Common Core – Is it for the Common Good?

Common Core is an education system in which all students learn on the same level, and learn the same material. However, with this come positive and negative sides. Throughout this paper I will be discussing the pros and cons of Common Core and my personal insight on the topic. Common Core has its ups and downs but overall, I believe that Common Core should not be implemented into schools. Many different accounts appear when researching Common Core. Some claim that Common Core originated because transferring schools was too hard of a change for kids and having equal curriculum would alleviate some of the pressures that come with moving. Others say that it is the governments’ way of taking the schools into their hands and determining what is acceptable to be taught. One of the dominating and prominent answers to the start of Common Core I found in my research is to prepare kids for college and “real life” with more challenging workloads comparable to later on in life.

Many kids exit high school and find themselves lost in the real world, not knowing where to turn to or what to do in life, reality hits them hard and they fall short of their full potential. With Common Core however, they plan to make this group of brilliant minds into a prosperous world of thinkers and doers. With the next generations of our youth being more intelligent, and more self-reliant, supporters of Common Core believe the world will only become a safer and more productive place in the long run. With students becoming more interactive with fewer topics but more in-depth in each, their intelligence on those topics will become far greater than they are now. And the only thing keeping ourselves back from accomplishing great things is ourselves.

Who will we blame in the future for not taking this opportunity to learn? We can blame no one but ourselves. Not taking this opportunity to further benefit society with brighter adolescents and children will do nothing but lessen our potential for greatness. Common Core supporters believe it will produce brighter, more intelligent, self-reliant and productive students all around the country. Sometimes in today’s educational system, schools only teach kids what they need to know for tests, which leaves out so much beneficial knowledge. Schools teach the state standards to receive more money for the following year, only to be able to continue this process of faulty teaching. Supporters of Common Core believe that students are, “…learning perseverance. They’re learning to work as a team. Learning that sometimes the quietest person in the group has the best idea so you’d better talk to that person,” she said.” (Karas).

These are definitely real skill sets that kids need to be learning at a young age so that when in the business world, they will have practical skills and be more productive in the work world rather than have a bunch of useless knowledge that will rarely be used. Common Core advocates believe it will create a better work world and social prosperity for all. They want you to believe that we have a broken system and that we have people most people live their lives without knowing their full potential and falling short of what they are capable. One of the positive attributes of Common Core is that of moving to student-driven instruction from teacher-driven instruction. If students take initiative and self-motivation into their own hands and they want to have a brighter future, the following method could produce a much greater outcome than we currently have. ”We all need to shift from teacher-driven to student-driven instruction. To foster independent lifelong readers and learners, school librarians and classroom teachers must collaborate to an even greater exten.

This endeavor necessitates that librarians coordinate their instruction with that of the classroom teacher and be a significant resource to students and teachers alike.” (Uecker, Kelly). With student-driven classes and with the help of the teacher and librarian along the way, students will not only learn to think for themselves and act upon what they think is the best idea, they will be able to accomplish what they have set in their minds as properly-set goals and things that will fulfill a greater purpose. Without thinkers and people who go “outside the box,” where would we be today? We would be somewhere in a cave without the wheel. I claim that if we buoy up our children and teenagers with the correct tools and help that someday they will all be brilliant, successful, and an imaginative people. Many people have faith in the Common Core program, and evidence is shown here to support those beliefs.

“A September survey of 3,077 educators by the School Improvement Network, a Utah-based teacher-training company, found that 81% said Common Core will have an overall positive impact on student preparation toward college and career.” (Toppo). Some people might think, “With this great of a positive outlook on the program, what is stopping the government from implementing such a great tool to hasten the work of students in such a formidable way?” I do not disagree with that many educators find some positive aspects of Common Core. What I do believe is that Common Core should not only be reviewed by educators, but should also be widely tested over several years before it is generally implemented so that we know what kind of impact it will have on the children of this country. The world is always moving forward, and we do need to continue to improve our education of today for fear of slipping into the education of yesterday, but is Common Core the answer?

With education today, many prosper and are successful in life. Some even become powerful business owners and the head of a franchise. With so many examples of those who were diligent and faithful in their work and have so many accomplishments to show for it, why change what isn’t broken? The educational system we all use today is a very successful one that has been used to an excellent degree of success over the past decades and even century. And with Common Core, many of these traditional practices will be done away with. For example, “Whatever happened to the art of teaching and allowing students to explore a variety of different aspects of a subject? Let’s get away from teaching to the test and give students the practical and worldwide skills they will need to compete in a global marketplace.” (Ables, Ore). With the new Common Core teaching style, all classrooms will be learning the same material and there will be no difference in teaching style or information that a teacher feels necessary to be successful in that particular class.

Once all kids are learning the same things, won’t that just complicate the workplace later in life? If everyone has the same skill set, who will be more qualified for a job? With the current teaching style in schools, the world is prosperous and there is diverse economic opportunities for all, no matter what your skill set is. If we change the way things have been for decades upon decades, and fill the minds of our younger generations with information that everyone else will already have, where will diversity come into play? The world can only function with so many accountants or construction workers, the way things are run is for a good reason. The economic world cannot function without everyone playing their part in it. People will need to be in higher positions than others; we cannot lie to our children and tell them that everyone is equal or the “everyone is a winner” mentality. There will be those who are more successful than others but that is the way things need to be, otherwise society would fall apart. We need the farmers, the garbage men, and the police force. not everyone can become the president.

And without diversity in the classroom throughout the adolescent years, the outcome will be something we will all regret and wish that we had kept the educational system the way it is today, don’t fix what isn’t broken. Many claim that Common Core is unfair to those who excel in one subject but lack in another. Many of the Common Core tests have to do with reading and English comprehension and with fancy wording rather than just being given a math or science problem as shown here. The math involved in tests given today could be viewed as, comparing fractions but in Common Core testing, it is required that you read all about a story, interpret it in terms of math and determine if the fractions are equal to, less than or greater than and provide the mathematical thinking they used to get to that point. It continues to ask are these math tests or reading test? (Ables, Ore). Personally I can identify with this claim given by Ables because when I was younger I had a really difficult time with reading, with what was bad dyslexia, and if my math tests included almost all reading, I would have most definitely failed.

Today though I am an accomplished student, excelling through my courses and discovering what I want to accomplish in my later years is becoming more apparent. Although some may view Common Core as the correct program, it is definitely limiting to certain people, and with the curriculum taught today, everyone has a fair chance to share their full potential. Test results are shocking from trial cases of Common Core and, as stated previously, why change things that aren’t in need of change? In this excerpt it shows that with Common Core kids are indeed struggling more, about one in every three students, third through eighth grade, are passing the Common Core test, a dramatic decrease from previous years without this new program. (Toppo). Kids are not adapting to these new formalities, some consider improvements. The only thing being shown here is less progress in schooling and test grades. Schools receive funding through test results so why would they want to implement something that would lower their funding?

It seems as though it is counterproductive. Students learn less and the schools’ quality goes down at the same time with the lack of funding. On the other hand though with the current system there is only progression in schools and testing. The obvious choice would be to stick with what works and forget the rest. But sadly some still want to see this new program in action, from trial cases it seems as if this idea of Common Core would be discarded due to negative effects across the board.

Common Core has its ups and downs and I am going to share my input on where I think it excels and where I believe it lacks potential. Common Core is a great philosophy on paper, yet in reality is flawed. A more interactive and self-driven way of education is a great factor shown in Common Core. It builds self-confidence and makes you realize you are not always correct in everything you do. You will falter but with the help of your peers you will be brought back up and exceed expectations. Another flaw of Common Core is that children should not be forced to learn exactly how others learn. If I were a teacher I would want to teach my students the way I believe they would most benefit, not the way some government official believes school should be taught. Teachers have the experience teaching; shouldn’t they be the ones to decide what is presented in the classroom?

Common Core tests seem to be overly-complicated. A few weeks ago my class was presented with a trial of these tests, and to me it seemed as if during the entire test it was trying to trick me with intricate wording and detailed word problems that had nothing to do with the actual problem. “N.Y. School superintendant Bernard Pierorazio agreed, saying the scores are “new benchmarks” to help ensure that students are college ready. “Educators should not look at test scores as something negative…we should embrace them as a new staring point.” (Toppo). If this is what prepares us for college and a career, is it ultimately setting us up to fail? With failing results as a benchmark, how will that be upheld in the workforce? Will everyone just be accepted regardless if they fail? We shouldn’t be teaching our students that regardless of their scores they will be treated with the same regards as one who excelled in his or her test.

One point I do agree with in Common core is “The new standards were designed to be, “fewer, clearer and higher”” (Ripley). I cannot stress enough the importance to focus in-depth on a few topics rather than rush through everything that we consider needed. Too often in school subjects are only briefly touched on then never heard of again. I feel as though it would be far more beneficial to learn a few topics more thoroughly and have a deeper understanding of those things. School shouldn’t be a place where we learn how to be a jack of all trades and masters of none; it should give you a background of things to build off of in the future not an assortment of useless knowledge. The main flaw in this Common Core program is the way it was created. It wasn’t created by teachers, or students, or even parents. It was created by government officials that felt it was a necessary change. Last time I checked, they were not the ones in schools taking the tests.

This is a prime example of what this problem is all about. The Common Core program was presented by government officials and not educators and was pushed onto schools without a pilot test of the program. A professor at Seton Hall University stated, “We should only implement policies that have been tested and proven effective.” (Karas). I cannot agree more with this statement. If those men in the government would actually see how these programs affect the schools, I would hope dearly that they would refrain from continuing the Common Core system.

Common Core is a good idea on paper, but in reality it has its faults. I believe that Common Core had good intentions throughout its design but its fatal flaw is that it was not brought before those it directly affects and hence, is a catastrophic failure. Without testing of a product, one will never know what is wrong with it. I have attempted to objectively state the positives and negatives about Common Core. I believe that Common Core should not be implemented in schools until it has been modified by qualified educators and fully tested so that it benefits the student population as a whole.

Work Cited
Abels, Steven. Ore, Gresham. “Common Core standards will prove continuity in education.” Web publication. USA Today. 3 May 2012.

Karas, Rachel. “Pros, cons of Common Core debated” Web publication. 11 September 2013.

Ripley, Amanda. “The New Smart Set” What happens when millions of kids are asked to master fewer things more deeply? 30 September 2013. Print Publication, Time Magazine.

Toppo, Greg. “Tougher exams pressure public schools.” New Common Core testing results show most students failing. Web publication. USA Today. 8 August 2013.

Toppo, Greg. “Teachers praise new standards for classroom learning in poll.” Some states hesitant to embrace Common Core. Web publication. USA Today. EBSCO Host. 4 October 2013

Uecker, Ruth. Kelly, Shelly. Napierala, Marni. “Implementing the Common Core StateStandards.” Web Publication. Article. EBSCO Host. January/ February 2014