Common Core State Standards

Common Core is one area of the education field that I do not have enough information on to make an informed opinion about. However, I do know that there are many myths about what Common Core is and how it operates within a school, district, and state. There are also factors, when it comes to meeting said standards, that are not controlled by Common Core.

Common Core State Standards are a set of standards that, contrary to some opinions, gives teachers a set of standards but does not tell them what or how to achieve that goal. The hope for these standards is to help create a commonality between state education goals which in turn would make it easier for students and teachers who move from state to state. Common Core is not the nationalization of education as a requirement but rather a type of incentive program in which the federal government offers money and other benefits to the states who adopt these standards.

Common Core, when implemented correctly, helps students coming from different states or counties to pick up relatively close to where they last left off in their educational path. The downfall to Common Core comes when teachers are unsuccessful in helping their students meet and surpass the standard that was set before them. Common Core gives flexibility to the teacher in terms of what they teach or how they do so. This is a relatively good thing in most cases but there is always going to be a teacher that does not have the knowledge or skill to meet the standards. Unfortunately, in these cases it is the student’s education that suffers greatest as a consequence of underprepared teachers. There are always improvements to be made in the education system and Common Core is no exception to this fact regardless of anyone’s opinion on how it is currently operating in the school system.