As the school year starts, education in California and across the nation is steadily changing to adapt to Common Core, a set of standards that seeks to unify materials, philosophies and assessments for all participating states by 2015.
Previously, different states had their own educational standards. That meant states such as California and Massachusetts had high standards while other states sometimes did not, resulting in a wide variation in what students learned by the time they graduated.
As a solution to balancing the standards of all schools across the country, Common Core standards are now adopted by 45 states.
Common Core aims to prepare students for the “real” world after formal education by integrating technological skills with its academic teachings. The curriculum of one subject may have traces of other subjects in it; a Spanish language class, for example, may have to interpret graphs of the demography of Spain a few centuries ago.
Language department head Arnaldo Rodriguex said that his department is steadily moving toward Common Core, starting with concepts and textbooks.
“We have changed our textbooks for our French and Spanish classes, and they are already aligned with Common Core,” Rodriguex said.
Rodriguex also said the Spanish teachers posted Common Core standards in their classrooms. Integration of other subjects have already happened, with themes of global challenges, inventions and advertising and marketing in the Spanish curriculum, just to name a few.
Meanwhile, math department head Debra Troxell said math teachers have already started integrating the Common Core standards into classes such as Algebra 2.
Troxell said that half of the curriculum changes in Algebra 2 were made in preparation for an upcoming Common Core test.
However, according to Troxell, the calculus and statistics curriculums will not really change because calculus’s main goal will still be to prepare for the AP test in May, and the probability and data gathering of Common Core are already in statistics.
Assessments will also be changing. According to assistant principal Kevin Mount, the new testing system will have all students using computers and receive multimedia input from a variety of sources. They will also be doing more writing in the new tests.
Mount said Common Core testing will ultimately replace the current STAR tests, but many of the details remain to be worked out.
After all the difficulties of the transition are settled, Rodriguex thinks that Common Core will ultimately benefit the students.
“I think that [Common Core] will connect all the classes together, and the connections will make students more well rounded,” Rodrigeux said.
Troxell agrees that Common Core will provide benefits, but said that the transition period will be difficult.
“My feelings are that there’s a lot of good things about Common Core,” Troxell said. “When we get through the transition period, it’ll be good. However, it will be a rough couple of years for middle schools, high schools and everybody as we get adjusted.”
