Common Core Standards and the Alabama Course of Study

Common Core Standards and the Alabama Course of Study (ALCOS)

Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University

Common Core Standards and the Alabama Course of Study (ALCOS)

“America is falling behind in educational achievement among industrialized nations” is a statement whose origin I am unsure of but have been hearing for most of my life. Educational standards vary from state to state just as teacher certification procedures vary. It is my opinion before researching the issue that Common Core standards were developed in order to unify educational standards among states and to increase the achievement of students in the United States when compared to other nations.

The Common Core is what students need to know and be able to do, and curriculum is how students will learn it. The Common Core State Standards are educational standards for English language arts (ELA)/literacy and mathematics in grades K-12. States led the development of the Common Core State Standards. In 2009, state leaders, including governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, two territories and the District of Columbia, came together and decided to develop common, college- and career-ready standards in mathematics and English language arts. They worked through their membership organizations – the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) –  to accomplish this. The development process included defining expectations for what every child should know and be able to do when they graduate from high school and then creating content standards for grades K-12 aligned with these expectations. States relied on workgroups of educators, representatives of higher education and other experts to write the standards with significant input from the public in 2009 and 2010. States then appointed a validation committee to review the final standards. The federal government was not involved in the development of the standards. The final standards were published in June 2010 and available for each state to review, consider and voluntarily adopt.

With the advent of increased standardized testing with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

Initiative of George W. Bush and further reforms by Barack Obama, there has been an emphasis on teachers’ performance being measured by the performance of students on standardized tests. In the era of No Child Left Behind, teachers were encourage to “teach the test.” Skills that were not tested fell to the wayside. For example, cursive writing is not tested so it was removed from curriculum in some states. After NCLB there began a push for a common set of standards in English Language Arts and Math.

The main controversies with Common Core are (1) the speed in which the standards were developed, (2) were teachers involved in the development, (3) this is another attempt to blame teachers for the failures in the education system, (4) parents were confused, and (5) would this involve more standardized testing of students who are already over-tested?

Although Alabama initially adopted the Common Core Standards in accordance with an agreement in 2009, in 2013, mainly because of the controversy surround Common Core, Alabama sought to distance the State from the Common Core by developing the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS). Alabama’s standards remain nearly 100% in compliance with the Common Core. As a math teacher I was puzzled by CCRS because every CCRS standard was a renaming of a specific Common Core Standard. I did some research and learned that Alabama renamed the standards CCRS in an effort to distance itself from Common Core while retaining the vestiges of Common Core.

Common Core remains a divisive issue as people do not understand the process. At first I was resistant but as I explored the standards and ways to approach the standards it was evident to me that Common Core require higher order thinking rather than rote memorization of facts. It was interesting to me that many of the Common Core methods aligned with the way my Daddy taught us to do basic concepts; mental math, etc.

As an educator I appreciate having a common set of standards. As students transfer from different systems and even different states, I have observed the ease in continuing concepts with students from states who employed Common Core Standards. As we educators become better trained on Common Core and how to break down standards into meaningful lessons our students will be more engaged and parents will be more invested.

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