The Importance Of The Common Core Initiative

The Common Core initiative is a reform for public schools in an attempt to become unified within their teaching methods, teaching structure and curriculum. Currently, “45 states and the District of Columbia” (Common Core Meets Education Reform 206) have fully implemented the program altering the course of Education as American’s know it. Despite what many believe, the Common Core initiative does not mandate what each school must teach. Common Core outlines skills and knowledge the students should know and develop throughout each grade level from Kindergarten through twelfth grade. The ultimate goal of this reform is to ensure each student is fully prepared for college and the working world. The Common Core initiative is reshaping U.S. schools

The Common Core initiative is unlike traditional methods; it provides students the tools they need to face real-world problems in swiftly and easily. Instead of just mindlessly memorizing the answer, students are now expected to show how they came to the answer. “The Common Core was developed by building on the best state standards in the United States; examining the expectations of other high-performing countries around the world” (Common Core State Standards Initiative 4). Mathematics has encompassed the biggest change seen in this reform. Students now have to understand and explain why a formula works; whereas previously, students could just down a previously memorized answer. In Writing classes, students don’t just compose an essay with just three main points in the introduction and a description of each point in the following paragraphs. With the Common Core initiative, students needs to ask a series of questions to themselves and then proceed to answer them. A big change in Reading class is the now students will be focusing more on nonfiction work. By fourth grade, all students implementing the reform will split their reading 50-50 with fiction and nonfiction. By their senior year in high school, in all subject areas, the readings will be 70 percent nonfiction. All of these changes are for the greater good of education, the United States and it’s