The implementation of Common Core was confronted with praise and admiration, along with rejection and fear. It worked to set national standards for math and English/ language arts that all states could voluntarily apply to their education programs – which most did. Some states saw this act as an overreach of the federal government on the rights and duties of individual states, while most viewed the change simply as an effective way to ensure all students in America were getting a quality education.

The Trump administration has taken an aggressive stance against the national program – citing its “cost-draining” implementation and saying that its primary goal was to take education rights away from communities.

“We’re gonna bring back school choice. We’re putting an end to common core – we’re bringing education local.” (President Donald Trump 9/7/16)

“[Let’s] finally put an end to the madness of common core.” (Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos 12/9/16)

The bipartisan praise for the Common Core initiative comes from a general wanting of young students to have access to the best education opportunities America is able to offer. The rejection stems from teacher unions who have characterized it as a nuisance for teachers to build their curriculums around. In this piece, two teachers working from each of the affected field (math and English) give their take.

Ms. Christina Hunter:

Ms. Hunter, a teacher of Algebra II, PreCalculus, and AP Calculus, presented Common Core through both positive and negative aspects. Foremost, she indicates how the implementation was “rushed” and not executed in the most efficient manner it could have been.

“The idea of every third-grader learning the same math concepts at about the same time of year sounds wonderful but it is extremely hard to accomplish… we were simply expected to start all students of all grades at the same time which made for unfortunate gaps in students’ math knowledge and skills.”

Additionally, Ms. Hunter noted the lacking resources for students that had just been brought into the program. Textbooks, worksheets, and practice problems written by professionals were simply not available for rigorous math courses when Common Core was first enacted.

To contrast, she follows by commending the progress that Common Core has brought. Mainly pointing out how “students have been exposed to higher level math concepts at a much earlier age.” This, she comments, allows more advanced and real-world connections to be made at the high school level of math. To follow, students who started the Common Core curriculum at a younger age she sees as achieving higher performance overall on various exams.

Her one prominent issue was how the program was rolled out; she anticipated a 13 year period to format the standards into the curriculum, as to allow ease for teachers and students. While this did not transpire, she looks forward to teaching students in a few years who started Common Core as kindergarteners; as that was the only math program they’ve ever studied.

Mr. Cary Blocker:    

Mr. Blocker, an adept English teacher, offered a relatively different viewpoint. Speaking of the already high standards that West Hartford implements, he commented that “as a teacher at a high school in West Hartford, Connecticut,” the changes weren’t a terrible burden to implement. For his curriculum, it was hoped that nonfiction wouldn’t necessarily be prioritized over fiction, but would play a demonstrably larger role. This is where he thought much of the panic came from, mentioning how, “a lot of English teachers were saying ‘this is the death of fiction.’” Of course, he continued, it wasn’t.

Another concern he noted lied in how some classes require the same information to be covered year after year. “It’s redundant… with a negative connotation” – the key he promoted for an effective learning environment is to utilize repeated practice, not redundancy.

To close, Mr. Blocker wanted to reiterate how at Hall High School, in West Hartford, Connecticut, these changes to the English program did not have a profound impact. Rather, how Common Core was enacted in other states, states with underdeveloped education programs, easily could have led to complications and angry teachers – but not here.

The broad opinion of the Hall student body is one of indifference. Whether these changes imposed on us were beneficial or not doesn’t matter – we have already been educated by them.