A couple months ago I first became aware of the
Common Core Initiative, and since then I have been trying to find more
information about it. Especially since we don't currently have any children in school, I was completely unaware about it before this. However, it seems that there are a number of people out there, including parents of school children, who don't know nearly as much as they probably should about this important subject. I have spent hours and hours reading up on Common Core. I have poured over articles, testimonies, evaluations, and government documents, and then I have spent a great many additional hours writing these posts about it so that others can learn more as well. I have done my best to include sources that you can go investigate yourself. I have a number of serious concerns with Common Core, and
would strongly encourage everyone to look into the matter on their own.
What is Common Core? Basically, Common Core sets standards that must be met by all schools across the nation in the states that have adopted these standards. The idea is that education under Common Core will be more uniform from state to state and school to school. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are supposed to help our children all learn what they need to in order to be college ready after they graduate from high school.
Sounds great, right? Who isn’t for raising our educational standards and helping all kids be college-ready when they graduate from high school? Who doesn’t want standards that are “robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers,” as stated in Common Core’s mission statement?
As someone who moved to different states a couple of times half way through the school year while growing up, I can see why it would be convenient to have educational and curriculum standards be more uniform from place to place. (Though as it turns out this really only affects a very small percentage of students in any given year, and overall I believe any problems I encountered with different standards from one state to the next were worked out without too much trouble.) But would it really be better? I am not so sure. In fact, based on the information I have found on Common Core, I believe the problems with it greatly outweigh any benefits that it may offer. While many concerns exist about Common Core, I have chosen to mainly focus here on three areas of problem: Control, Curriculum, and Privacy/Data Mining. (Make sure to click on each link to access each section.)
(By the way, for anyone living in Texas, you don't have Common Core, but you do have CSCOPE, which is also full of problems. I would suggest you look into that if you haven't already.)
What is Common Core? Basically, Common Core sets standards that must be met by all schools across the nation in the states that have adopted these standards. The idea is that education under Common Core will be more uniform from state to state and school to school. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are supposed to help our children all learn what they need to in order to be college ready after they graduate from high school.
Sounds great, right? Who isn’t for raising our educational standards and helping all kids be college-ready when they graduate from high school? Who doesn’t want standards that are “robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers,” as stated in Common Core’s mission statement?
As someone who moved to different states a couple of times half way through the school year while growing up, I can see why it would be convenient to have educational and curriculum standards be more uniform from place to place. (Though as it turns out this really only affects a very small percentage of students in any given year, and overall I believe any problems I encountered with different standards from one state to the next were worked out without too much trouble.) But would it really be better? I am not so sure. In fact, based on the information I have found on Common Core, I believe the problems with it greatly outweigh any benefits that it may offer. While many concerns exist about Common Core, I have chosen to mainly focus here on three areas of problem: Control, Curriculum, and Privacy/Data Mining. (Make sure to click on each link to access each section.)
(By the way, for anyone living in Texas, you don't have Common Core, but you do have CSCOPE, which is also full of problems. I would suggest you look into that if you haven't already.)
1 comment:
Thanks for doing all this research. I had heard of CSCOPE in Texas but not of Common Core. I think this is important information for people to understand.
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