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| Collected from The Atlantic's article "Are Teachers warming up to Common Core" |
I was a high School Junior by then. I always went to the school library during my lunch hour to look through some books or spend time on the internet learning while most of my friends spent their time in cafeteria gossipping, socializing, and sharing each other’s everyday story at home. One day, I saw a new freshman boy, Kevin, at the library. He had a rat-hairstyle and it was shocking to see him in the library as he always liked to socialize. I was very curious as to why he came to the library, so I talked to him; he seemed a little worried about his Algebra I exam. He explained there is this new system called “Common Core” with a goal to prepare every student with the skills needed to succeed in college. He also added that he has to take both the common core version and the state regents and this system starts with the current ninth graders. I was shocked to find out that he had to learn Arithmetic sequence and Geometric series in Algebra I which is covered by Algebra II syllabus according to the New York State’s Regents board’s syllabus. In addition, the common core Algebra Regents are taking place earlier which I think is not enough time to prepare for the exam. My suspicions were correct as Kevin did not look confident after he finished the exam. After all, his teacher mentioned how challenging Common Core was as their expectations were far greater than previous standards. I had Software Engineering Class the very next period with Mr. Pepenella who was a former student of Stony Brook University, majored in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Mr. Pepenella said that the questions on the test were designed to challenge you all to understand the question rather than just solving the question leaving the understanding part behind. In addition, he also said that most students struggle in college because they skip the step of understanding and they are not trained well enough at school to handle the situation. He went further to write down four steps to do well on the common core exam- interpret the question, come up with a tentative solution, try the solution, and check whether the solution is correct or not. After getting out of the class I have found the atmosphere of the school was very heavy regarding the common core- teachers with other teachers, students with students, parents with parents, common core has reached a debatable state.
My interactions with others have diversified my view, but at the same time, there were still a few uncertainties .I wanted to know whether the common core standard is an effective way to assure that the students are well prepared for college. I am also curious about whether the students are eager to embrace common core or not. Is the new system effective in teaching content to its students? I began to research to following my thoughts:
To start I went to a Wikipedia article entitled “Common Core State Standards Initiative” to begin my research on this topic. As mentioned in the article, mathematicians Edward Frenkel and Hung-Hsi Wu advocated for common core because they think that mathematics education in the United States is in a “deep crisis” and common core addresses the issue by “leveling the playing field” for students. A spokesman from Exxon Mobil supported common core standards by saying it sets an important milestone and it will help local teachers and administrators achieve the best results(Common Core State Standards Initiative). Some also highlight the positive side of common core by saying that it will help us compete with other nations in the world because students are capable of achieving certain skills at a higher level. The other side of the argument, as mentioned in the article, increases the heat of the debate significantly. According to the same article from Wikipedia, Tom Loveless of Brookings Institution questioned the effectiveness of common core by saying it is merely the federal government’s attempt to nationalize the curriculum. After all, certain states offer a better education than others, so standardizing a federal system of education ensures proper education for the nation. However, Nikki Haley, the Governor of South Carolina, mentioned how states should not give away the control of education over to the federal government(Common Core State Standards Initiative), which is not uncommon for a southern state like South Carolina where distrust in the federal government is rampant. Mario Brady, a teacher, and Patrick Murray, an elected member of the school governing board in Bradford, Maine, stated how it ignores cultural differences among classroom students. In fact, Nicholas Tampio, an assistant professor of Political Science at Fordham University, established his point against common core by saying that the system failed to recognize differences in learning styles and emphasizes rote learning and uniformity over creativity. Common core standards reform the educational system, which generally consists of a student- teacher relationship. Therefore, it is important to know the views and opinions of the students and teachers because their voices are generally not heard in board meetings and executive places.
As a result, I looked into the genuine concerns of teachers. Emily Richmond’s article “Are Teachers Warming Up to the Common Core?” claimed teachers are more likely to accept common core standards now than back in 2009 when it was introduced initially. According to Richmond’s article, the advocacy of common core can be seen more among elementary school teachers than in high school and middle school teachers. She also pointed out that teachers are not afraid of the standard, but they fear the system is not fair for everyone which questions the notion of “leveling the playfield”. Furthermore, teachers do not get sufficient amount of tools, materials, and time to make sure that students are engaged in the class to acquire the skills. As a result, their course evaluations suffer. Elementary school teachers are responsible for creating a foundation, while high school teachers aim to solidify the foundation. The mediocre training style is also a reason, as Richmond mentioned, teachers are gaining difficulty in seeking the perfect teaching style for the classroom. Despite the lack of success from the new standard, elementary school teachers are content because they observe unprecedented improvement in critical thinking. The lack of success is clearly not a sign of equalization but rather more inequality in education because while the elementary school teachers are pleased, the high school teachers are not. In fact, the academic scores reflected by their students show a lack of improvement, which is expected as high school teachers are still unfamiliar with the newer standard. Most of the time high school teachers are expected to follow the new curriculum, but with a lack of training and familiarity with the newer system, it is expected for high school teachers to be dissatisfied with Common Core’s new curriculum. The disparity between different types of teachers is clear, so now I’m interested to hear how the students cope with a newer system. Ultimately it might force teachers that are less than passionate to do their jobs by complying with the standards.In an increasingly scientific and data-driven world, common core might become an absolute necessity leaving no room for teachers to go around without quantifiable progress.
To go further with my quest to find my answer to whether students are losing interest on something they enjoyed learning and they do not feel like going further with the topic anymore, I chose one of my friends, Nigel, who dominated his 9th grade math class and got the highest score in Integrated Algebra Regents in the school for that particular year. I chose to hear his thoughts because he was still disappointed with his grade from the common core, especially if it affects his passion for math. While he still loves math, he no longer wants to pursue a career related to Math . He appreciates the statistics found in his soccer matches, but he’s considering other options like sports as a viable choice. He told me that he enjoys solving equations but getting deeper into the equations to find the underlying meaning for every single numbers and variable is way too much load for him. He said it is just too challenging for him to pull out information from the problems to device a solution. After hearing all these, I feel really sorry for him that he still loves math but lost his interest in finding a career in math beyond high school. Not only Nigel, there are many students in my high school who lost interest in math due to the new era of common core. This leaves the common core standard in a dilemma on whether the new reform destroys student's interest or it is paving a smooth way for college.
To continue my quest for an answer, I went to Stony Brook University Library’s database and found the article “Arguments for and against the Common Core State Standards” by Joyce VanTassel-Baska very interesting. In the article, the author mentioned that Common Core standards correlate with the 21st century’s requirements for world learning, which USA education system was lacking to provide before. As a result, even with a higher education, employees are still lacking the thinking process the workforce requires. But, the critics thinks that common core standards are very specific. As for instance, it emphasizes more on problem-solving rather than actual operations needed to solve the problem. Even in English, putting more efforts on non-fictional writing is keeping students away from the beauty of fictional writing piece. What all these means is, focusing on more specifics is very risky as the students will lose the capability of learning the balance between thinking to come up with a solution and the tools needed to solve them actually. In addition to that, setting up common core standards requires much additional equipment. As a result, schools are running short on budget. Even if the schools manage to buy that new equipment, the teachers still need to get familiar with the new tools for the classroom. Therefore, common core, the promising standard for education is facing many difficulties in the early era of development.
I believe I did enough research on this topic to get the answers to my questions. Common Core is the very new system in the education field. The skills it requires suits those students with advanced knowledge while those with less advanced knowledge lagging behind. I do agree that common core standards provide students with all the necessary skills needed to prepare for life beyond high school, however, teachers need to get the necessary training and instructions to engage students in learning so that they can find the joy in the common core. Without that, the result will not reflect the light the system suppose to bring. As it turns out that high school students are struggling with common core more than middle school and elementary school students. For this issue, I believe, time will tell whether common core is really helpful for the student on creating positive impact and building confidence to set their goal higher. I am hoping to see the success of common in future as teachers seem to embrace it and the students will embrace soon. With that, hopefully, success will come.
Works Cited
"Common Core State Standards Initiative." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 23 July 2016.
VanTassel-Baker, Joyce, “Arguments for and Against the Common Core State Standards”, SAGE Publications, December,2015, August, 2015
Nigel, Personal Interview on Common Core Taking Away Interest, 23 July, 2016
Richmond, Emily. "Are Teachers Warming Up to the Common Core?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 06 Oct. 2014. Web. 23 July 2016.
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