Hamburgers Should Be Taught In Schools

The new Common Core State Standards for Mathematics bring a new opportunity to the classrooms of the United States that many people view as a controversial. According to the NCTM (2013) “The Common Core State Standards offer a foundation for the development of more rigorous, focused, and coherent mathematics curricula, instruction, and assessments that promote conceptual understanding and reasoning as well as skill fluency” (par. 1). While some people believe that the Common Core State Standards may hinder progress in the classroom for many reasons including too much government control, teaching to the test, an excessive focus on language arts and math, and wasted resources, others agree with the NCTM statement about that claims the standards help increase conceptual understanding, reasoning, and skill fluency.

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 is a set of academic standards in both mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). These standards were created to insure that all students, no matter where in the United States and regardless of social economic standing all will acquire the necessary skills to graduate and allow for success in college and or a career. With these learning goals students progressively gain the tools for each grade. The standards define the knowledge and skills students should gain throughout their K-12 education. The standards are research and evidence based goals that include clear, understandable, and consistent lessons that are aligned with college and career expectations with higher order thinking skills. In North Carolina,

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.

Building on the best of existing state standards, the Common Core State Standards provide clear and consistent learning goals to help prepare students for college, career, and life. The standards clearly demonstrate what students are expected to learn at each grade level, so that every parent and teacher can understand and support their learning.

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

At New Bern High School, Charlie Bernthal, a freshman, sits in a class room instructed by Common Core standards. It will take one of Charlie’s teachers six minutes to demonstrate the various methods to complete a simple multiplication problem, such as 63 x 24. Students are taught to use arrays, lattice, partial product methods, and eventually the traditional U.S. customary method. The Common Core standards happen to be a big discussion point during this year’s election. People have many strong opinions when it comes to the Common Core State Standards, but researchers and institutions express reasons why teachers and schools should not use Common Core to instruct America’s youth. Schools and teachers should not teach by Common Core standards because these standards are detrimental to our children.

The Common Core Standards are an outline of the skills and knowledge students must know in each grade; kindergarten through the twelfth grade. They include a specific curriculum in mathematics as well as english/reading. The Core was created in 2009 by governors and state commissioners of education. The goal of the common core is to prepare students to succeed in college, their careers and life. However, since the implementation of the core it has become a controversial issue with support on both sides. The common core has not improved our education system but has unfairly assessed students knowledge through tests, ignored students individual learning styles and overlooked important life skills. (Bloodworth)

Common Core concentrates on a clear set of math skills and concepts. Before this concept was implemented into the American Education system this new way of addressing math problems and concepts

The Common Core is a set of academic standards that show what a student should learn in Mathematics and English (“About the Standards”). The standards were made 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”). The standards start in kindergarten and go all the way up to 12th grade (Pérez). Forty-two states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) have chosen to take in the standards, and are moving forward with the Common Core (“About the Standards”). The standards were created through the work of administrators, teachers, school chiefs, and other experts to provide a clear and consistent outline for educators (“About the Standards”). The standards are understandable, research- and evidence-based, built upon the strengths and lessons of current state

In the last six years a new standards system has been created for high school students in order to help them prepare for college classes; this system is the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Common Core system, developed in 2009, addresses both mathematics and English language arts. It creates a system of standards that map out skills and abilities from grades K-12 that need to be focused upon in order for students to be successful in the future.

Launched in 2009, the Common Core state standards have done nothing to help students progress their learning abilities, and have even harmed their ability to be educated. With Common Core, teachers must follow strict guidelines on what to teach and how to teach it, but this one-size-fits-all ideal does not apply to the real world. Former teacher, Susan Rakow,

What is common core some may ask, well according to Common Core State Standards Initiative “the common core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade” (About the Standards). The standards were created to try and ensure people who graduate from high school can succeed in life, by having the same education minimums taught to them no matter where in the nation they went to school.

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

All states have raised the expectations for students over the past few years, even states that opted out of the Common Core Standards. For instance, Common Core experts noted that the eighth-grade math course is a much harder course than what was traditionally taught at that level. With Common Core implemented the students are learning concepts, like Algebra I, that are traditionally taught at the high school level. According to the NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress) between 2013 and 2015 eighth graders enrollment in Algebra I decreased from 48 percent to 43 percent, while the enrollment in general math increased. Teachers are not teaching as much geometry as they did in previous years, which is another shift that ties to Common Core. These aren 't the only changes we see occurring with the standards now in place.