Common Core State Standards for ELA Instruction

When you hear “Common Core State Standards (CCSS),” what goes through your mind?  I have heard mixed thoughts about CCSS from teachers, students, family and community members.  Some love the idea of CCSS, others very much dislike the idea, and a few are confused as to what they even are. Even up until now, reading this article, I could hear the multitude of opinions I have been given in my head.

Now let’s take a minute to think about the idea in which CCSS is formed around, help students be better prepared for college and everyday life outside of high school no matter where they are in the United States.  Before reading this article, I never thought about the fact that the federal government didn’t create the idea first, but the individual states had.  The federal government just decided there should be some “main guidelines” for all public schools to follow.  Among many states and educators, there was a bit of an uproar with this when President Bush created “No Child Left Behind.”

As a future educator, I do appreciate the article bringing up the fact that many teachers are upset about using CCSS in their classrooms.  I know many other educators that view CCSS as a giant joke and just a way to make them do more work than necessary or they feel it doesn’t really help prepare the students for what “they feel the students should be learning.”  While it is more work on our part as educators to make sure our students are succeeding in their education, we should be happy knowing that more students are going and graduating from colleges every year.  Some parents are finding their “trust” of public education to prepare their children for the future.

I, however, do agree that in the framework of CCSS we are slowly losing sight of some important content we should be teaching throughout the different courses just so we have our students “meet the standards.”  As we all work to reshape and mold the CCSS throughout the upcoming years, we will hopefully find that balance we seek of meeting standards and teaching key material for multiple areas of life/subjects.