Common Core Standards Pros And Cons
Within the past few years, Common Core—a national academic set of standards which was launched in the United States in 2009—has been an influencing factor in the United States educational system. However, the overall impact of this curriculum has proven to be detrimental to our society. The Common Core states that the standards are based on rigorous content “in order to graduate high school prepared to succeed in entry-level careers, introductory academic college courses, and workforce training programs” (Common Core). Additionally, it claims to prepare all students for success in the global economy and society. Despite these arguments, Common Core has several negative effects. For example, fear and anxiety in children will increase due to the stress of
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the standardized tests. Furthermore, teachers will begin to favor skill instead of knowledge. Schools will begin to teach to the test even if it means diminishing “our definition of human development and achievement—that miraculous growth of intelligence, sensibility, and the discovery of the world—to a test score” (Neem 108). Although The Common Core presents an internationally competitive program for our nation’s education system and claims to prepare students for the workforce, the standards are not developmentally appropriate for students and will further cause a national education epidemic. Sir Ken Robinson in his speech, How to escape education’s death valley, stated, “Kids prosper best with a broad curriculum that celebrates their various talents, not just a small range of them… [standardized tests] should not be the dominant culture of education. They should be diagnostic. Instead what we have is a culture of standardization.” Robinson goes on to say that a real education should be different and diverse, because human beings are naturally different and diverse. Children are not standardized, further causing problems for students who are not skillful at standardized test taking. Thus, The Common Core standardized tests inflict anxiety and fear on the students. Research shows that 44% of students do not feel a sense of self-worth. Additionally, Nicole Colewell said that students who believe the evaluative situation exceeds their intellectual, motivational, and social capacities, test anxiety is elicited. Furthermore, children who suffer from test anxiety, are more likely to be sensitive to failure and have feelings of judgement. Because policy makers are basing more high-stakes decisions on the results from assessments, there will be a growing problem of test anxiety (Colewell 58). The Common Core standards also force students to conform to become skilled test takers, when in reality, all children are unique and have different strengths and weaknesses.
In “Reaching Higher? The Impact of the Common Core State Standards on the Visual Arts, Poverty, and Disabilities,” Alice Weller explains, “[that] children who flourish when engaged in autonomous acts of discovery, experimentation, and hypothetical thinking rather than passive submission to expository teaching, might not necessarily succeed in academics, let alone meet the unreasonable demands of the new tests” (60). Academics need to be well structured by providing age-appropriate, and flexibility to the system. However, Common Core does not provide this diversity. Instead of building students developmentally, Common Core builds students exponentially. The requirements for students to reach the benchmarks are pressuring teachers to conform to top-down lessons, even if they don’t believe or understand the content. Teachers need to enhance development and learning in students by developing challenging yet achievable goals, and emphasize on the education of the whole child. Not just emphasizing on the child’s ability to take a
test. The Common Core presents valid arguments on why it will enhance the student’s education. For instance, The Common Core standards realizes the need for a higher education so that our nation can become more competitive in mathematics, reading, and writing internationally. Likewise, “Common Core is in tended to deepen students’ capacity to actually think in a variety of ways” (Taylor 39). We have fallen behind in education to other countries, and Common Core believes that having rigorous, consistent standards will solve the education crisis. Although I agree that our education needs to be challenged and have a more rigorous system, I do not agree with The Common Core set of standards. It is important to realize the varying environmental factors, meaning that every school is distinct. Standards should be created on a local level, since the people from that area know what is best for their community. Similarly, standards should be created to increase the uniqueness in students; the standards should help students comprehend who they are in this world, and not just who they are because of a test. Eddy Zhong—a successful entrepreneur at just seventeen—recently spoke at a Tedx Youth conference about the education system in the United States, and how school is making students less intelligent. Zhong said:
Over just these five to six years in the education system these creative children have turned into these teenagers that are unwilling to think outside of the box. While schools can make you more academically intelligent… it is diminishing the children’s creative intelligence. It is teaching them to think a certain way. To go down a certain path in life… No one has ever changed the world by doing what the world has told them to do.
the standardized tests. Furthermore, teachers will begin to favor skill instead of knowledge. Schools will begin to teach to the test even if it means diminishing “our definition of human development and achievement—that miraculous growth of intelligence, sensibility, and the discovery of the world—to a test score” (Neem 108). Although The Common Core presents an internationally competitive program for our nation’s education system and claims to prepare students for the workforce, the standards are not developmentally appropriate for students and will further cause a national education epidemic. Sir Ken Robinson in his speech, How to escape education’s death valley, stated, “Kids prosper best with a broad curriculum that celebrates their various talents, not just a small range of them… [standardized tests] should not be the dominant culture of education. They should be diagnostic. Instead what we have is a culture of standardization.” Robinson goes on to say that a real education should be different and diverse, because human beings are naturally different and diverse. Children are not standardized, further causing problems for students who are not skillful at standardized test taking. Thus, The Common Core standardized tests inflict anxiety and fear on the students. Research shows that 44% of students do not feel a sense of self-worth. Additionally, Nicole Colewell said that students who believe the evaluative situation exceeds their intellectual, motivational, and social capacities, test anxiety is elicited. Furthermore, children who suffer from test anxiety, are more likely to be sensitive to failure and have feelings of judgement. Because policy makers are basing more high-stakes decisions on the results from assessments, there will be a growing problem of test anxiety (Colewell 58). The Common Core standards also force students to conform to become skilled test takers, when in reality, all children are unique and have different strengths and weaknesses.
In “Reaching Higher? The Impact of the Common Core State Standards on the Visual Arts, Poverty, and Disabilities,” Alice Weller explains, “[that] children who flourish when engaged in autonomous acts of discovery, experimentation, and hypothetical thinking rather than passive submission to expository teaching, might not necessarily succeed in academics, let alone meet the unreasonable demands of the new tests” (60). Academics need to be well structured by providing age-appropriate, and flexibility to the system. However, Common Core does not provide this diversity. Instead of building students developmentally, Common Core builds students exponentially. The requirements for students to reach the benchmarks are pressuring teachers to conform to top-down lessons, even if they don’t believe or understand the content. Teachers need to enhance development and learning in students by developing challenging yet achievable goals, and emphasize on the education of the whole child. Not just emphasizing on the child’s ability to take a
test. The Common Core presents valid arguments on why it will enhance the student’s education. For instance, The Common Core standards realizes the need for a higher education so that our nation can become more competitive in mathematics, reading, and writing internationally. Likewise, “Common Core is in tended to deepen students’ capacity to actually think in a variety of ways” (Taylor 39). We have fallen behind in education to other countries, and Common Core believes that having rigorous, consistent standards will solve the education crisis. Although I agree that our education needs to be challenged and have a more rigorous system, I do not agree with The Common Core set of standards. It is important to realize the varying environmental factors, meaning that every school is distinct. Standards should be created on a local level, since the people from that area know what is best for their community. Similarly, standards should be created to increase the uniqueness in students; the standards should help students comprehend who they are in this world, and not just who they are because of a test. Eddy Zhong—a successful entrepreneur at just seventeen—recently spoke at a Tedx Youth conference about the education system in the United States, and how school is making students less intelligent. Zhong said:
Over just these five to six years in the education system these creative children have turned into these teenagers that are unwilling to think outside of the box. While schools can make you more academically intelligent… it is diminishing the children’s creative intelligence. It is teaching them to think a certain way. To go down a certain path in life… No one has ever changed the world by doing what the world has told them to do.