Planning Time And Instructional Efficacy

According to the Common Core Initiative’s Website (2014) the Common Core is “a set of clear college- and career-ready standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts/literacy and mathematics.” They were developed in 2009 and released in 2010; shortly after, they were endorsed by 45 states. The advocates of the Common Core saw the standards as a way to raise test scores by making sure that students everywhere in every grade were taught using the same standards (Strauss, 2014). What they did not take into consideration was the effect of these standards on the interaction between teacher and student.

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.

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.

Ultimately, Common Core is not the education our children need. Students need a mixed curriculum of learning, with the intention that they will recognize what their passions are, and not just how well educated they are in general subjects. Having knowledge in these subjects are extremely important, however only emphasizing on certain subjects narrows the child’s ability to learn more. The Common Core standards prevent students from that excessive knowledge they would have, and only focuses on how well they can think on a test. Despite the elaborate plan Common Core presents to raise the educational standards in our nation, these same standards will diminish the student’s individualism, as well as inflict stress and anxiety on the child’s

Forty-two states, along with the District of Columbia have adopted Common Core State Standards. These standards were created to focus only on English and Mathematics. An effect of states adopting Common Core State Standards is that all other subjects taught in school were emphasized less. History, Science, and many other subjects are no longer stressed; therefore students are limited to being proficient in only two subjects. The Common Core deprives students’ ability to be skilled in multiple areas. These standards do not provide a slight “break” from the challenging and fast paced teaching of English and Mathematics. In addition to limiting education to English and Mathematics, Jill Bowden explains that the Common Core is affecting kindergarteners by taking them “away from materials that encourage playful learning” (36). Simple, beneficial learning materials typically used in kindergarten classrooms are being replaced with workbooks and textbooks. These standards are not benefiting education; instead they suppress enjoyable learning that one could gain from free learning. All grades are affected, but especially kindergarteners. These kindergarteners are too young for authoritative standards, and should be learning concepts appropriate for a child the age of five. Standards were made “to become the backbone for student, teacher, and school accountability systems and will play an increasingly prominent role in the American educational ecosystem” (Gutierrez 78) Therefore,

Common Core State Standards Initiative caught parents and teachers off guard alike. Not many truly understand that concerns, consequences, and underlying issues that surround Common Core. It wasn’t until children were venting their concerns, teachers were frustrated with the statistics undermining their duties, and parents questioning Common Core’s teaching practices – that Common Core was put under the spotlight. An educational reconstruction sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers sought out to establish a unified education standard that would detail what K-12 students were to know in English and Math alike. Common Core’s mission is to

“Class, today we will work in our practice workbooks. Please complete drills nine and eleven.” One can almost hear the groans of exhausted students echo across the classroom as another day of drills and memorization passes. Unfortunately, endless drills, mountains of workbook pages, and dry, tedious lessons have become the norm in today’s classrooms across Mississippi. However, there is a bright light in the distance known as the Common Core State Standards. Common Core State Standards, which was released in 2010, is a government implemented program aimed at improving public education nationwide (“Common Core Glossary” 1). Though the standards set by Common Core will benefit the nation as a whole, Common Core will also benefit students

Remember when you were in 5th grade? Your teacher went over the material in class, you went home and had some sort of homework paper to do, you took a test in class later that week, and you either passed or you didn 't. Do you remember comprehending any of that material? Or did you simply just memorize the material and move on with your life? The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) not only standardizes education, but it makes comprehension and intricate tool of the learning process. When it comes to American public education, the diagnosis has been offered that our schools suffer from a lack of consistent standards from coast to coast about what our kids should leave school knowing. The fix that has been adopted in a number of states in the last few years is a set of standards called the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which have become the most contentious issue in American education in the last generation with disputes about who drew up the standards, whether they result in kids being over-tested, and even whether standards make sense that they have to be common. Are we fixing the right problem (Donvan, 2015)? Throughout the U.S., more and more states have been enacting the Common Core State Standards. Despite opposition from politicians and educators alike warning of dismal results, these standards appear to persist as a result of mostly positive outcomes.

Like an epidemic terrorizing the western hemisphere, the Common Core State Standards program has swept across our nation, and at each stop, threatened a new way of thinking and living. These standards were created to ensure that more students graduated from high school with the skills to succeed in college, life, and career, no matter where they might live (About the Standards). In 2009, this fresh new take on education was launched to each state’s educational leaders in the U. S. The state officials each decided whether the implementation of the program was beneficial for them, or if the technique they were currently using was the best option. However, even though state authorities have control of their individual educational standards,

August 2010 marked the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in math and English for grades k-12 by the California State Board of Education (SBE); nineteen months later in March of 2012 the SBE approved an implementation plan to serve as a timeline for California schools to support and execute new CCSS curriculum, with corresponding teaching resources, and assessment of students using new assessment tools grounded in the new standards framework (cde.ca.gov. p. 11). “Preparing students to transition without remediation to postsecondary education or to careers that pay a living wage, or both, is the ultimate aim of federal and state education policies, initiatives and funding” (Up to the Challenge, 2010, p. 6); California

Common Core State Standard Initiative is a fairly new educational initiative that provides standards that emphasize what K-12 students must know in both English and mathematics, by the end of each grade. States that participate in the Common Core Standard Initiative agree to hold all students in the same grade to the same standards. Prior to its implementation, there are many concerns that follow this initiative. One of the main concern among teachers are their readiness and preparedness to implement the Common Core State standards. These standards are created by politicians and others who are not directly in the classroom teaching the students. The necessary awareness of teachers and their concern about their readiness and whether or not they

The federal government’s way of making the country’s students more knowledgeable, easier to compare between states and are proficient in literacy and math is by having states adopt Common Core Standards. These are high standards that will elevate the students’ ability to become critical thinkers instead of the memorizers that the current generation of students are. Since this is a new system the transition to them will be bumpy and at times frustrating, to make this transition better for students and teachers alike teachers need to have workshops and lectures on the standards during the summer, there needs to be a waiver for all school for the next three years so that students have time to adjust to the new computer based assessment test, a

Ever since the establishment of modern schooling in 1911, experts have debated on the best ways to educate a child. Whether it be through teacher lectures, group discussions, or individual study, the importance of educational methods cannot be understated. Yet, contrary to our emphasis on education, the United States is ranked 35th in mathematics and 27th in science out the of the 64 countries examined by a Pew Research study in 2015. George Bush tried to counteract this historical trend in 2001 with the “No Child Left Behind Act”, which paved the way for the establishment of Common Core State Standards throughout the country. These standards aim to improve education through “common” assessments and

The manner in which Common-Core State Standards Initiative assist in designing effective instruction (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998).