So what about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)? It's becoming accepted almost universally in the educational world. But it's also becoming condemned almost universally in the world of conservative politics. Let's try to look at it rationally and (most importantly) Biblically.
What is the CCSS? For the last 20 or so years, educators have worked on developing standards for the main subjects in K-12 classes - English, math, science, social studies, etc. The desire was to avoid having each teacher, or each school, decide what is important for the children. There needed to be some way of knowing if a teacher was covering what was most important in the subject. So various groups began setting out statements defining those standards.
There were two problems, though, with these:
Sounds good so far. So what's controversial? I'll start on that in my next post.
What is the CCSS? For the last 20 or so years, educators have worked on developing standards for the main subjects in K-12 classes - English, math, science, social studies, etc. The desire was to avoid having each teacher, or each school, decide what is important for the children. There needed to be some way of knowing if a teacher was covering what was most important in the subject. So various groups began setting out statements defining those standards.
There were two problems, though, with these:
- Each state or local school system had its own set of standards. While there was naturally much overlap among them (everybody agrees that first graders need to add and subtract single-digit numbers, for example), there were also significant differences. For example, when should students learn American history - 4th grade, 5th grade, 8th grade, or when? Let's say Johnny goes to 4th grade in a school where American history is taught in 5th grade. But after he completes 4th grade, his family moves to a state where they teach American history in 4th grade. That means he misses it entirely, at least until he gets into middle school or high school. As our society has become more mobile, these differences have had more and more of a negative impact.
- The standards in a particular state or school system multiplied until it was literally impossible for them to be covered. Some have looked at those older standards, and have said it would only be possible to cover them if students were in school for 20 years. As a result, teachers ended up choosing which standards to address and which to leave out - meaning it was the same as when there were no standards.
Sounds good so far. So what's controversial? I'll start on that in my next post.