Common Core State Standards

Prior to actually reading about the Common Core State Standards, I was under the impression that they were fairly universally hated by teachers - that they were a straight jacket which kept teachers from creating lessons that best served their student populations and took creativity out of the classroom. After reading through the standards myself, as well as Chapter 1 of Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards, I feel that this is not the case. Perhaps I was confusing a dislike of standardized testing with Common Core - either way, I feel much more comfortable now with the idea of Common Core State Standards than I once did.

The Standards don't tell you you have to teach a certain way, or a certain text - they simply ensure that every student is learning the same set of important skills, regardless of school or teacher or text. Teachers are free to create their own curriculum and use their own teaching approach (likely with collaboration from their colleagues and/or district curriculum coordinators), and this encourages English Language Arts teachers to teach with a certain invaluable asset: passion. In Chapter 1 of the reading mentioned above, the author writes that "if your students perceive you as knowledgeable and excited about learning, then they may be more likely to be excited." In my experiences as a student, this is absolutely true. If there was one common trait among my favorite teachers growing up, it was that they were passionate and excited about what they were teaching - it really is contagious. Since the Standards allow the use of any text or teaching method which you deem appropriate, it allows teachers the opportunity to teach content that excited them, and that can excite students.

While some may argue that the Standards make it difficult to accurately access student learning, I think they may actually help to level the playing field for students. I've often heard the argument (and it is again brought up in the reading) that typical modes of assessment tend to favor students who are of a common background with the test creators/administrators. The Standards help to eliminate this, by assessing students based on their ability to demonstrate a certain set of skills, and by creating a "more open-ended, less content-focused performance assessment(s)." Ultimately there may be no perfect solution for the question of how to best assess student learning, but I believe this is at least a positive step in the right direction.

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