I do believe that income does play a key role in education, however, I don't agree with it. Schools in low income neighborhoods don't recieve the proper funding to provide students with the materials they need to be successful in school, but the students don't score high enough on state tests to earn the school money for these materials; it's a lose lose situation (Barbanel, 2002). For these issues, I believe the lack of government involvment and recognition is the cause of student failure.
Despite all these factors, students should also be held accountable for being successful in school. Even if schools recieve proper funding, materials, and training, it is ultimately up to the student to stay motivated to succeed. From personal experience, I found that it was much easier to stay motivated in classes that I felt engaged in. The classes that teachers made a connection with me in and really knew their stuff were always the classes I had a higher success rate in. I think teacher involvement is a huge deal in school, it makes a student want to go to school, and feel like they belong rather than just going because they have to.
Recently, Maine and fourty-four other states have adopted the new Common Core standards that will make academic standards even higher for kids in grades K-12 (Gallagher, 2013). The purpose of these standards is to increase critical thinking skills and teach students to solve problems on their own. Common Core is designed to allow teachers to be facilitators and students to take responsiblity for their own education. However, as positive and ecouraging as Common Core sounds, experts say that a drop as high as 40% will be seen in the new testing in 2015 (Gallagher, 2013).
____________________________________________________________
BARBANEL, J. (2002, March 31). Elementary and Middle School Report Cards. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://ethemes.pearsoncmg.com/0205405940/article_06/index.html
Ghallagher, N. K. (2013, July 7). Back-to-school means facing tougher academic standards this fall | The Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME. Retrieved from http://www.kjonline.com/news/test-scores-likely-to-drop-under-new-standards_2013-07-20.html
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
I came to this conclusion because at the time when this article was published, the Common Core State Standards were only beginning to be adopted, and had yet to be officially implemented in any state. Throughout the article, the authors’ use of terminology assumes that the reader has an educational background, but familiarity with the Common Core in particular is not necessarily assumed. Assumptions that are made are one’s about the reader’s feelings about standardized testing, classroom differentiation, and about the educational philosophies that any reader might hold in general. Public opinion on the Common Core was mixed at the time -- though professional opinion remained cautiously optimistic, the Common Core were largely untested at the point in time when the article was written. Brooks and Dietz’s article is a testament to that, because despite their stated misgivings, they conclude their article…
- 1567 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
In schools there are many factors that come to play when determining how and what you are learning. Parental involvement helps because it motivates a child to take their work seriously to keep them on their toes, but it is not necessary. Students could go through school by themselves with their own motivation; they believe they could work hard, they believe they will succeed, they believe in the future that lies ahead of them, they believe in themselves, so they will do whatever they can to achieve that, but this is not always the case for every student. Students get or learn the attitude of success and the will of working hard from the atmosphere around them, whether it be constantly positive or constantly negative. Teachers play a big role in a student’s education because that is their job: to teach students, to get them an education.…
- 441 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is the new standard for driving the creation of curriculum. “Moving from the previous state standards to the CCSS requires fundamental shifts in the way teachers teach, the way students learn and are assessed, and the way leaders lead.” (Fratz, 2013)…
- 179 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
The Common Core Curriculum dictates the standards that need to be achieved by students and taught by teachers. The adoption of this curriculum means all should be uniform. Teachers should be teaching the exact same content, relatively at the exact same time. I believe this article brings up a great question; is the underlying objective of the Common Core, to make teachers teach to the test? Many of us believe so. I feel this article points out other issues that have a serious impact on a student’s performance. Poverty is one of the factors mentioned in the article that has an even greater impact to a students learning than memorizing facts would (Krashen, 2014).…
- 188 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
The Common Core State Standards Initiative (also known simply as Common Core) is an educational initiative that details what primary and secondary students should understand at the end of each grade in English Language Arts and Mathematics. Common Core's background dates to the 1990s with the inception of what was known as the "Standards & Accountability Movement," which sought to reform the educational standards upon which students were measured in relation to college and workplace readiness. In 2009, at the behest of the National Governors Association, the Common Core State Standards Initiative was officially introduced as policy. The Obama Administration, using federal 'Race to the Top' grants as an incentive, urged the states to adopt Common Core by August 2, 2010, upon which forty-one states pledged to do so, with four explicitly opting out. In addition to the original four states that chose not to adopt Common Core, eight others have (since 2010) withdrawn, Throughout the course of this essay, I will examine both the pros and cons of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.…
- 646 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
When reading “The Myth of Helplessness” and “What I Learned about School Reform” both articles pointed out very strong points, some very alike and others very different. The article that stood out to me the most was “The Myth of Helplessness” coming from a big city like Houston you see a lot of these issues going on around us. Houston has its poor and wealthy areas, but the education system is not that different. I believe that a school’s poor performance is really based on the people who run the school. I come from a High school that is pointed out to be one of the “worst” in my district. Yet, my class took home about two millions worth of athletic and academic scholarships. “The difficulties caused by social problems have become an excuse…
- 535 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Preparing students to be college bound as well as become model citizens are some of the goals Sunshine elementary has for its students. In an effort to achieve these goals there are times in which changes are necessary. Sunshine has decided to implement Common Core Standards beginning the new school year. To discuss the implementation, there is a mandatory staff meeting on Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 3:30pm in the multi-purpose room. The agenda is as shown:…
- 740 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Now in our society, the demands and expectation for students to have a higher education and be more advance has elevated. Students should be able to mastered their basic course like Math and English which leds to the question whether Common core should be considerate in student’s education from K-12 grades. Common core develop a set of standard that every students should exceeds or at least met. This allowed the students to see where they are placed and what they needs to improve on. However, many people, especially parents oppose the idea of Common Core. They dislike the facts that parents ’t able to help their child who is struggling on their homework. The debate about this issue has been getting hotter ever since the state education chiefs and the governors had developed the Common Core.…
- 879 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Common Core’s website, corestandards.org, states that, “The standards are designed to build upon the most advanced current thinking.” If the Common Core State Standards are building on the most advanced thinking minds in schools, are any children besides the most advanced going to excel? How will any but the smartest students educate themselves with these standards? Any type of education is meant to improve both those who struggle and also those with advanced minds. Many students learn at a different pace than others and endorsing the same standards for all states will mismanage the rate of education.…
- 523 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
On the other hand, the Common Core Standards are intended to do just that, which in my opinion do not benefit our students. The Common Core Standards were created for standardized tests that are not accurate in analyzing students’ knowledge. I believe with the Common Core Standards, teachers are only teaching what the students need to know to graduate high school. By doing this, students are not able to take the skills acquired and apply it to everyday life. A change should definitely be implemented with the Common Core Standards. The standards ought to be significantly parallel to the NCSS and Mississippi Social Studies…
- 835 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Before Common Core children were drilled with information that might not pertain to them. Common Core gives a enriched understanding of curriculum. Implicating that students are given the opportunity to truly learn the material through fun interactive activities that the teacher provides. Writing is an important skill for students to develop, following Common Core Standards allow the children to write about real world situations that pertain to them and that will affect them in the future. This intrigues students to write according to Hall (2015). Murat Akkus (2016), suggest that Common Core Standards has helped math skills within the classroom. Math tends to be difficult, thus Common Core suggest guidelines that the teacher may follow. Test scores that tend to be tough for student, follow with results on how well Common Core standards are doing in the classroom.…
- 789 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
The Common Core State Standards are learning goals made to help students be prepared for college, the job field, and their life (“Read the Standards”). The Common Core seeks to lower the achievement gap, which is a gap that happens when one group…
- 1171 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
According to CommonCoreStandards.org the Common Core Standards is a “state-led effort to develop consistent, real-world learning goals” in an “effort to ensure all students, regardless of where they live, are graduating high school prepared for college, career, and life.” A contributing factor to the initiative of the Common Core Standards was that although each state “developed and adopted its own learning standards” there was no unification between states on what a “sufficiently educated” student consisted of at the time of graduation.…
- 643 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Strauss talks about how there is a gap between the Core standards in school and what colleges and professors consider important for the curriculum (Strauss, 2016). However, the scholarly article In Defense of the Common Core Standards by Joshua Bleiberg and Darrell West talks about how Common Core is setup to define what all students are expected to know and be able to do. Common Core sets standards that every student should know how to do before they continue onto the next grade. The Core standards are not set up to tell the teachers how they should…
- 1307 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
The second party that plays the ultimate role is the family. The family factor in my school include lack of guidance or parental supervision, domestic violence, poverty,…
- 944 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays