Common Core: 5 Teachers Open Up, And They Don't Hold Back
Education in America is an evolving thing: After 14 years of No Child Left Behind, President Obama replaced the much-loathed, standardized, test-heavy law with one that allows states to set their own benchmarks and standards. Now it looks like Common Core will soon follow NCLB into the dustbin.
But is this something to cheer?
We already know what most parents think about Common Core. Whether from genuine frustration or simply because it’s trendy, you’d be hard-pressed to find a nice word about the curriculum from parents. But one group of people we don’t get to hear from as much are teachers — despite the fact that they are so often invoked by parents and politicians as being just as fed up — so naturally we were very curious to hear what they had to say on the matter.
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SheKnows spoke to five educators from multiple states, who offered to give us their unfiltered thoughts on the subject.
The good
Melissa, an educator who lives in Colorado, says she barely noticed a difference when the new standards were implemented:
“I hardly noticed any changes in my curriculum (eight-grade language arts) after Common Core was put in place in my district. Mostly it felt like, yeah, I’m already doing all this. The length of the standardized tests has increased, but the number of times per year students are tested in my content area has remained basically the same.”
David, a 10-year teaching veteran in New York, says the problem lies in a misunderstanding of what Common Core actually is:
“Common Core is a term that is often misunderstood. Common Core is a set of standards or topics that should be covered at each grade level. We had these same standards when we were in school.”
One seasoned educator with over 20 years of experience who wishes to remain anonymous says the problem lies not in the standards Common Core: 5 Teachers Open Up, And They Don't Hold Back: