Summary:
Diane Ravitch, author of "The Biggest Fallacy of the Common Core Standards," discusses her opinion of the new standards in her article on huffingtonpost.com. She uses an easy and straightforward tone to describe all of the obvious, yet not recognized, down sides to the Common Core State Standards. Some of these include the fact that nobody has proven that the CCSS will in fact accomplish what it claims, and that the 45 states that have adopted the Common Core were tempted by federal funds for their schools. She goes on to describe the statistics of students who were able to pass testing under the CCSS, "Only 3.2 percent of English language learners were able to pass the new tests, along with only 5 percent of students with disabilities, and 17 percent of black students." She wraps up her article by pointing out how confused the priorities of the United States are if they think that the CCSS will accomplish anything that it claims to accomplish.
Opinion:
The first thing that came to mind while reading a sentence in this article, "If you listen to the promoters of the Common Core standards, you will hear them say that the Common Core is absolutely necessary to prepare students for careers and college" was that current students of College, and students who have graduated from college and are now successful in their careers, have succeeded without the help of the Common Core State Standards; in fact, the ones who will be teaching students these new standards, have already graduated without them. I have to say, I completely agree with the authors opinion. She is very blunt in what she has to say and describes the Common Core from a point of view that I had not seen until now. Our priorities for our students ARE completely out of line, and the CCSS needs to focus on making schooling more efficient rather than more challenging. Like the author said, these standards will drive students away rather than encourage them to face the challenge of the new testing standards.
I thought that this was a very good summary of the article and you were able to tell the author's feelings about the CCSS through the words used. I also liked your opinion section. The most meaningful sentence to me was "current students of college, and students who have graduated from college are now successful in their careers, have succeeded without the help of the CCSS." I highly agree with this. I also like how you went on to say that the people who will be teaching these standards graduated without them themselves.That is true and makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteThis summary was very detailed and specific. After I read this summary it reminded me that I wanted to look more into this article. The points that the author makes are very relatable to our major as well. Therefore, I completely agree with your opinion on this topic and believe that it is important to remember that we were students in elementary school at one point in time and we passed, and are doing fine in our futures. I really liked the points you made in your opinion and thought that it accurately explained what the author was trying to get across.
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