As The Government Made The Transition Into Common Core

The Common Core Standards were developed in order to create a clear and consistent message of what students are expected to learn and know at the end of each grade level so educators and parents will know what they need to do in order to help them prepare to be career and/or college ready.

According to the National Education Association (2017) The common core state standards benefit all students because it provides equal access to the same curriculum as other students across the nation. The standards focus specifically on English Language Arts and Mathematics. The Common Core is designed to encompass a clear set of broad standards to prepare students for post-secondary opportunities. The standards were meant to be more challenging than current set of standards in each state and to provide clarity and consistency about what was expected of students at each grade level.

However, controversy began when political groups saw the Common Core as an encroachment of the federal government on States rights(Jost 850). In addition, teacher's union became concerned about consequences of evaluation standards on educators (Henderson

There are many opinions to whether the Common Core should be enforced across the United States. One of the most wildly accepted views is that even though the Common Core could be a good idea, it is unnecessary, that America has done just fine without it. The Common Core is not working how it should and schools should go back to the way it was before. Many professors and researchers agree that the Common Core does not work and might even be hurting the youth of America. Parents who disagree with the Common Core have started pulling their children out of public school resulting in national education to be even less standardized, which is the opposite affect than what the Common Core was meant for. It is also not preparing students for future

Prior to writing this response paper, I had no pre-existing knowledge revolving around Common Core other than the negative ideas and opinions I’ve only vaguely heard, often including photos of honestly outrageous equations. What exactly is Common Core, according to them, and what is the goal? By definition, the Common Core State Standards Initiative details a list of subjects for students kindergarten through twelfth grade to have learned the by the end of each specific grade. The ultimate goal is to be certain that students across all of the states receive the same education and reach the same requirements in order to be prepared for college work; or, rather, the standardized tests that will determine whether or not they are even granted access into college in the first place.

Common Core is built as an infective for education to all schools, but what it is, is a policy that all students learn the same. Common Core has been adopted in forty-three states around the nation. Common Core is designed to get students ready for college and career ready from grades Kindergarten through twelfth grade. “The basic definition of what Common Core is, a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy.” (Board)“The college- and career-readiness standards were developed first and then incoporated into the K-12 standards in the final cersion of the Common Core we have today.” (Practices) The construction of Common Core was by seeing which state standards were already the best, using experienced teachers, leading-thinkers, content experts, and also public feedback about their child’s education. Common Core is currently being endorsed by the White House. “Common Core is currently costing the United States eighty billion dollars.” (Board) Common Core was created by state educational chiefs and governors from forty-eight states. Common Core states that it will get students ready for their futures, but has only hurt them by not truly completing the goals set. Common Core is developmentally inappropriate for students because the cost of Common Core, it is pushed by the government for competition between states, and the strong implantation of standardized testing.

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.

“The Common Core: A Disaster for Libraries, A Disaster for Language Arts, A Disaster for American Education,” was written by Stephen Krashen and taken from Knowledge Quest January/February 2014 issue. Stephen Krashen is professor emeritus, University of Southern California. Krashen points out that the Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, is not relevant for students. He states there are other issues that should be addressed, such as food insecurity or lack of health care, before we put more finances into strict testing and more advanced technology. His thesis is that American Education is missing the real problems affecting education and that the Common Core will continue to turn schools into testing centers.

“The Common Core: A Disaster for Libraries, A Disaster for Language Arts, A Disaster for American Education,” was written by Stephen Krashen and taken from Knowledge Quest January/February 2014 issue. Stephen Krashen is professor emeritus, University of Southern California. Krashen points out that the Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, is not relevant for students. He states there are other issues that should be addressed, such as food insecurity or lack of health care, before we put more finances into strict testing and more advanced technology. His thesis is that American Education is missing the real problems affecting education and that the Common Core will continue to turn schools into test centers.

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 common core standards were made to ensure that all students were ready for college and their career at the end of high school. The organizations that wrote the common core standards were the national governors association and council of chief state school officials. The common core lets all school districts study the same thing at the same time, which enables the students that move from different sate allowing that students not to be left behind. The standards includes research, evidence based, aligned with college and work expectations, rigorous and internationally benchmarked. The standards were made so students were required knowing mostly English language arts and mathematics at the end of each grade, but the standards sets requirements for literacy in history, social studies, science and technical subjects. They thought if students needed to learn how to read, write, speak and listen they should know multiple subject to be ready for college. According to the common core standards students going to the next grade level must meet the specific grade standard.

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

Over the past several decades the education levels in America have dropped below those of many of the other nations in the world. Having Common Core will give Americans an accurate description of where the U.S. school systems ranks in comparison to other nations. Additionally, it will hopefully lead to improved education. Furthermore, through Common Core teachers will be better equipped to monitor the progress of students. Through the defined standards it will become easier where students show in which subject matter students show weakness. Hopefully, this will allow teachers to provide more one on one attention to students who need it. However, one of the most beneficial parts of Common Core applies directly to students. Because of the set goals and standards of the program students will be able to better connect the material they learn and be able to see the real world application and practicality associated with their

According to Susan Rakow, a positive outlook on Common Core is that, "If we look at the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) idealistically, we see a set of mutually agreed-upon standards based on valuable knowledge and skills that can lead to improved instruction and assessment". The problem is that people have to look at Common Core in a more realistic way and see that there are still many things that need to be done to fix it. There is no perfect way of educating people, so to try and force one is not a sensible thing to do. According to Stan Karp, another lure of Common Core is that, "It represents a tighter set of smarter standards focused on developing critical learning skills instead of mastering fragmented bits of knowledge". It is shown that the Common Core standards do not go beyond certain ways of thinking, so no one is able to think outside-of-the-box without believing they are completely wrong. Having the fear of being wrong restrains students' minds on how to think differently from other people and find new ways of doing things. When they have to do this in college and beyond, it will be hard for them to

The campaign to fully adopt Common Core took about two years which is astounding when other attempts to adopt common standards outright failed. Within that two year period, forty-four states agreed to adopt Common Core; however, many of them have presented bills to repeal the standards. Initially it would appear that most people agreed that common standards were a good idea. Either that or they were desperate to claim as much of the available stimulus money as possible. Most of this likely transpired due to the “Race to the Top” campaign to adopt college and career ready standards in order to receive funds. According to the article, “Support Continues to Erode for Common Core Standards and Assessments” one of the biggest oppositions is largely due to the way in which the standards were developed, how they were introduced, and how the assessments will be used to determine student benchmarks. There has been considerable controversy surrounding the players responsible for the inception and development of Common Core. The motives for developing common standards among states have been labeled as means to make money for corporations that design textbooks, assessments and promote data mining. One wonders if the issue is more narrowly focused on how they were developed rather than why they were