Common Core State Standards can only improve the abilities of Georgia’s students.
College-and-career readiness is the goal of the state-implemented standards, so what could be better? What is school for, if not to prepare students with the necessary tools for further study and the real world.
The national scale provided by the Common Core standards allows students, teachers, administrators, and parents to view students’ progress as compared to others across America. Governors and state education leaders from 48 states collected the highest standards from states and investigated the expectations of many academically excellent countries to form the Common Core standards.
The beauty of Common Core is the freedom it gives each teacher to implement said standards. Yes, all students will learn the same basic skills, but they are not given a textbook and workbook that they must strictly follow.
All states are allowed to adopt Common Core Standards, every school system can provide methods of implementation for teachers, and teachers are permitted to use any resource to apply the general ideas students should learn.
For example, in Advanced Placement English Language and Composition, we have Socratic seminars discussing various topics. Using the language of composition, we have been able to, as the English Literary Standard 11-12.1 states, “Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing [our] own clearly and persuasively”.
Through topics such as education and sports, we have launched conversations with clear questions that spark each individual’s reasoning skills. Analyzing essays and then synthesizing them prepares us for these discussions.
Every school across the nation was not forced to hold a Socratic Seminar in the classroom on Tuesday, March 11; however, my teacher implemented the standards in her own creative way — a method her students enjoyed.
Common Core Standards grant us the privilege to learn on the same level as all students in the nation without compromising our freedoms.
