The Pros And Cons Of Common Core Standards

The education system in the United States holds educational standards in a one-size-fits-all form, also referred to as the common core approach to learning (Marshall). Common Core serves to ensure that every student has equal access to the same high quality curriculum needed for college and life after high school. The biggest majority of state governments are against Common Core because it does not allow for local, relevant material to be introduced. It is supposed to prepare students for the global workplace by placing students at a globally competitive level (McCollough). However, every individual learns in their own way and at their own pace. Everyone’s brain absorbs information differently which means there could never be a universal form
The Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) claims that common core allows parents and teachers to clearly see the expectations of education. However, information about school performance is useless without guidelines on how to act on that information. It is argued that the current standardized tests are inadequate because the differences among the states make comparison difficult. Taxpayers are paying for these curriculum-based exams to be developed when they can not even been used to compare progress across the nation. Since it is not explained how a student’s performance or skill in a subject is determined, policies should focus on a clear report of the student and school performance, rather than on a national standard and testing regime
This argument is invalid because most school’s academic courses do no represent all interests and talents required in the contemporary work world. For example, geometry and algebra is now required to be taken in order to graduate in several schools all over the country. Most of the work in these classrooms consist of students working out math problems with symbols of little significance. A common criticism of common core for requiring a skill in one grade level without requiring the skills needed prior in the previous grade level. Teachers have been forced to emphasis learning material to pass a test rather than