By the 2014-2015 school year forty-two out of all fifty states had adopted the Common Core standards. The standards are the same for each state and focus on English, Language Arts, and Mathematics. They highlight what each student should be able to do by the end of each grade and are created to hopefully better prepare students for college, their career, and life after school. Controversy has risen on if Common Core should stay implemented or if there should be another way to make sure kids across the states are learning similar material on the same level. Common Core should not be allowed in the classroom because it limits the teachers’ way of teaching while also making learning unfair for students. Common Core is expensive making our nation spend billions, it has made standardized test scores decrease, and professors are upset that it is not better preparing students for college. 

We can all agree that Common Core was implemented into the school systems for a reason. Common Core is good for allowing teachers to collaborate and bounce ideas off of each other. This makes lesson plans and everyday activities easier for the teachers in every state, not just in one school district. It is supposed to make it easier to challenge all students, not just the students who typically do well in school. It makes it easier if a student moves schools because in the past there has been no alignment of what should be taught and known during a particular point of the year, but with Common Core every grade in every school should line up together and be on the same page. Common Core is also said to get kids more “college and career ready” by teaching to read and think critically and also be able to explain a mathematical thesis rather than just work out an equation. 

While all of this sounds like a way that you want students to learn, in most cases this is not the reality of Common Core. Our nation is spending billions of dollars on Common Core and taxpayers are complaining about how much it is costing. Students test scores have been going down since Common Core has been fully implemented into the schools. Professors are also not satisfied with the way students are coming into college. While Common Core is supposed to have students “college and career ready” they are not as prepared as the educators would have hoped. Teachers are limited on what they can and cannot teach in their classrooms and students are limited on what and how they learn. Not only are students sometimes held back when Common Core is used, but it creates a huge disadvantage for special education students.  

States are realizing just how much Common Core will cost and are holding off on implementing it. In 2014, Georgia and California did not implement Common Core due to the expensive cost. The testing scores alone were at about $35 million a year, that is almost $30 a student. In Maryland, just to upgrade the computers for Common Core testing; education officials found that it was going to cost around $100 million. According to Fox News, there was a study done by Accountability Works that states “schools nationwide will need $6.87 billion for technology, $5.26 billion for professional development, $2.47 billion for textbooks and $1.24 billion for assessment testing over the first seven years that Common Core is in effect” 

(Chiaramonte, Perry). Even before Common Core was implemented we were spending billions on education. Common Core is only making that price rise and at a more rapid rate. In 2001 the United States was spending around $27.3 billion compared to year 2006 where $38 billion was spent (Eaglen, Mackenzie). According to Eaglen, “In 2007, the department will spend 59 percent more on special education programs than it did in 2001” (Eaglen, Mackenize). That is a drastic increase in spending and it happened before Common Core was introduced to most states. Now with the implementation of Common Core, the spending will continue to increase.

Common Core includes a big test that was used in a lot of states in the 2014-2015 school year. In the 2013-2014 school year, the states used their own tests. In this study, when Common Core tests were used during the 2014-2015 school year the percentage went down in all grades and areas (Mathematics and Language Arts/English). When states kept their state test for two consecutive years the scores would mostly stay the same or maybe even rise. However the results prove that a few grades scores decreased, but by 5 percent at most. According to the Huffington Post a study was done by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on test scores. Common Core standards were officially launched in 2009 when the 2016 high school graduating class was in fifth grade. After seven years of Common Core in English Language Arts/ Literacy and Mathematics the NAEP gave a test to the 2016 high school seniors in Fall of 2015. The average performance had dropped in math and did not improve in reading from 2013 to 2015 (Ujifusa, Andrew). The percentage of students who were college ready declined and the number of students who scored below “basic” in ELA and math increased from 2013 to 2015 (Ujifusa, Andrew). In all of the studies and tests conducted on Common Core it is nearly impossible to find a time where test scores increased on average in students. 

Teachers are finding it difficult to make their own lesson plans and teach in a way that will allow students to engage and be as attentive. The transition from state standards to common core standards is also challenging for teachers to work into the classroom. Common Core involves writing out everything and sometimes that can be difficult to teach and make students understand. The standards are a lot more rigorous with more assignments, predicting that the high school dropout rate will soon increase. According to South Carolina Department of Education the dropout rate for grades 9-12 was 2.6 from 2012-2015 but in the 2011-2012 school year it was at 2.5 (Spearmen, Molly). In a video conducted by a Harvard educator, Heather Hill, she states a focus is “helping people learn to do their job better” (Walsh, Bari). By doing this she hopes it will help students succeed in the ways that these policymakers and standard makers have suggested that Common Core would do for students. If Common Core is going to stay implemented, then the educators who think Common Core is moving our education system in a positive direction should help those educators who are struggling to adjust to this drastic change. 

Professors have complained about students not being as “college ready” as Common Core was supposed to make the students. According to a study conducted by ACT, data showed that “there are discrepancies between some state standards and what some educators believe is important for college readiness” (White, Jenni). Even elementary school teachers are finding that students are coming in with not enough knowledge of mathematics, therefore they have to teach some things that are not on the standards. Common Core is noted as undermining students’ intellectual growth. Graduates are left reading less pages in a book because they are critically analyzing a passage or having our math standards degrade from a completed math course to a partially completed Algebra II course. While Common Core does do some good in preparing students for college, not every college is the same in what they expect of their students therefore making it difficult to prepare all students. 

Students test scores are expected to drop and would possibly be in need for summer school. This causes stress for those students who would typically not struggle with the stress of school. Tests are all online and for some students that is not their best way to test, also being a cause for scores to decrease. Students are not asked a question and expected to have one particular answer, Common Core wants students to dig deeper and explain why they think that answer is correct. Rachel Olive, a middle schooler in Wisconsin says, “I feel like schools don’t spend enough time on one topic because Common Core doesn’t let them” (Fink, Jennifer L.W).  Olive feels that Common Core rushes the standards without giving students time to process and thoroughly learn the topic like you should (Fink, Jennifer L.W).  Typically, if the students do not understand a specific topic the teacher can adjust the standards and make more time for that topic the students are struggling with. Using Common Core forces teachers to stay in alignment with the schedule given, prohibiting these teachers from being flexible for their students. It takes time for a teacher to get to know their students and learn the best way to teach each individual student. That is the reason a teacher is there, to help each student learn in his or her own way even if that means the teacher is helping after hours. When Common Core is giving national standards it takes away from what the teacher is there to do. Yes, a teacher is still there to teach, but when you rush a teacher they cannot let the student fully understand the information as well as they would if the teacher was teaching at their own pace. 

Common Core does not only negatively affect an average student; it also negatively affects special education students. Thinking critically and analyzing a text at such a deep level is hard enough for a 14-year-old alone. Imagine being a 14-year-old who comprehends things at a fourth grade level. This is the challenge that special education students and teachers are facing across the states. It is hard enough for a student to analyze a text that is written in our language today, Shakespeare and older texts are going to be even more of a struggle. Yet, teachers are still forced to use these standards even though it is lowering the students’ confidence in what they can and cannot do. Common Core has enough controversy on its own and the debate on whether special education students should be measured and given the same tests as an average student adds even more controversy. Special education students may struggle in some areas that other students do not, but they are smart in their own ways and Common Core is not allowing the students to show that. Special education students are getting torn down because Common Core does not highlight and emphasize the areas that they may be able to excel in. 

Common Core is typically emphasized using technology which makes it difficult to give students out of the classroom assignments. In the past, worksheets or workbooks have been given making it easier for students to do work even without technology. Common Core implements the use of technology in schools more than ever before. Using technology in the classrooms is a great way to get students prepared for the future, but that being their only way to work on assignments makes things unfair. Students should have an even playing ground and it should not be easier and more accessible for some students to do their work at home and at school. This would allow some students to work on an assignment for hours and hours at home while another student may only be able to work on their out of class assignment for 2 hours on the school computers. This gives students who are from higher class families an advantage over those who are from lower class families because many of these students do not have access to computers at home. Teachers are already giving students so much homework and out of class assignments because they do not have enough time to do everything in the classroom. These standards will make it harder for teachers to give out of class assignments and will give them even less time in the classroom. 

Educators around the country are feeling like leaving the profession completely rather than adjusting to the new standards. Being a teacher comes with a lot of stress as it is and adding in new changes to the curriculum creates even more. Students test scores are dropping causing teachers to blame themselves when they should be blaming the new standards. It is unfair for teachers to have all of this unnecessary and additional stress placed onto their shoulders. Not only are they expected to teach students year after year but now there is also a timeline and extremely high expectations placed onto them. These educators are told by what point of the year and exactly how they should teach these students certain parts of the Common Core curriculum. Educators should be allowed to create their own ways of teaching their students and putting a timeline on them does not necessarily help these students learn the material any sooner than they did before. When you have a teacher who has been teaching for years wanting to give it up and do something else because of these standards, they should be reevaluated. 

Removing Common Core will benefit the students by allowing their test scores to rise and it will benefit the teachers by allowing them to teach in their own way and at their own pace. Not only this, but it will cause teachers to not rush to make the deadline of a national test. It will decrease the cost that our nation is spending on education as a whole. It will benefit special education students, focusing more on the student rather than the curriculum. It will also make it easier for lower income students to still have an even amount of time to work on out of class assignments. When a teacher first decides they want to help others learn, they are filled with a passion for education that never goes away. Letting national curriculum tear down our teachers and students and still keeping Common Core implemented is not letting our education system move in a positive direction. Taking away this passion is only hurting our nation as a whole, state standards allow the teachers to get to know their students and teach for the students not for Common Core. 

A more effective way to have all the states in alignment is for our country as a whole to have requirements for students by the end of each grade. I feel as if leaving it up to the state, districts, and most of all the teachers on how and when the information is received would be the most effective way to set a curriculum. I believe this way is allowing the teachers to teach for their students rather than for a national curriculum that is only tearing down the students in a negative way. By taking away Common Core a little at a time would also not make another drastic change for the students that have already gone through so much change in the education system. This will also allow those students who have been fully emerged in Common Core their entire educational career to finish out their education under this national curriculum. 
