Maddi O’Neill
Since 2010, 45 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, a curriculum aimed at creating academic consistency in public schools across the country. According to the organization’s website, “the Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through twelfth grade in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adopt.”
There are a few problems, and by a few, I mean a lot. First of all, 135 people designed this curriculum. The list includes college professors, entrepreneurs and bureaucrats with inscrutable titles like “educational specialist” or “literacy coordinator.” Missing from the list are public school teachers. Out of 135 developers, fewer than five are K-12 teachers who would be affected by the new standards. Of course, this did not stop the creators from claiming on their website that teachers were a “critical voice in the development of the standards.” This curriculum is not based on what actual teachers think is best for students, but on what a bunch of mysterious officials think kids ought to know.
And who chose the people who made up this committee? Why are business interests represented on a committee that will decide the curriculum for every public school in America? Why was someone with an inflated title like “Mathematics Instructional Coach” included in this when actual math teachers were excluded? It is concerning that such a small group of non-teachers have exerted so much power in determining how all American students will be taught. We have strict regulations regarding media monopolies so that no single corporation has too much control — why do we not have similar regulations when it comes to education?
Critics of the CCSS have noticed some problematic aspects of the curriculum, most notably the fact that the new English standards focus on historical texts like train schedules and analytical papers, rather than literature and creative writing. David Coleman, CEO of CollegeBoard (the world’s only non-profit organization to own a golf course for executives) and one of the architects of the CCSS, explained it this way at a 2011 event: “As you grow up in this world you realize people really don’t give a shit about what you feel or what you think.”
It seems that David Coleman harbors some bitterness, and he turned that bitterness into a curriculum that discourages English teachers from assigning personal essays or letting kids read books that make them think. Because who cares what students think?
We have tried this before — many, many times. Schools across the country have had to quickly (and often shoddily) adapt to new standards and tests being thrown at them several times in just a few years. My high school back home just switched from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment to the newer, shinier Keystones. But the science department did not have enough time to adjust their curriculum to match what would be on the tests. In the end, they gave students a packet with information to study over Thanksgiving break and said “good luck.” Now they’re getting another new set of standardized tests?
This isn’t the way education is supposed to be. Teachers should be able to tailor their curriculums based on the needs of their students; they should not have to base their teaching on cookie-cutter standards handed down from on high by a group of bureaucrats who do not understand the challenges of teaching.