Common Core is a set of standards that outline what children should be able to do at the end of each school year. While it deliberately encourages certain teaching styles and different kinds of problems, it does not tell schools how to do any of that. Probably, the first thing to realize about the Common Core is that it is not a set of math problems. It focuses on testing and implementing a standardized curriculum, which is critical in assessing both teachers’ and learners’ ability to teach and learn, respectively.
However, it is worth noting that the very premise of Common Core is that obsessing over higher test scores and punishing teachers and schools whose children fail to achieve higher test scores is the way to improve children’s education. It seems to be a way to make the education system appear functional. It sets a common test and then education becomes the test result. Nonetheless, I believe that students are being cheated out of quality education and introduction to the working world. It appears only to test the education system and not the students.
Also another premise that drives Common Core is the belief that poor scores on international tests constitute proof that students are falling behind the rest of the world and that economic disaster would result. However, it is yet agreeable that these test scores have little to do with inspiring true creativity, originality, and/or innovation. In the over two decades that such testing enthusiasm has been in effect, the test scores of American students have essentially remained virtually unchanged. The solution proposed by every federal and state administration requires more testing despite the results.