Critiquing Common Core: A Closer Look at Education Reform

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Education reform has been a highly debated topic over the past decade and now especially with the upcoming Presidential Election. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been the most recent system that has been shut down by the nation and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has been put in its place. But as always with new education reform, there are problems and people heavily criticize it. While Common Core does have positive attributes about it, there are more downfalls than anything. It restricts what is done in the classroom to only certain things nationally, the standards are confusing to parents, and the testing that comes along with it takes away from valuable class time as well as frustrate teachers, students and parents. Common Core was
No Child Left behind was created by the Bush Administration to help bring test scores in the nation up because the country was falling behind. With this, by 2014, one hundred percent of students in public schools were required to be at least proficient in all subjects tested on state tests. The creators of Common Core knew that this was impossible so in 2009 state leaders started the process of the standards. The makers decided that the standards should help students become more prepared for the “real world” no matter where they were from all across the country. Thus the creation of equaling the playing field for all students by giving them the same things to learn in all parts of the country. It gave kids from inner city schools the chance to learn the same thing as kids in suburban schools, and it allows students that live in families that move a lot to learn the same thing no matter where they are, but it does not always work that way.
One of the best things about it is that the standards would be the same everywhere, making it much easier for families that move around constantly like Military families and witness protection program families, it allows children to stay on the track for college or careers no matter where they are, and it does not bring the classroom levels down the teach to the “lowest common denominator.” The standards were created to make it challenging for students but still give them the chance to learn, and to be better prepared for college or a career right out of high school.

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