Common Core State Standards to Unify Education Systems

CAROLINE REN
Copy Editor

The world of standardized education will soon change for much of the United States. Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which have been adopted in 45 states, including California, and three U.S. territories, are expected to be fully implemented by the 2014-2015 school year.
The California State Board of Education guides the implementation of CCSS in California for all students, from kindergarten to high school. The standards are internationally benchmarked, which means that they are compared to the practices of high-achieving education systems in other nations.
“Because the standards are the same state to state, if a student moves from California to New York, the expectations and goals stay stable. In the past, each state developed its own standards and adjusted them as they saw fit,” international educational consultant Beverly Flaten said.
However, critics of CCSS fear that the federal government is taking charge of an issue traditionally managed by state governments. An additional concern is the cost. CCSS is estimated to cost California $760 million and the nation $30 billion.
Another criticism is that publishing companies, such as Pearson, will profit up to eight billion dollars. In June, elementary and middle school students across New York boycotted Pearson’s trial tests, which contained errors and were much longer than usual state standardized tests. New York has a $32 million contract with Pearson, which begins in 2012.
“Many publishers are scrambling to create materials for the common core and several are simply putting stickers on already published material and making claims that their materials are aligned to the CCSS,” Flaten said. “Thus, we must be astute consumers and evaluators of products. That is why one of the single most important things districts can do is analyze the information available and provide good professional development.”
Despite this, supporters of CCSS maintain that the new standards will be beneficial to students.
“This work will take our state’s already world-class standards to a new level, emphasizing a deep understanding of English-Language Arts and mathematics to ensure our students complete high school, ready to thrive in college and careers,” California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said, according to the California Department of Education website.
CCSS is designed to teach students how to connect lessons from the classroom to applications in the real world to prepare them for college and careers.
“CCSS go into more detail about the topics that [students] learn,” math teacher Tuan Pham said. “[They] force students to think more and not just remember facts. If implemented correctly, these standards will be more effective [than our current standards] and not just teach students to be mechanical.”
As of now, teachers have already begun attending common core training to help them transition to CCSS by the time the 2014-2015 school year comes around.
“Every system has critics, but I think that with the resources they have, [students] will do [better],” Assistant Principal Phuong Nguyen said.