Beginning in the 2014-2015 school year, before every student can don a cap and gown and walk the stage for their diploma, they must sit down and pass a graduation exam. This exam, part of the new Common Core Standards, is meant to standardize what students learn from state to state. Individual states choose whether or not to adopt these standards, but Governor Jay Nixon signed Missouri onto the initiative in August 2009. According to http://www.corestandards.org/, 45 states have adopted the standards already.
Dr. Michael Havener, principal, began to hear about the Common Core Standards about three years ago and thinks it is a good idea. According to Havener, Missouri takes some of the hardest EOCs in the nation and scores well on them, but when compared to the scores other states get on their exams, Missouri falls in the middle. With the Common Core test, as Michael Gavin, senior principal, put it, apples will be compared to apples.
“Common Core will put us more on an even playing field,” Havener said.
The two main standards in this assessment are math and English. For math, students will be expected to persevere through problems, support their methods for solving problems and critique the mathematical reasoning of others. The English standards focus on reading and writing in areas including science and social studies. Speaking and listening are also focuses, according to http://www.corestandards.org/. Gavin, who put together the power point on the Common Core Standards to present to the PTO, said some people are concerned that local control to write their own curriculum is being taken away from the schools.
“We want to make sure we’re being wise about the curriculum. Common Core isn’t really changing what we teach, but how we teach [the lessons] ,” Gavin said. “Teachers are excited because it gives them freedom, but they’re also nervous because it’s pressure to have to prepare their students for this test.”
Students can begin attempting to pass the test their sophomore year, and can continue to retake it until they get a passing grade. However, there are some concerns about implementation of the new Common Core Standards, according to Havener. The main concern is that Missouri is already having trouble paying to administer the EOCs, and lawmakers worry about how implementing the Common Core tests–writing, proctoring and grading them–will be afforded. But Gavin believes the Common Core Standards and test will change several times before they are correct and before the administration of it runs smoothly.
“Do I think the [common core] standards are gospel? No,” Gavin said. “I think over time we’ll see what’s right, what’s not right, and make adjustments.”
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