Mixed emotions

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TIERRA HAYES News Writer

Mixed emotions The recent implementation of the Common Core State Standards across the nation has been widely accepted and challenged.

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ommon Core State Standards have been adopted in 44 states and the District of Columbia, and have been met with both acceptance and resistance. In recent months, the nationwide educational shift to Common Core has found opposition from parents, teachers and students alike.

“I know that there are some very well intentioned people who are not in favor of the common core which if you look back at our history we have always argued about curriculum (and) about what we should be teaching children,” Clarke Middle School principal Tad MacMillan said.

According to corestandards.org, the official Common Core website, in 2009, Common Core was drawn up by a committee of state leaders in hopes to create a coherent curriculum across the United States. Georgia agreed to adopt these standards in 2010, and they were fully implemented in the Clarke County School District during the 2012-2013 school year. Although the Common Core is widely supported by the CCHS administration many others find the standards to be less than satisfactory.

“I think it is failing to be helpful in actually improving instruction

BY TIERRA HAYES News Writer

or making teaching and learning better in the classroom,” CCHS parent and local activist Bertis Downs said.“(This) is why support for it is falling apart from anyone involved -- from parents and teachers to school boards and now even politicians who like to get re-elected.”

Principal Robbie P. Hooker is accepting of the nationally-mandated standards and thinks that they will be beneficial for students.

“I personally like the Common Core,” principal Robbie P. Hooker said. “I think the rigor is there and I think (having it) across each state would be great.”

Corestandards.org, features many quotes and endorsements from people high up in educational systems around the nation.

These give reasoning and testimonials about the implementation of the new standards.

“We all recognize a need to raise academic standards in the core subject areas of mathematics and English language arts,” Superintendent of the Public Instruction in Idaho Thomas Luna said.“So we decided, as states, to partner and work together to develop more rigorous standards that we all agree are fewer, clearer, higher and competitive with any other country in the world.”

Many feel that having consistent standards will be an asset to students moving from state to state.

“There are some benefits to having nationwide standards,” Clarke Middle School teacher Steve Sacco said.

“There are certain things that all students ought to get, (but) the method of delivery should be different. Every teacher should be able to have some autonomy when it comes to what and how they’re teaching.”

The Common Core standards are currently based in the English and mathematics curriculum, but do include literacy standards for science and social studies. Some teachers feel that the standards provide structure. “(It) didn’t change a lot in here, it just kind of made

Left: CORE TEACHINGS: Despite the controversy surrounding the Common Core standards, students at Clarke Central High School learn with the standards. Above: WRITING ON THE WALLS: The state’s Common Core Standards are displayed for students in each of their classrooms.

Infographic by Tierra Hayes and Aaron Holmes

Above: STEADILY SPREADING: Since their creation in 2009, the Common Core State Standards have been adopted in 44 states and the District of Columbia, and of those, Indiana has voted to drop Common Core from their state curriculum, according to corestandards.org. Nationally, opposition to the standards is mounting. “Why should students in a class in Connecticut be doing the same thing as some class in New Mexico? This has people skeptical,” Clarke Middle School teacher Steve Sacco said.

everything make sense,” CMS teacher Meghan McNeely said. “The standards seem a little more translatable to the kids. Common Core doesn’t feel weird to me because I think it was a lot of what we were already doing.”

Many people nationwide have expressed a general dislike for the new standards. Websites such as stopcommoncore.com have garnered support as Common Core has caught on. CCHS English department chair Ian Altman feels that the standards are highly damaging to students. “(The standards) are deeply conservative in nature,” Altman said. “The language arts standards are specifically designed to get teachers and students to do what they call close reading, but it’s a deeply conservative view on how to read.”

Altman believes that opposition to Common Core comes from two main groups, one being right-wing Tea Party members who believe that Common Core is a “liberal indoctrination.” The other side, he believes, has more legitimate concerns.

“Some people look at the standards and think, ‘Wait a minute, this is all just empty rhetoric, this is not about anything important.’

And the testing that goes along with it is deeply damaging to kids,” Altman said.

Sacco feels that there are many other factors that work into the dislike of Common Core.

“I think it’s the ‘one-size-fits-all’ thing,” Sacco said. “Why should students in a class in Connecticut be doing the same thing as some class in New Mexico when you have different demographics and different brains and different aptitudes? I think this has people sceptical, and rightfully so.”

According to Sacco, standards do not have a large impact on student participation.

“Kids are either engaged in class or they aren’t,” Sacco said. “I don’t think it comes down so much to standards. There are other variables in place that sort of set you up for a class of engaged kids or kids that are daydreaming.”

Outside of the Common Core, the use of standardized testing in

K-12 education has long been scrutinized, according to Hooker.

Clarke Central will be administering thousands of End of Course Tests, which tests students based on Common Core State Standards, starting April 29.

“Implementation of standardized testing is challenging and students will hear from teachers how its going to affect them personally, but its a major undertaking to give 3200 standardized tests in two weeks,” assistant principal Sheila Dunham said. “I do wish the department of education would look back on it to see if there’s any (testing) we could not have.”

Although Hooker supports Common Core standards, he feels that standardized testing is too widely used and that overemphasizing the tests undermines learning.

“If you’re teaching you don’t have to have a countdown (to prepare for a test),” Hooker said. “Kids will get it, just let them take the exam.”

MacMillan has a similar stance about preparation for testing.

“We are a school, we are not a test prep center,” MacMillan said.

“The state standardized testing always puts this pressure on us. I’m not about prepping for a test. I’m trying to teach you if you’re a (student) what are the skills you needed to be successful and to be prepared for the next grade.”

In high schools throughout Georgia, student achievement on Common Core-based standardized testing accounts for 50 percent of teachers’ final evaluations, while it accounts for 70 percent for the administrators. As state-mandated EOCTS and Benchmarks approached, Hooker noted that many felt apprehensive of the tests.

“Some people are worried, but I think that if the instruction has taken place in the classroom, we don’t have too much to worry about,” Hooker said.