As today’s society is becoming more involved with education and the importance of attending college, it seems that more emphasis is being put on certain subjects in schools. The common core, which is enforced in most public schools, requires students to become proficient in a few specific subjects, such as Math, English, Science, and History. While these subjects do contain crucial knowledge for young students, the strong emphasis on these subjects are taking the focus away from more important factors in a student’s life. Standardized testing and common core should not be strictly enforced, rather it should be dependent on the school and teacher’s style of teaching, thus allowing school systems to give more attention to the overall wellbeing of the students.

 Schools should focus on the out of school factors, such as low-income poverty and family violence, more than standardized testing. The use of test scores and other data are used to support and strengthen this argument by proving that students who are not receiving the attention that they truly require have lower test scores than others. As today’s society is emphasizing academics and more specifically test scores more than ever before, this research and data prove that academics are not paramount to the wellbeing of the students (Koh). To get into any university a student must apply by showing their grades in high school, ACT/SAT scores, gpa (grade point average) and class rank, and they also must have teacher recommendations. By having these requirements to apply to a university, it is much more difficult for a student with low test scores and a very low gpa and class rank to be accepted to a university over a student who has high test scores, a very high gpa and is ranked top of their class. These scores do not prove that one student is particularly smarter than the other, just that one student is receiving the support and the resources needed to thrive in school. 

Those who are in charge of the Common Core and have a monumental affect on the curriculum and more especially on the students. After doing research I found that there are companies who are running this national curriculum with “little to no experience” in education reform. The common core is “designed to fail” because of those who designed it and how exactly it is designed (Kelly). To make the situation even worse, even the United States refused to adopt the national curriculum in fear that the federal government will gain too much power. Without having the proper leaders, the Common Core is failing. This program could be very strong and could be extremely effective in helping students learn and prosper, but if the program does not have the right leaders, especially ones who do not have the same mindset and goals as teachers and other school figures do, then the curriculum will ultimately fail.

How successful the Common Core is today and where it is successful is very important when judging ultimately how well the students are doing. Through research I have found that this program has proved to be quite successful in the mathematics section. The Common Core was designed to create “interactive classroom environments” where the students can actively engage in the subject and thoroughly learn the material. While the Common Core proving to be beneficial to students learning math is very good, it does not always mean that the curriculum is at its very best. I found that most math teachers still do not fully understand the Common Core even though they have been following it for years (Keazer). If a teacher cannot even understand the program and guidelines that they are teaching from, then they will not be able to give the students their fullest attention, therefore causing the students to fall slightly behind. This is a major design flaw in the Common Core and one that is impacting the students across America greatly. 

The outside factors that are included in the Common Core and how well these are doing play a very crucial role in the success of the students. One of the factors being included in the Common Core is the job of librarians and how they help the students. While in some school settings librarians play a major role in the academic lives of the students, some schools allow the teachers take over that role and the librarians are there more for extra support. It is designed in the Common Core, however, that librarians should be the ones to teach the students how to analyze books and properly write book reports (Lawson). There are a few flaws with this design though, such as not having a large enough staff of librarians to really help all of the students in a school or not having librarians who are truly qualified or have not had the proper teaching to be able to help the students on their own with this subject. By having either librarians take on the role of teaching the students how to research and write papers or to continue helping students simply by showing them how to find and analyze books in the library; both of these situations would prove beneficial in different school settings, and the success of these two situations truly depends on the type of school and ultimately the size of the school. 

The Common Core has changed greatly since it was first designed in the 1990’s. While this program is not very strong or extremely effective right now, it was even had even more “limited and unpredictable effects on the classroom” back when it was first designed (Brass). That is a positive since that proves that the curriculum is improving and strengthening, however that does not mean that the curriculum cannot be improved even more and made even stronger. While the Common Core in today’s society is successful for some students, there is also data that proves that the common core is not effective for a large number of students. While it is good to have an effective program for a fair number of students across the country, it is far better to have a program that is effective for almost every student across the country, therefore allowing everybody to have the same opportunities.

A great way to measure how well the Common Core is currently doing, is to conduct surveys and interviews to know how much support the curriculum has. Through very recent surveys and interviews, it is found that public support in the Common Core has decreased significantly when compared to the support that it had in the past. This drastic drop in support is mostly due to the lack of funding and the overall lack of support that schools are receiving (Peterson). In order for school systems to thrive with this program they must have the proper resources and they must have the support that they require. School systems across America are incredibly diverse and that is truly helpful, however it is not helpful when it applies to the amount of funding and support that these schools are receiving. One school in a nice area, receiving adequate funding and having frequent visits by officials and others who are in charge of the school’s curriculum will have a much higher success rate with its students than a school in a poor area, not receiving nearly enough funding and support. Having these two incredibly different school settings is holding students back from receiving the education and support that they truly need. 

If research and study’s show that students across America are not thriving in their schools and are not receiving the education that they need, then something must be done to help those students receive a better and stronger education. The Common Core is the largest contributor to the lack of success in some students, meaning that it must be redesigned so that the students who are forced to learn from this curriculum will be able to learn and absorb all of the information being taught in a more efficient manner. The common core should not be strictly enforced, rather it should be dependent on the school and teacher’s style of teaching. This would allow school systems to give other factors, such as the wellbeing of the students, more attention.
