Stotsky: Common Core Writing Standards Not Linked to Appropriate Reading Standards
Dr. Sandra Stotsky, professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas, wrote a piece for the Indiana Policy Review that critiques the Common Core ELA Standards and called Indiana to re-adopt the standards they had before that were superior to the Common Core. She also pointed out a problem with the Common Core’s writing standards that very few are talking about – they are not linked to appropriate reading standards. Reading and writing go hand in glove with one another. I had written before that I was concerned how a dependence on informational text would impact writing as one learns to write well by reading great writing, but Stotsky points out a problem that is even more basic than that.
The standards are not age-appropriate, nor do the elementary standards adequately prepare older students for what the standards require of them later on.
She wrote:
Common Core’s English language arts standards don’t have just one fatal flaw, i.e., its arbitrary division of reading standards into two groups: 10 standards for “informational” text and nine for