Parents In Support of Higher Standards

Parents can be among the most powerful advocates for high academic standards for their children. Every parent wants his or her child to succeed both in school and in life, and these parent voices recognize the critical importance of higher standards in achieving that success.

What’s your problem with Common Core?

By Melody Arabo, 2014-15 Michigan Teacher of the Year Blog

January 5, 2015

“As a parent myself, I empathize with [parent concerns about the Common Core State Standards] because no one wants to struggle to help their own children. No one wants to take a longer route to solve a problem when a shorter one is at their disposal. Most importantly, no one wants to see their child wrestle with a concept that just doesn’t come naturally for them. As a teacher, though, I know that this transition is important as we dig deeper into concepts and teach children the value of the little voice inside their heads. Too many generations have been out of touch with the complexity of our thought processes. We know how to do things but do we know why they work?”

And,

“Yes, Common Core is different than the way we learned, but shouldn’t we celebrate that and see it as progression? Yes, it is awkward for kids to explain their thinking, but don’t we want them to be aware of their thought processes and understand the importance of metacognition? Yes, it is harder to help our kids with their homework, but should we really be helping them as much as we feel like we need to? 

“Kids are very capable of meeting our expectations, but most of the time, our expectations are way too low. We don’t want them to struggle, so we spoon-feed them exactly what they need to be successful. We get anxious if they have to solve problems on their own, so we solve as much as we can for them. We anticipate that they are too young to understand, so we don’t even bother to try and teach them. We have limited our kids to learning at the surface, giving them just enough to get by without ever letting them dig deeper. Common Core is our opportunity to change that. Our old standards were a mile wide and an inch deep and the new standards are just the opposite. Let’s take this opportunity to add rigor to our day. Let’s give kids a chance to think deeply and persevere in their learning.”

Uniform standards will help DODEA students

By Bennie E. Williams, Stars and Stripes

December 29, 2014 

“Under the standards, teachers are encouraging students to really dig deep and problem-solve in new and more challenging ways. And instead of teaching things in isolation and moving on, they are able to spend more time on a topic to ensure that the students have a strong grasp and have really mastered the concepts.

“Having consistent, rigorous standards is especially beneficial to children in military families, who typically attend six to nine different schools during their K-12 school years and are frequently burdened by variations in school standards. For example, a student could master the skills and knowledge to progress from the fifth to the sixth grade in one state, then find himself far behind his classmates when he started sixth grade in a new school in the new state.

“I know these challenges from personal experience. My family moved 17 times during my military service. My children did a great job adapting to new school environments, but they also had to work extra hard to catch up and learn content that was not covered by their previous schools.”

And,

“The new standards and assessments will not magically turn things around overnight. But rigorous standards and aligned assessments are a solid part of the solution for educating our children, which is essential for not just their future, but also our future national security.”

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Achieve has developed materials to help states, districts, and others understand the organization and content of the standards and the content and evidence base used to support the standards. Visit www.achieve.org/achieving-common-core.  

If you find a news clip supportive of the Common Core, please send it to Chad Colby at ccolby@achieve.org.