1.12 Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (2010)
National Governors’ Association
If you recently graduated from high school, chances are that your entire K–12 experience took place in what historians may someday call the “age of standardization.” It’s easy to forget that until the 1990s, the federal government—and even individual states, for that matter—left many curricular matters of choice to the discretion of local school districts. For better or worse, in the last generation, education has become much more standardized across the United States. We have witnessed a staggering increase in the volume and frequency of standardized testing. Despite being a set of standards itself, the Common Core State Standards is in many ways a reaction to the first wave of standardization ushered in by the No Child Left Behind legislation in 2001. It’s an attempt to open up a discussion in the disciplines about how best to align curricula across grade levels and disciplines. For our purposes, it’s included here as a twenty-first-century update to some of the other educational readings in this chapter (The New England Primer Improved from the nineteenth and the First Year Book from the twentieth century), and it’s meant to sit alongside the final reading in this chapter, an equally contemporary effort to outline reading, writing, and critical thinking standards for undergraduate college students.
Before You Read
In a journal or blog entry, describe the fundamental differences, in your opinion, among elementary, middle, and high school levels of instruction in language arts.
In a journal or blog entry, describe the fundamental differences, in your opinion, among elementary, middle, and high school levels of instruction in a discipline (subject area) of your choice.
Research the history of No Child Left Behind, and explore the role of the National Governors’ Association in setting educational standards. Is this issue an example of an age-old dispute between federal and state government, or is it an example of a new kind of cooperation?
Selected Reading
Go to http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf to access the PDF of the entire document. After reading the eight-page introduction, survey the rest of the sixty-six-page document to read about the common core standards for language arts across all grade levels and, as directed by your instructor or by your own interest, additional subject areas in the final section of the document.
Source: Common core state standards for English language arts & literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. (2010). Corestandards.org. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf
After You Read
What sort of stake do governors and legislators have in public education? How might their goals for education affect the kinds of standards they create?
Review closely page 7 of the document, which outlines the characteristics of “Students Who Are College and Career Ready in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language.” What do you think of the seven characteristics listed? What might be missing from this list? Write up an eighth characteristic, based on your experiences thus far with college-level coursework.
Compare the kindergarten and first-grade-level standards with those outlined in The First Year Book or suggested in the New England Primer Improved earlier in this chapter.
Identify specific examples of added expectations for K–12 students as a result of modern technology. How have standards changed as a result of the Information Age?