Common Core Standards In High School

Zan Crowder and Stephanie Konle claim that programs like Common Core and the No Child Left Behind Act have been instilled throughout 95% of schools in America (286). This allows students in the United States to learn and understand basic academic concepts the same way. However, this leaves little to no room for teachers to instruct students in public schools their own unique way. Instead, they are given set criteria and material that the students have to meet and understand. Crowder and Konle also agree that one of the many downsides to Common Core is that it influences students to memorize answers for tests instead of actually learn academic material (285). Common Core and the No Child Left Behind Act paves the way for students to achieve higher scores on standardized tests because students, for the most part, are taught the exact same things in schools across

The educational system in the United States was originally developed using concepts from around the world, created using ingenuitive ideas from countries such as China, Japan, and Korea. However, as the United States quickly moved into position as the leading country for state-directed educational standards, America looked less and less to the systems of other nations and more into how we could improve what was locally and currently being applied in education. Consequently, an improved type of education instruction was officially launched in 2010. These new state standards, practically titled Common Core, were declared to focus on developing a child’s skills in reasoning, problem solving, communication, and competition (Conrad, et al. 52). While the standards are professed to be an extremely practical and beneficial method of teaching today, there are issues which have recently surfaced and raised some concerns. The Common Core State Standards are emerging as the subjects of a provocative controversy in society today as they prompt discussion on global economic efficiency, nationwide academic standards, and the ultimate well-being of school-age children.

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

The bigger problem is the role the Common Core State Standard are playing in the larger dynamics of school education. The primary reason for adopting Common Core is that it will supposedly prepare American high school students for careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Ironically, Common Core does exactly the opposite. It forces states to adopt a Math curriculum that is simply inadequate to prepares students for these demanding fields. Prof. James Milgram of Stanford University was the only Mathematics expert involved in developing Common Core. He refused to sign off on the Common Core Math standards when he saw how inferior they were to existing Math standards. He pointed out that Common Core Math will delays Algebra I until 9th grade and does not include Calculus in high school at all, which are necessary for students to be prepared for STEM courses in college. Prof. Milgram concluded that Common Core will put American students at least two years behind the high-achieving countries of Europe and Asia. Jason Zimba, the main architect of Common Core Math, admitted that it will only prepare students for Math courses at a non-selective Community College, not a four-year

What is Common Core? According to the Common Core organization website, the Common Core is a set of high-quality standards in Math and English. The goals laid in place by the Common Core govern what information a student should know, and what skills they should be able to perform at the end of each grade. With no regard to student background, or where they came from, the standards were constructed to ensure that all students enter the real-world with proper knowledge and skills in which are essential to succeed. In 2009, state school chiefs and governors that recognized the value and need for collaborated and coinciding goals across the nation coordinated a state-led effort to create the Common Core State Standards.

“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.

requires students to develop higher critical thinking skills. Jobs may be on the line if students do

While in a perfect world the government offices at all levels would coincide perfectly, without conflict, we live in a much more realistic world than that. There have been, are, and will continue to be many conflicts amongst the federal and state governments. Texas, in particular, has dealt with many political issues and laws involving, but not limited to, social, environmental and educational issues.

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

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

In 2009, many states adopted a new schooling standard called the Common Core State Standards. These are a set of popular K-12 standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics with future standards in other subjects like Social Studies. They were created for the “poor quality of content” (Polikoff) standards and to ensure that every student will learn the same things at the same pace. Researchers claim that the standards are better than the current state standards, raising the expectations of performance for students. Although Common Core is supposed to be higher quality, there are many challenges it would face such as technology upgrades, content coverage, computer scoring, etc. Before the Common Core State Standards, each state set its own standards similar to one another. With Common Core Standards, every state will have the same standards to base student performance off of. Another reason these new standards were put into place is to ensure that America will be able to

The Common Core State Standards are a state attempt to create strong educational standards. The standard are created to ensure that students in the country are learning and grasping the information that are given in the classrooms for them to succeed academically. The Common Core plan included governors and education commissioners form forty-eight states and the District of Columbia. They wanted to make sure the standards are relevant, logical and sequential. For content all subjects must have critical-thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. Some positive aspects of this policy is that it prepares our students for a competitive global jobs. It can provide national connections in education. Designed to shape the best standards so that all states will be taking a step ahead in education. These standards had been created after extensive research by professional educators for excellence in education. The CCS focus on what students expectations of learning, and achievements. Educators do not need to worry that the standards will make their jobs look redundant because they are in charge of creating lessons to teach their students the content and skills that the CCS demands. The teachers do not feel that the standards are one-size-fits-all. Some negative aspects of the policy are that is a program created by solely the government. The CCS is a program put together on idyllic situations in education by individuals who have subsidy and students ahead of the learning

As our society develops and evolves over time many aspects of our lives change and we find ourselves trying to adapt to new changes. One of the major changes that we have seen over the course of the years is the advancement in technology. We have come along way in many aspects of technology such as wireless internet and we now find ourselves using modern smartphones rather the flip phones. In addition to our technology evolving over time so has the education system in the United States. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has been one of the biggest changes in the United States education system in recent

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