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Heritage Foundation
Common Core
Does Not Prepare Students for College, New Report Finds
Mary Clare Reim
June 14, 2016
A recently released report confirms what Common Core critics have
suspected all along: Common Core State Standards do not adequately
prepare students for college-level work.
The ACT report finds many concerning shortcomings in the Common Core
State Standards, which have been adopted by most states. Notably, the
report reveals:
“While secondary teachers may be focusing on source-based writing
[essays written about source-based documents], as emphasized in the
Common Core, college instructors appear to value the ability to
generate sound ideas more than some key features of source-based
writing.
“Some early elementary teachers are still teaching certain math topics
omitted from the Common Core standards, perhaps based on the needs—real
or perceived—of students entering their classrooms.
“In addition, many mathematics teachers in grades 4–7 report including
certain topics relevant in STEM coursework in their curricula at grades
earlier than they appear in the Common Core.”
Teachers who must adjust their curriculum to fit Common Core aligned
state tests now find themselves in a bind. As the report finds, the
Common Core math standards do not adequately provide a child with the
skills needed to succeed in the classroom, forcing teachers to add on
extra material to their limited instruction time.
Additionally, high school English teachers must now emphasize material
that leaves students lacking in original thought and analytical skills,
according to many college professors. For example, only 18 percent of
college professors surveyed rated their students as prepared to
distinguish between opinion, fact, and reasoned judgement—a skill
determined to be important for college-level work.
The “one-size-fits-all” national standards are underserving American
children. It is nearly impossible, and does a great disservice to
future generations, to demand uniformity and place restrictions on the
classroom that assumes one “best practice.”
Each child’s unique abilities require variation in teaching styles and
curriculums. Common Core limits a parent’s say in their child’s
curriculum, making the possibility of an education suited to his needs
a near impossibility. Unfortunately, this report indicates that in an
attempt to create uniform standards for achievement, Common Core fails
to create the building blocks necessary to prepare aspiring students
for college-level work.
The Heritage Foundation’s Lindsey Burke and Jennifer Marshall predicted
the unintended consequences of Common Core in 2010:
It is unclear that national standards would establish a target of
excellence rather than standardization, a uniform tendency toward
mediocrity and information that is more useful to bureaucrats who
distribute funding than it is to parents who are seeking to direct
their children’s education.
Education isn’t mentioned in the U.S. Constitution; it is
quintessentially a state and local issue. Common Core forces uniformity
on America’s ingenious system of federalism—which decentralizes power
and allows different, but finely attuned policies to serve communities.
Yet initiatives like Common Core—and other efforts before it to
establish national standards and tests—reinforce a misalignment of
power and incentives, forcing states to respond to the demands of
bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., instead of being responsive to the
needs of families.
Correcting that misalignment will come by infusing education choice
throughout K-12 education, by ensuring every child can access options
like vouchers, tuition tax credit scholarships, and education savings
accounts in order to be able to finance education options that fit
their unique learning needs.
Instead of more centralization, which further removes parents from the
decision-making process, states should fully exit Common Core and work
to create choices for every family. Restoring parental control of
education is essential to establishing truly high standards.
Reach this article and more at The Daily Signal
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