For my English Comp 2 class, I chose Common Core for one of the two major research papers. This paper was actually pretty fun to research, because it was about education in Oklahoma. I already knew, after moving here and seeing the step-daughter's school system is one of the worst school systems I have ever personally seen....
The fact is, Oklahoma ranks extremely low in its education and it shows. If something isn't done to fix this runaway state government, we'll find that Oklahoma will be dragging the entire state down into the abyss of uneducation.... Anyways, here's the research paper, hope you enjoy it!
According to
Ballotpedia, “The Common Core State Standards Initiative, is an American
education initiative that outlines quantifiable benchmarks in English-language
arts and mathematics at each grade level from kindergarten through high school.” It was assembled in 2009 by the National
Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers with the
intent of college and career readiness (Common Core
State Standards Initiative) . No matter what anyone has to say on the issue
of Common Core, essentially everyone agrees that the U.S. needs a better
education system. Nowhere is that more
apparent than Oklahoma.
In the 2015 report
from the Education Week Research Center that tracks the entire nation and
grades all the key statistics, we can see exactly how Oklahoma stacks up to the
rest of the nation. Honestly, the stats
themselves do nothing but damn Oklahoma’s education standards. There is no light at the end of the tunnel
and every single stat is disheartening to say the least. The stats, though, in a way show one of the
things going on in the state, such as the state being ranked 48th in
family income and 44th in parent education (Oklahoma Earns a D-Plus on State Report
Card, Ranks 48th in Nation) . To save the state, something important
obviously needs to happen.
Remember that
ranking of 44th in parent education for a moment. One of the arguments put forth in the
Oklahoma House Rules Committee pointed towards schools not being able to select
different textbooks, outside of the standard curriculum textbooks. One blogger honestly said it was that reason
that she became a homeschooling mom (Seven Reasons
Why Common Core Repeal in Oklahoma Isn't) . In fact, one of the arguments against Common
Core was that the federal government was trying to take over public schools (Turner) .
The fight over
Common Core in Oklahoma was more political than anything else and it got ugly
with the teachers and students being left out in the cold, literally. Cory Turner, a reporter at NPR, used the
image of the hundreds of students and educators standing outside of the Capitol
in Oklahoma City, huddling in blankets, for the Christmas tree lighting before
quoting Steve Glenn, a high school principle.
"We didn't oppose the Core, I mean, we were ready for the change,
and then it didn't change. And now we're back. Stick with something; let's go
with it. Tell us what we need to do, and we're ready to do it" (Turner) .
And Oklahoma did say
what to do . . . nothing. They voted to
repeal Common Core, hands down, and with that, Govenor Mary Fallin confidently
said, “We are capable of developing our own Oklahoma academic standards that
will be better than the Common Core.”
What they replaced Common Core with were the standards they had
before. The Priority Academic Students
Skills, or PASS, was developed in the late 1990s, and was not validated by
Oklahoma’s own universities (Marchitello) . Because of this, Oklahoma then had to fight
for the money from the government they so vilified to begin with. It would have cost the state as much as $165
million. Luckily, Oklahoma was able to
gain its flexibility waiver, which exempted the state from requiring all
students to meet or exceed the state’s proficiency level, of which only 160
schools out of 1800 did (Paxton) . As it stands, Oklahoma has until 2016 to
develop new standards that will be subject to legislative review (Public
Education in Oklahoma) .
In Mississippi, the
fight over Common Core rages ever on.
However, their law makers are taking a more proactive approach. One of the biggest anti-Common Core State
Senators notes that parts of the initiative are worth defending. The parts that are not worth defending can be
replaced with out-of-state standards, such as English standards from California
and Math standards from Massachusetts, both of which ranked higher than Common
Core itself (Coz) . Mississippi actually ranks lower than
Oklahoma on the same Education Week Research Center report, coming in at the
lowest rank of 51st. Yet
oddly, the state ranks in the top ten with their standards (Northway) . It shows the willingness to try, unlike
Oklahoma which took the huge step backwards.
Common Core itself
is a great concept. The idea to have a
standardized education across the nation so that no one state is worse than any
other can only be described as brilliant.
The sheer fact that no one really attacks the standards themselves as
being weak partly points to what the real issue is, politics. No matter how much it is currently failing,
Oklahoma was vehement that the federal government should not be involved in
their state procedures, putting “more power into the hands of federal
bureaucrats who want to control everything from D.C.” (BREAKING:
Oklahoma Overwhelmingly Repeals Common Core) . Some people who are against Common Core even
lump the amazingly philanthropic Bill Gates into the “evils” considering he
gave Tulsa Public Schools a large grant for creating “College and Career
Readiness” (Seven Reasons
Why Common Core Repeal in Oklahoma Isn't) .
Since when did
preparing students for college and careers become such a horrible term? Common Core mainly focuses on Math and
English, creating standards that, at face value, show great concepts that
students need to learn, such as speaking and listening, keyboarding, making
sense of problems and perseverance in solving them, and constructing viable
arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others (Common Core
State Standards Initiative) . Even the ACT and SAT have been redesigned to
fit in with what is taught through Common Core (Seven Reasons
Why Common Core Repeal in Oklahoma Isn't) . Standardized curriculum for a test that has
been standardized for a very long time.
The fact is,
education has been broken for a very long time and no one seems to get it more
than those that drive the culture of the country, comedians. George Carlin famously said that the “’owners
of the country’ do not want a population capable of critical thinking, they
want obedient workers. People just smart
enough to run machines and do the paperwork, yet dumb enough to accept what is
truly going on” (Bonser) . Common Core does not go far enough to prepare
people for college, but it is the only step available in the right direction,
trying to get education across the U.S. on the same page. It is a shame it does not work on arts and
sciences, but a step in the right direction is at least a step in the right
direction.
Oklahoma has never
looked more ignorant as they have in these recent months with their treatment
of education, and sadly it does not look to be getting any better anytime
soon. In their own press release on
gaining the waiver for the 2014-15 school year, the state mentioned that it
would probably reapply for the waive for the next school year (U.S. Department
of Education restores Oklahoma’s No Child Left Behind Flexibility Waiver for
remainder of school year) . This does nothing but put Oklahoma students
on the backburner, and not getting them ready for a future that is rapidly
coming. How many Oklahoma students will
graduate under standards made 25 years ago as the rest of the country moves
forward? Even the Assistant Secretary
for Elementary and Secondary Education is quoted in that same press release, “While
the (US Department of Education) decision certainly allows districts and
schools to breathe a little easier, this reinstatement cannot be misinterpreted
as a concession to low expectations, Oklahoma should forge ahead with creating
stronger academic standards and shoring up a system of true accountability” (U.S. Department
of Education restores Oklahoma’s No Child Left Behind Flexibility Waiver for
remainder of school year) . But will they?
Works Cited
- Bonser, Dan. "The Absence of Creativity in the Classroom is Killing the Future." 16 March 2015. A Brainless Nod. Web. 16 March 2015.
- "BREAKING: Oklahoma Overwhelmingly Repeals Common Core." 24 May 2014. Conservative Tribune. Web. 25 April 2014.
- "Common Core State Standards Initiative." n.d. BallotPedia. Web. 20 April 2015.
- Coz, Emily Le. "Common Core foe says some standards OK, bill bans all." 26 February 2015. The Clarion-Ledger. Web. 25 April 2014.
- Layton, Lyndsey. "Oklahoma wins back its No Child Left Behind waiver." 24 November 2014. The Washington Post. Web. 20 April 2015.
- Marchitello, Max. "After Oklahoma Rejects Common Core, Replacement Standards Rejected For Failing To Prepare Students." 28 August 2014. ThinkProgress. Web. 20 April 2015.
- Northway, Wally. "Report ranks state schools’ performance 51st in the nation." 9 January 2014. Mississippi Business Journal. Web. 29 April 2015.
- "Oklahoma Academic Standards." 5 March 2015. OK.gov. Web. 20 March 2015.
- "Oklahoma Earns a D-Plus on State Report Card, Ranks 48th in Nation." 2 January 2015. Education Week. Web. 2015 April 2015.
- Paxton, Seth. "Oklahoma fights back after feds pull education funding over Common Core." 26 November 2014. Fox News. Web. 20 April 2015.
- Porter, Caroline. "Oklahoma Denied Education Waiver." Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition 29 August 2014: A5. Article.
- "Public Education in Oklahoma." 2015. BallotPedia. Web. 20 April 2015.
- Robson, Nate. "State Ranks Among Worst in Education Outcomes Report." 7 January 2015. Oklahoma Watch. Web. 20 April 2015.
- "Seven Reasons Why Common Core Repeal in Oklahoma Isn't." 22 October 2014. Restore Oklahoma Public Education. Web. 25 April 2015.
- Turner, Cory. "Common Core Repeal, The Day After." 30 December 2014. nprEd. Web. 20 April 2015.
- "U.S. Department of Education restores Oklahoma’s No Child Left Behind Flexibility Waiver for remainder of school year." 24 November 2014. OK.gov. Web. 20 April 2015.
- Wallender, Jennifer. "The Common Core State Standards in American Public Education: Historical Underpinnings and Justifications." Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin 80.4 (Summer2014): 7-11. Article.
- "What is Common Core?" n.d. Stand. Web. 20 April 2015.
