By now it seems as though everyone has made up their mind about common core. People on both sides of the issue have some strong feelings and good arguments. Unfortunately, just like our modern day politics, there seems to be no compromise and both sides want their model to be the only one. What a lot of people do not understand that in the middle of this battle lies our most precious resource in America, our children.
This is my fifteenth year of teaching in public schools in the state of Alabama. I believe with all of my heart, that our public schools are some the best in the nation. I know that we do not get the recognition that we deserve, in fact, our state is generally thought of near the bottom. But recent gains have placed us in the middle and when compared to other states that have comparable budgets per student, we are ranked even higher.
The history of Common Core is one that is debated on both sides. Pro Common Core say that it was designed years ago with the help of the top educational personnel in the country while the anti Common Core group says no educator was involved. I personally have no idea who designed the standards, but this argument should be kicked to the curb. It really does not matter if you give Christopher Columbus the credit for discovering America or if you give others the credit. The fact of the matter is, America was finally seen and traveled to from Europe. The same with Common Core, regardless of who designed the standards, they are here. We need to look at the standards and decide how they affect our children.
I do not claim to be an expert on Common Core. I can only write about how they have affected me and my class. In my classes of Pre AP Biology and AP Biology, I put a lot more emphasis on reading and writing. I also put more emphasis on the students thinking processes. After reading an article, we discuss what was read and I as open ended questions. Students are allowed to write about what they think or how they would handle a situation. In a recent lab, we were looking at how electrophoresis and deciding which family members in a study were at a high risk for colon cancer. The students were prompted to write how and what they would discuss with a patient that was found to be at high risk. They had to use knowledge that had been gathered throughout the year and put it in a real world situation. Answering this question meets the standards of Common Core.
Some people claim that Common Core is changing what is taught in schools. My Biology standards are the same that the State adopted years ago. The state decides my curriculum, Common Core just makes me put more emphasis on reading and writing. My wife which teaches 12th grade English. She still teaches Chaucer, MacBeth, and Lord of the Flies. They also look at real world articles as supplemental material. It is still the same class as 10 years ago, they now just read non fiction along with the classics.
Common Core opponents have legitimate complaints when looking at testing and the amount of tests. In the Ninth Grade, my students only take a test at the end of their Math class, so I do not see an issue with the testing. I am sure that if my students missed multiple days of the year with different tests, I might feel differently.
My issue with Anti Common Core is that if we stop or do away with the standards at this point, it will set our schools and students back several years. We have been putting resources and time into Common Core for years, and we can not get it back. Common Core should be debated, but the debate should be to decide what we can do to make it better. There is no doubt that there are things about Common Core that needs to be improved. I know that with the leadership of Dr. Bice and open dialogue with working relationship between the two sparring sides can make Alabama's College and Career Readiness a model that would be the envy of the nation.
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