Rethink Schools

Carol Burris is a principle and co-author to the book “Opening the Common Core”. In her article “I was naïve about the Common Core”, she addresses many personal experiences and negative outcomes from the modern day state standards for school districts. The Common Core is a set of state standards that schools teach to students so they have the skills, habits and knowledge to be successful for college and post high school careers. While in the beginning of the article she claims she was completely for this method of teaching, she later describes how gruesome it truly was to the students. The overwhelming stress to the children through extensive evaluations and tests became

In chapter 5, Reforming America’s Schools, I learned many things that affect me as an educator. An important fact that interests me was that there are four goals that schools should follow. The first one is academic, including a broad array of knowledge and intellectual skills. The second one is vocational, aimed at readiness for the world of work and economic responsibilities. The third one is social and civic, including skills and behavior for participating in a complex democratic society. The fourth one is personal, including the development of individual talent and self-expression. This will affect me as an educator so that I can follow and do my best to complete these goals. Now I am aware of what should be done in a classroom.

When I was a boy, I told my parents that I wanted to be a manager at Burger King, much to their distress. Although, despite the stigma against such professions, they never attempted to steer me away from that path, nor the twenty-something other ones that I strived to simultaneously accomplish. As I grew older however, I learned that I did not like everything, nor was I good at everything. As it stands, I would make a rather lousy mechanic, store manager, or farm hand. As such, secondary education at a four-year university appears to be the best option for me to become a productive member of society.

In the news lately, there has been a controversy regarding the Common Core State Standards in Louisiana. This controversy has been going on for the last several months and there have been different ideas said by different groups of people. The parties that have been involved in the controversy include parents, teachers, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Education Superintendent John White, the Board of Education and Secondary Education (BESE), and the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). The controversy over Common Core has to do with the lawsuits that have been filed, certain tests that should or should not be taken, and the legality and suspension of state contracts regarding the state’s education.

The collection of articles talked about how the government wants Common Core and the debate over the Common Core. One of the authors named Lindsey Burke (2015) talked about how the government wants a “national curriculum” to establish a standard education. The articles discussed how the Common Core is causing several problems and encourage competition . Some of the problems are how Common Core takes away rights from parents to decide what best for their children. The government seems to want Common Core for everyone to follow the system but government does not think of the consequence in a smaller level. The articles talked about the negative impacts of Common Core such as taking control of our own education. I think Common

Politics and education have been intertwined since the establishment of public education in the United States. In other words, it is a well-known fact that public education is an extension of our political system. This has never been more apparent to the public than over the last three decades, beginning in 1983 with “A Nation at Risk” which is considered a significant event in modern American educational history. For the last few years, it has been the controversial topic of the Common Core State Standards Initiative in the headlines. One can hardly turn on the news or read a newspaper or web site without hearing something about Common Core State Standards (CCCS). People either seem to be adamantly for or against the standards. Educational reform and educational standards are not new and date back much further than many people realize. Furthermore, if the public understood what the standards actually encompass, there may be more support for Common Core State Standards. However, the public is being inundated with a multitude of reasons why states should not adopt Common Core by making it a political issue in order to gain votes. Regardless of what standards are adopted, common standards in education should be implemented in the United States to prepare students for college and career in order to compete and succeed in a global economy.

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

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

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.

They want to give Common Core a chance because the United States has already spent millions of dollars on the Common Core State Standards. If the standards were no longer used, all of the money the government spent would be wasted. The original intent of common core was to not only have a set standard for learning at each grade but also to also better prepare all students in K-12 education for college and careers after high school (Common Core State Standards Initiative). Common Core supporters know the importance of K-12 education and believe that as the standards continue to be implemented they will become more

In his article, Common Core is Rotten to the Core, Brian Farmer offers facts that support his opposing opinion on the recently implemented education standards called Common Core. Back in 2001, George Bush issued his education policy “No Child Left Behind” because the nation was thought to be at risk of a weak education system. It set high standards, thus failing to deliver lasting success. In 2007, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers started to work on a common set of standards in the math and English curriculums. The next year, in 2008, those same organizations, with the funding provided by the Gates Foundation, started a federal education grant program known as “Race to the Top”. In order for states to get the educational grant money, they had to commit to a set of standards that outlined what students have to know and must be able to do. Common Core also recently set out to realign state standard

There are two types of school in this world and that is the schools that are between individuality and conformity. There are a lot of issues that school focus on that aren’t really necessary. Some schools focus on points likes dress code or testing or discipline. There are other schools that are more carefree and don’t really focus on forring thing except timing. School sometimes may even be thought as unimportant because the policies are so strict.

The Common Core standards violate the well-established and internationally recognized process that sets standards in a transparent way for recognizing expertise of people who must implement them. The reason for so much controversy is because the Gate Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education was in a hurry to get the standards out there, so they ignored the national and international rules for setting standards (Ravitch). Diane Ravitch, educational historian said about the Common Core testing: “Students are not encouraged to construct knowledge and understanding; they must simply be adept at repeating it.” She also said: “Under Common Core, from the time they enter kindergarten to the time they graduate from high school, students will have few opportunities to ask their own questions or come up with their own ideas (Nicholas).” These Republicans feel that the Common Core standards are too high, causing students to be left

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,

Education today is one of the utmost important possessions people cling on to, and lately has been a major topic in debate. Parents want to ensure that their children are brought up in a school system that provides not only the tools to become successful in the education aspect of their lives, but a well-structured system that provides the course work to do so as well, in which giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. The common core procedures, that schools are expected to abide to, were thought to be the answer to this call for equality in education. However, some political entities believe that it is not the place for the government to invest its power in, that it should be left to state or even local level governments (Rich, 2015). Some states have even chosen to go back to their own standards because of the great division on the issue (Rich, 2015).