The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction in Grades 6–12

This section deals with how English Language Arts teachers are to implement the Common Core State Standards in the best way possible. Contrary to negative opinion, the Common Core Standards aren’t as restrictive as they have been vilified to seem. The actually merely provide a set of general standards that teachers are to implement when carefully and creatively crafting their own curriculum. Teachers are to “implement the Common Core State Standards in light of the best thinking and research on the teaching of English.”

The Standards were adopted during Obama’s administration, after Bush’s No Child Left Behind: A program where states created their standards individually. The big problems with that were that we had some states doing a much better job than others: a growing disparity between the educational success of each state. Also, there were still many high school students who lacked the abilities and skills to be successful in college. ‘The hope of Common Core State Standards is that a more consistent set of goals across states will make standards-based reform more effective.” This would significantly help resolve issues like that of high school students being unprepared for college. The general population views the standards as “a way of holding adults in the system accountable to the children they are education.” With a certain set of standards across the board, the desired result is the same and it is a much more effective system in checking the success of not only the administration but also implemented programs and teaching practices.

A fear is that a set of standards will create a problem with keeping up with the times and continual improvement in technology and changing of 21^st century needs. However, “The Partnership for 21^st century skills has proposed a curriculum framework that identifies the importance of 21^st century learning areas, including life and career skills, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, technology and information/media literacy. This curriculum framework will also help to keep Common Core State Standards in check and as current as possible. I would see this as more beneficial than a state by state standards program, which could easily have states fall behind with antiquated programs and strategies.