Ashley Johnson

UWRITE 1103
Cambell
30 March 2015
An Uncommon Approach to the Common Core
The teacher slammed down the fresh white paper, filled with carefully written words,
stained with that horrible red ink. Amy reluctantly looked up from her massacred paper to her
teacher Mr. Miller. He was a round, old, white haired man, well whatever hair he had left, with a
peculiar smell of tuna and cheap cologne, jaded from his years of teaching the standards. Mr.
Millers merciless, piercing eyes met Amys soft vulnerable ones. This is not the way I taught
you the teacher growled, the sound emanating from deep within his chest. Amy caught a whiff
of that peculiarly familiar smell. But its so much easier my way, Amys sheepishly low,
smooth, voice contrasted to the teachers growls of disappointment, This is the way my mother
taught me and shes a professional writer, so I thought Amys soft words were trampled by
the teachers loud howl of agitated bitterness, This is the way the system teaches! No more
questions, youre wasting the five minutes I have allotted to pass out these essays before we do
our fifteen minutes of daily grammar practice. Amy could feel the wet, warm tears swell in her
glassy eyes as the teachers cold, deathly glare passed from her to the student behind her.
I hate these standards! Amy thought to herself as she threw her book bag onto her
bedroom floor with a loud thud complimented with the sound of her plopping on the bed. She
breathed out a deep sigh, letting go of the troubles and frustrations of the day. Looking out her

window she saw the wind blowing through the jade colored leaves and rich, strong branches. A
flurry of light pink flower petals danced across her sight, and she opened her window just in time
to allow a few delicate petals to venture into her room before they rested peacefully on the floor.
No one ever asked for MY opinion before forcing the standards on me! Amy sighed
frustratingly as she let her elbows slide along the windowsill, allowing her head to rest on her
arms. The wind carried the sweet smell of spring cherry blossoms, fresh grass, tulips, and roses
gently through her window. Come to think of it she thought I dont really know what the
standards are. They never allow us to ask questions about why we do what we do in class. Amy
passed quickly from her window to her desk with curious intent. Im sure Google will tell me!
She thought proudly Google knows everything! She carefully lifted her sleek, white Mac
Computer out of her book bag and set it tenderly on her desk. The familiar home screen of her
and her best friend making a weird face into the camera lit up the screen. Amy gave a small
chuckle as she counted the number of chins present on her face. She pulled up the Google
homepage and took a second to marvel at the new logo. It was in honor of the birthday of one of
her favorite artists, Frida Kahlo. I wanted to write about her in my English class so bad! Amy
pouted, But the stupid teacher said the standards made it clear the artist had to be a nonfiction
writer between 1947 and 1956. Who comes up with this stuff?! Amys fingers flew into action
over the keyboard, typing memorized letters across the flat plane forming the question What is
the common core? The first website to appear atop the list of many was the common cores main
website, corestandards.org. Amys eyes skimmed the first sentence, The Common Core is a set
of high quality academic standards in the Mathematics and English Language Arts and Literacy.
Thats a lot of big fancy words for something that doesnt allow us students to use our full
vocabulary. She scoffed in response. She continued reading Ensures all kids graduate high

school with the skills necessary to succeed in college, careers, and life. Yea, doesnt feel like
it. The standards are research and evidence based, the standards are built on the strengths and
lessons of the current state standards. Amy had read enough and closed the tab. She didnt
understand. The way this website puts it, the standards are the best thing since sliced bread. Then
why was she frustrated in all her classes because she still wasnt doing well?
This makes me wonder if the standards really are research and evidence based? Amy
pondered. She reluctantly went back to the core standards website in search of her answer. Oddly
enough, she never found it. They never say who conducted the research, only the persons
involved in writing the standards. Amy said, confused. Her eyes slowly opened in shocked
surprise as she read that only surveys were used to conduct the research. And it doesnt even
say the population of the group sampled by the surveys! There could be so much bias in favor of
the standards! she exclaimed, outraged. In order to find her answer, she had to dig deeper.
Again she typed her question into the well-known search engine, but this time a different title
caught her eye. Common Core Validation Committee Member: Nobody Thought There Was
Sufficient Evidence for the Standards. Amy curiously clicked the link and urgently read the
article in search of her answer. One statistic stood out to her, Of the George Washington
University compendium of sixty plus research on the common core, only two focused on the
impact of student achievement, and even then the results were mixed. Amy was relieved to
know she was not the only person struggling to pass, but then became very disturbed. How can
they still enforce the standards if theres no clear correlation between the common core and
student achievement? she thought, Even after they flaunted on their website ensure all kids
graduate with the skills necessary to succeed in college, careers, and life? Something is
definitely wrong here. She continued reading. Her eyes came across two unfamiliar names. The

article said they were authors of the American Journal of Education. Sounds fancy! Amy
thought, Im sure theyre a reliable source. She read that Weatherford and Mcdonnel, the
authors of the American Journal of Education, say that the evidence scrounged up by researchers
of the common core was mostly used to identify problems in the standards or to generate
different hypothesis. The two authors summed up their research by asserting that during the
writing process of the core standards, there was no large pool of empirical evidence on what does
and doesnt work. So basically theyre just guessing what works and what doesnt Amy
concluded in dismay. The next statement she read solidified her inference, We wanted to be
able to cite non-peer reviewed research because theres not enough research available, and often
the findings are inconclusive, Indicated one common core developer. With little to no research
surfacing by the proponents of the common core, Amy wondered what education specialists had
to say. The first specialist to come to mind in her research was a woman known by Nancy
Carlsson-Paige Ed. D. I remember seeing her name and research cited in other passing by
articles. Amy stated, She must be someone worth looking into. Amy quickly scanned and
analyzed the many articles of arguments, research, cited authors, and statistics and found that
two of Carlsson-Paiges research studies had showed that direct instruction actually limited
young childrens learning. Again Amy saw Carlsson-Paige repeat the same theme Amy had read
in the other article, At best, the standards reflect guesswork, not developmental science. Amy
stared blankly into her computer. Her mind swiftly filing all the information she had taken in.
Minutes felt like seconds as her mind churned to wrap itself around the absurdity of what she had
discovered. But she had found the answer to her question. The common core was not only not
research and evidence based, but research that had been done using the standards came up mixed
and inconclusive at best. This put Amys mind swirling into a shocked state of comatose. An icy

breeze quickly reawakened her. She turned to the source only to discover the pitch black
shadows of the night had over taken her window to the outside world. When did it get so late!
she exclaimed as she quickly but gently closed the stubborn window sill with a thud. And
theres still so much I want to know! But I suppose it will have to wait until tomorrow. She
yawned doggedly as she looked at the piles of homework still yet to be done.
The next day after school ended, she burst into her room and jumped onto her desk chair.
Miscalculating the strength of her jump, she sent herself wheeling out of her chair onto the floor
with a loud BOOM. Mother Fer! She exclaimed, I guess the quest for knowledge really is
painful. She giggled at her quick, witty response. She readjusted herself and her chair and set
her laptop into place ready to get back to business. I suppose since the last question ended in a
dead end, I should start from the beginning again. Amy established. So the core standards
website said that the standards were based off the strengths and lessons of the current state
standard. I wonder what that means? I should first find out how they measure that. She
resolved. Flipping through the core standards website, she again found out little. One important
detail however did stick out. Testing is the only way the standards can measure anything at all,
Amy understood, again disappointed, and heavy testing at that. I wonder what the education
specialists have to say about this heavy testing? Theres no way that this can be a strength.
This time Amys research turned up the education specialist David Green, a teacher in
Greenburgh N.Y. and supervisor of Fordham University. Mr. Green must bring a first-hand
perspective to his argument, I gotta read this! Amy excitedly thought as she tirelessly scanned
his article in the US News website. He says that in order to cope with the standards, practical
wisdom and creativity had to be thrown out of the classroom. How sad. I suppose its happening
everywhere, not just here. She said, discouraged. Uniformity really has sucked the life out of

teaching and learning, just look at Mr. Miller! Amy chuckled lightheartedly, slightly lifting her
spirits. She saw the education specialist she had read the day before, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, was
again cited, this time by David Green. Curious, Amy went back to Carlsson-Paiges website in
search of new answers.

Conclusion sentence: the one final question she had, she had to ask herself. Now that I
know this information, she pondered What will I do with it?