COMMON CORE FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE 1

Common Core from a different perspective

Anderson Lenin Medina Guerrero

California State University, Fresno

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Common Core from a different perspective

Education had never been such a divisive issue up to present time. Although any major

reform creates some degree of controversy between proponents and opponents, the

implementation of Common Core policies has caused an intense public discussion. It is true

that some changes were introduced too fast, with little time to adapt, but it does not necessarily

follow that the modifications initiated by Common Core are harmful or will hurt education. In

fact, after the continuous failure on an international level, the American education system

should be reinforced. Also, on a national scale, students are not being prepared for college

challenges, and the educational approach used in high schools is not effective. Many opponents

of Common Core seem to disregard these three critical flaws of the current education system.

Still, despite public opinion, Common Core is the positive shift that the education system needs.

Why is Common Core necessary?

First of all, the current education system is deficient. Students are not learning the

content or developing the skills they are supposed to. When compared to their peers in other

countries, American students fall behind. Even though this phenomenon has happened for

many years, there has been little improvement in education. The education system needs a

reform that places American students at the top of educational rankings. According to a report

from the British Broadcast Corporation, out of 65 countries, the United States was ranked in

the 24th position in the reading section and in the 36th position in the math section of the

Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). These results show a mismatch between

education and global relevancy of the United States. While the education system in other

countries with much less influence and resources have experienced a large improvement, the

U.S. education system has not progressed at the same rate. As Arne Duncan, former Secretary

of Education, put it, “[American students a]re running in place, as [students in] other high
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performing countries start to lap us” (as cited in Bidwell, 2013). In other words, the education

model needs some changes to be on a level with that of Finland or South Korea. If the poor

performance of the U.S. in international tests is not reverted, American pupils will be less and

less competitive on a global scale. In fact, Allie Bidwell, a writer in U.S. News and World

Report, states that “in areas like top-performer Shanghai, students’ math scores are the

equivalent of two-and-a-half years of schooling ahead of students in Massachusetts, the highest

performing state in the country.” That is, the content taught to students in other parts of the

world is far ahead from what American high school students learn. A few decades ago, U.S.

education was outstanding and internationally admired. However, this country did not follow

suit with the nations that updated their academic structures. The point is not to mimic the

education system of top education countries, but to understand that the American approach to

education would benefit from some changes. Admittedly, Common Core policies are not

perfect in every aspect they address; nonetheless, the modifications introduced by this initiative

are the basis for the educational reform that the United States required.

Benefits of Common Core for college students

In addition, Common Core policies help students to get ready for college. Because more

than half students attend college after graduating from high school, it is important to prepare

them to be successful. As of today, this is not the situation. According to the American College

Testing, “34% of 2016 graduates […] did not meet any of the […] benchmarks [in English,

math, reading and science], suggesting they are likely to struggle in first-year college courses.”

To put it in another way, over a third of high school students are not ready for the demands of

college classes. Since this share of freshman students will probably have difficult times at the

beginning of the college path, it is understandable that many of them fail a course at some point

or drop out of college. As a result, according to Brown, Afflerbach, and Croninger (2014), “one

of the motivations for the development of the Common Core State Standards is to promote
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critical-analytical thinking (CAT) as a way to prepare students to be more successful in college

and in the workforce” (p. 545). That is, the standards set by Common Core policies are focused

on the development of critical thinking skills because these abilities are essential for a good

performance in college. Memorization and repeating what professors teach is no longer what

pupils need. Today, students have to be able to extrapolate what they learn to different

situations, even in non-academic contexts. In the past, the accumulation of knowledge was the

most important parameter when evaluating students, but this criterion is not accurate anymore.

In times when knowledge is constantly and rapidly changing, students must be able to acquire

and process new information to apply it to new circumstances. Since critical thinking skills are

the tools that allow a person to embrace this task, their incorporation in the education system

is crucial. The inclusion of these skills is reflected in the way that mathematics is intended to

be taught. As Schoenfeld (2014) noted, Common Core “focuses on two deeply intertwined

aspects of mathematics: the content people need to know, and the knowhow that makes for its

successful use” (p. 737). The essence of Schoenfeld’s argument is that Common Core goes

beyond absorbing information as it promotes the understanding of the processes that involve

the use of mathematics. Without doubt, learning mathematics is more than remembering

formulas and plugging in numbers. Students should comprehend the reason for using a specific

formula instead of another for a particular case, and how the chosen formula works. This is not

to say that simple mathematical procedures have to be complicated to a point in which students

cannot grasp the subject, but rather that pupils have to apply the critical thinking that will allow

them to study any further topics. Since college is one of the most important educational

experiences in the academic formation, the Common Core policies put emphasis on the

development of critical thinking skills. In that way, students would be better prepared for

embracing college as those students who mechanically repeat what they are taught have fewer

chances to get the most out of college.

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The learning process in Common Core

Furthermore, Common Core enhances and directs the learning process. A good

education system should carefully determine the best way to instruct the content that students

need to learn and the skills they need to master. In general, but more specifically in

mathematics, students would learn fewer topics but in deeper detail. Learning is a process that

requires time. If a student is tested in too many topics in a short period of time, it is very likely

that she will not fully understand any of them. The goal of any set of educational standards

should not be to cover as many topics as possible to pretend to be complete. In the attempt of

doing so, the study of subjects would be superficial, eventually impairing students in their

academic experience. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2015), […]

67% of eighth graders perform below proficiency in mathematics” (as cited in Codding, 2016).

Also, as the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008) reported, “students are inadequately

prepared for algebra coursework and have not mastered prerequisite skills by eighth grade” (as

cited in Codding, 2016). In other words, overwhelming pupils with large loads of material is

not a good strategy because a big percentage of students has not acquired the basic knowledge

necessary for that grade. That is why Common Core policies aim to reduce the content that

students are expected to know by each grade. By doing so, students have the opportunity to

gain a profound grasp of the subject. Needless to say, the content will not be reduced to the

extent in which students do not learn the topics they need for college. Instead, some topics that

are not extremely relevant would be removed from the educational standards so that the most

important topics can be fully developed. Besides, Common Core provides a guideline to help

educators to effectively teach students to write. Undoubtedly, writing is an essential part of

academic formation. Regardless the discipline, every student should be able to express ideas,

formulate written arguments, and elaborate reports, for instance. The current situation is quite

different. According to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics (2011), “only
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24% of students in 8th and 12th grades were proficient in writing, and just 3 percent were

advanced” (as cited in Wexler, 2015). That is, students are not receiving enough writing

formation to perform any of the tasks earlier mentioned. The issue is not only the lack of

attention to this skill in the current educational system but the little training that professors

received to teach writing nowadays. For that reason, Common Core policies provide a plan to

achieve writing proficiency at each grade. According to Graham and Harris (2015), Common

Core “refocuses educators’ attention on the importance of writing and the need to teach it

effectively at every grade level [and] provides benchmarks for what students need to master at

each step along the way” (p. 461). This road map for writing proposed by Common Core

represents a useful tool that assists writing teachers. Given the incomplete understanding of

how the writing process takes place in children, having a general reference to develop this skill

in students is fundamental.

In conclusion, even though some may disagree, the main changes introduced by

Common Core are required and advantageous. To be sure, Common Core policies should have

been implemented gradually and are still subject to revision, but the idea behind Common Core

is beneficial for the education system and the students. In the last decade, American students

have remained stagnant in the middle of the international scale because of the flaws of the

education system. Common Core is expected to change the panorama not only on an

international level but also within the country. The policies of this educational program will

prepare students for college by providing them with critical thinking skills and will improve

the learning process by setting new standards in both mathematics and writing. In short, large

transitions may be difficult and even scary. However, when it comes to education, for the

country and students’ sake, the United States should avoid being behind.
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References

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Bidwell, A. (2013, December 3). American Students Fall in International Academic Tests,

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