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Caroline Greineder, Connor Schultz, Rachel Latham, Jared Maymon

Ms. Buckless
Writing 104 H
28 April 2016
Common Core: For Better or Worse?
You are a student walking into school, fearful and afraid. But why the fear, and why the
fret? You are worrying dearly about how you will perform on todays standardized test, known as
the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. Does it count as a grade?
No. Does it affect your education directly? Usually not. However, it creates competition for your
school, not for you specifically. It may allow your school to ruin your morning, your day, or your
week in order to compete in a selfish competition. What would have been a normal, peaceful
start to a school day has now been obliterated by the looming menace, the Common Core
Educational System. The Common Core is a set of standards implemented by the United States
government to ensure a quality education for all students from kindergarten to twelfth grade.
These standards dictate what a student should be able to do at the completion of each school
year. In New England, the Common Core changed the yearly standardized test from the NECAP
exam, to the PARCC exam. In turn, the PARCC has dramatically reduced class time due to a
ridiculously long testing period. The Common Core standardized curriculums and forces teachers
to follow specific criteria when teaching a class, which lessens their teaching freedom by
discarding their creativity. Ridiculous standards imposed on teachers by the government will
negatively affect a students education, as many teachers will be too focused on adhering to the
rubric rather than giving their students a meaningful education. For students, the Common Core

does more harm than good, as there is an excessive amount of standardized testing that limits
student creativity while also creating a stressful school environment.
When students take standardized tests, they undergo a variety of behavioral changes.
They become increasingly nervous as the test date approaches. Their attention span begins to
falter. They become short tempered, irritable, and reserved. All of their attention is diverted to the
preparation for their upcoming test. However, these changes are nothing compared to the most
catastrophically altered part of human behavior; creativity. A vital part to childhood
development, creativity allows students to express themselves while diverting their attention
away from the stressful nature of a long day. Children use creativity as a re-charging state,
helping their bodies receive rest while entertaining themselves through their own ideas and
thoughts. But these Common Core tests are altering this important process. Columnist Don Batt
of the Denver Post describes, My wife sat with our 10-year-old grandson to write in their
journals one summer afternoon, and he asked her, "What's the prompt?" (Batt, 1). As shown by
the quote, children are losing their ability to utilize their own creativity. As students grow older,
they become used to being told what to do. Gone is the time when a child could sit down, and
write a short story without any adult instruction. Now, children are being forced under the idea
that the only way they can operate successfully in life is when someone tells them what they
need to do. Not only are they becoming completely reliant upon instruction, but their minds are
also being clouded by the very thought of taking a test, shattering their creative nature with the
powerful effects of stress and fear. What should be an even mix of schoolwork and free time is
now utterly consumed by tests and quizzes--all because of the Common Core system.
Standardized testing, which has been around for many years, not only has an impact on
many students emotions, but also can impact a teacher. In the classroom today, it is necessary

for teachers to adhere to a strict curriculum in order to prepare the students to the best of their
ability for the PARCC. Unfortunately, this test assesses students on a course that they are
currently taking. While this ideally sounds appropriate, there is one issue with this: it is
administered in April. Administering this test in April, causes students and teachers to be
stressed because they have not fully completed the course. In addition to having to watch what
they teach, teachers also have to worry about the performance of their students. Recently, it was
announced that teachers will be assessed based on how their students are performing on this test.
Due to the impact these tests can have on a teacher's position, some teachers around the world
have been accused of cheating in order to keep their job. According to the Washington Post,
over time, the unreasonable pressure to meet annual APS targets led some employees to cheat
on the CRCT. The horrible tactic of cheating is no longer being used only by students, however,
now due to the importance of these tests, teachers feel the need to cheat in order to keep their
positions. Standardized tests cause stress for teachers in their classroom and unfortunately can
lead them to make poor decisions for the security of their job.
While the Common Core Educational system is detrimental and harmful in the eyes of
many, there is certainly an argument for people who are pro-Common Core. The argument is
mostly consisted of factors pertaining to preparation for college, beneficial standardization of
education, and the added ability for schools to compare and contrast themselves to other schools.
When it comes to preparing students for college, Common Core, is not the best way. Common
Core will actually harm students when it comes to preparing for college and the workplace. In
college, classes are less structured and more opinion based; however, Common Core Education
enforces the opposite strategy of keeping classes strict, structured, and fact based. This
methodology is a deterrent to the transitional process for highschool students into a college

environment. To the second point of the standardization of education being beneficial, there are
ups and downs. The beneficial part of standardized education is that children can transition
seamlessly from year to year throughout their common core education. How is that possible?
Because the common core enforces certain classes such as algebra and geometry to not only be
taught, but to be taught a specific way. Surely that does allow for students to transition through
each grade seamlessly, but the trade off is creativity and the individual wants and needs of each
student. If classes are forced into a student, they lose the opportunity to shape their young brains
into what they please by selecting classes that they're more interested in. Additionally since the
Common Core mandated classes are also taught in a specific fashion, it removes the ability for
teachers to teach at their own pace and to cater to the needs of all students. The last counter
argument of those in favor of Common Core Education is that standardized testing allows
teachers and schools to compare themselves to each other and testing averages. It is true that
teachers compare the scores of their students to averages, and the same is true for whole schools
and their student averages; however, these tests not only remove valuable teaching time and
energy, but the results are rarely used to change lesson plans and curriculums considering there is
no way to pinpoint which aspect of the curriculum is inefficient. Ergo, Common Core is
inefficient.
In all, the Common Core will continue to have a detrimental effect on the educational
system of America, particularly impacting standardized testing and creativity. The Common Core
standards are increased pressures not only upon students, but teachers as well to make sure that
their students perform. Unfortunately, these added pressures can inspire some teachers to cheat in
hopes of improving their school test scores and keeping their jobs. Not only does the Common
Core negatively impact standardized testing, but it also destroys the students sense of

individuality. The standards hinder innovation by emphasizing stressful methods of learning, and
downplaying fun activities for students. Now, children utilize their imagination minimally,
become confused when asked to write freely, and are unable to come up with their own activities
to occupy their time. Although the Common Core may have temporary benefits, it has and will
continue to be detrimental to our youth's education.

Work Cited

Batt, Don. "Standardized Tests Are Killing Our Students' Creativity, Desire to Learn." The Denver Post. N.p., 10 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 May 2016.
Strauss, Valerie. "How and Why Convicted Atlanta Teachers Cheated on Standardized
Tests." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Apr.
2016.