Ever since they were brought to the public's attention in 2010 the common core state standards have faced strong opposition from the right, but the standards are now beginning to lose some of its support from the left. The opponents claim that the new standards will hurt students already at a disadvantage and that the standards for math will actually cause more students to become uninterested in the subject. They also believe that rolling out the new standards is hurting districts performance. The supporters of the common core state standards claim that these new standards will help disadvantaged students by leveling the playing field, and it will help make the United States competitive in global market.The two videos below will help to illustrate these points.
Many administrators, government officials, and parents are beginning to claim that actually implementing the standards are creating problems for districts. Many of the teacher required to teach these new standards have not yet received proper training or materials, and it is causing the test scores within those districts to drop. However, I believe that this is only temporary. The New York Times article from the readings this week states that Massachusetts faced many of these same challenges when it adopted new standards about two decades ago, but it now scores as highly as top performing countries do on international scales.
Those opposed to common core also claim that the standards will put students who are already at a disadvantage in a worse position because of the increased amount and difficulty of the work they are expected to do. However evidence shows that overall standards are beneficial for disadvantaged students. Education analyst John Chubb has stated that, "student achievement has grown much more rapidly in the last decade...than during the 1990s, especially for the lowest achieving and most-disadvantaged students in the nation." and since 2000, "The bottom 10% had gained far more than the national average..."
Lastly, many of the critics of common core say the standards for math will create a generation of students who are uninterested or fearful of math because of the complex word problems and the advanced subject matter. While I agree with the critics about the problems with the standards for math presented in common core, I believe that the standards for literacy are essential for preparing students for college. The skills that are presented in the standards are students should read and analyze rigorous texts, see the link between content and comprehension, and it emphasizes their close reading skills. Which are all skills that I use in my daily life as a college student.
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