, but the latest of these, the Common Core standards initiative, is facing a very important query right now: does it work in America? Although Common Core is very well intentioned and in selective ways could be considered a success, there are many failures to consider as well. When dealing with such education, a vital issue, these failures must be dealt with. In order to ensure not only an equal education but also one of higher quality which the citizenry

The outcome of this could be extremely positive and should be enforced by the federal government. However rather recently, our current President Barak Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act turning all of the decision making power on education back in to the states hands. This new law will supposedly end more than, “A decade of what critics have derided as one-size-fits-all federal policies dictating accountability and improvement for the nations 100,000 or so public schools.” (Associated Press, NBCNews) What many people believe might be good thing could possibly have a very negative outcome in the future. By examining Texas, a state that had originally rejected Common Core, we can almost exactly how this might turn out and the consequences that it might have for the rest of United States. “Texas combines a rigidly thematic and theory-based social studies structure with a politicized distortion of history”(excellencemedia) The result of such structured curriculum, avoiding clear historical explanations while offering misrepresentations throughly in this way is unwieldy troubling and dangerous.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) was first implemented in 2010, nine years after I graduated from high school. Although I wasn’t personally affected by the new academic standards, it has a direct impact on the current and future generation of leaders, innovators, and world changers including my future children. The initial purpose of the Common Core Standards is to set high-quality learning goals designed to prepare students to be college and career ready. Given the current controversies surrounding CCSS, studies have shown that although the intent was to benefit students in the long-run it may actually be hindering their mathematical and reading skills. To further explore the arguments behind the Common Core initiative, I will

Common core works for the benefit of some students but does it truly work for all? Does it work for students at risk, requiring extra assistance, or academically inclined? Common Core is not personalized, cost of the materials, and removing educated teachers’ importance to education (Rakow). Equally important, is Common Core truly helpful to students? Despite states meeting their standards set for Common Core, there is a drawback. “Each state establishes its own tests and profiency bar” (Peterson, et al). The standards that are met by each state are originally set by the state which becomes problematic. Standards of Common Core are set by the same legislation that receives funding for meeting the criterion (Peterson, et al). States are receiving funding for meeting whatever standards they set for the students. It is possible that state education legislations are purposefully setting low standards to receive federal funding as their reward for satisfying or surpassing their standards. The personalized nature of education has fabricated due to the newly accepted method. Gifted and less academically acclimated children are both subject to the standard Common Core work (Rakow). The lessons included in Common Core are “High-Priced, one size fits all programming” (Rakow). Also, Common Core is a “teacher proof” method (Rakow). Resulting in the necessity of the required materials, making educated teachers no longer necessary for learning the processes produced by Common