By KYLIE POWERS
Contributing Writer
Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have little interest in majoring in education, but the direction of modern teaching fascinates me.
Hearing that the Common Core, the standardization of what’s taught in schools K-12 across the US, is not preparing students for college is rather appalling. But I don’t find it too surprising, since more teachers are saying are that Common Core has been trying to make the classroom more statistically based. This leaves little leeway for educators and students, and has been leaving behind many unprepared college freshmen and a whole lot of controversy.
According to Politico.com, “colleges have done little to align their admission criteria, curricula, or education policies with the new standards,” making it even harder for students who stayed up late for the SATs or New York State Regents tests to adjust to campus life.
Cecile Sam, an education researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, said there is a “huge divide between K-12 and higher ed.” David T. Conley, another education researcher at the University of Oregon, said “…most of the definitions of ‘ready’ are far too narrow, and we don’t gather data in many key areas where students could improve their readiness if they knew they needed to do so.”
I fully believe there should be an emphasis on improving education standards in all different types of schools across the country. I don’t dismiss innovations in teaching. But as I watched a sibling of mine enter the education field within the last four years coming back from classes and grumbling about Common Core, seeing its own effects in my high school, it really doesn’t seem it’s working for anybody.
Teachers and students have been working a certain way in the classrooms for years, and it was not centered on one moment of a standardized test. A test is a snapshot of a student or teacher, not the whole collage.
And with the ratio of 8 of 10 students in New York State opting out of standardized tests, it does not please the parents of students either. So really, who does Common Core benefit?
I dialed up someone from home, a recently-retired teacher of 34 years in New York State, to ask their opinions on Common Core and the readiness of students dealing with it, as well as its effects on the classroom.
Though it was implemented in the late 2000s to many teacher’s dismay, the person I was interviewing said that common standards is a good idea. He believes it raises the bar for the majority of students.
However, one of the issues is, for example, students who would normally get a non-regents diploma could not possibly reach these standards. Let’s face it, not everyone is meant to be a mathematician, scientist or engineer. There’s nothing wrong with implementing standards for deeper thinking in the fields of writing, problem solving, critical thinking, and mathematics. It’s when students are seen only as numbers instead of pupils in a classroom that there’s something missing.
There’s something wrong with judging teachers for how well they follow a format and prepare for one test instead of bringing something special to a classroom.
The individual on the phone, as they had said to me in person countless times, said “teaching is an art, not a science.” If teachers themselves are studying for countless extra hours how to teach the new standards of Common Core, is it really possible to relay the information back to their students as proficiently?
Common Core, if it really wanted to be effective, should have began with kindergarten students, say in 2010, and should have been phased in over the next twelve years. It should not have been bombarded on an eighth grade student who’s never studied different forms of algebra in the past.
Also, if the emphasis is on math, science, reading, and writing, all things that help with SATs and in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workforce, what about other life skills that schools used to teach?
Many don’t find it comforting that many high school seniors will learn how to do advanced trigonometry, but don’t know how to balance a checkbook. It may be well and good that a student can analyze the works of Charles Dickens, but is it really helping them if they were never taught how to read a warranty contract correctly?
Going to college used to mean becoming educated and then looking for a job, and being educated meant becoming well-rounded in science, music, art, history, etc. With Common Core being so set on standardized tests in reading, math and science, it feels as if something is missing. There’s less opportunity to transform into a “Renaissance man” (or woman), as one of my favorite teachers used to say.
Think about a favorite teacher, or favorite moment in the classroom from your past. More likely than not, when you think about past experiences in school, your mind does not drift to being told over and over about the importance of passing a standardized test. You remember what that teacher did to make what you learned special, or interesting, or what inspired you to choose your next steps in life.
Why should a classroom be something standardized, simply a business model, with a teacher being scrutinized under a microscope for test scores instead of what they bring to a child’s day? Really, with Common Core, students miss “teachable moments,” the things that stick with them, because all their energies are focused on passing one test. This, instead of what should be a more universal goal for all students, becoming an educated person for all of their future.
