How Common Core Affects Students’ College Readiness

Professor Jason Zimba, the common Core advocate, believes that the common core program helps to prepare students for colleges applicable to them but not colleges that the parents wish. The graduation requirements for common Core are universal, something which the public doesn’t know about.

Common Core supports college and career readiness, and it is highlighted in 640 pages, appearing 60 times in the curriculum and test mandates. Common Core is more than just a national K-12 education program, meaning it impacts all educational levels as was stated by usessay experts. 

But then, did you know that common Core undermines the intellectual growth of the student? In most cases, graduates remain unprepared for college-level work, which is not the case in career training. The reasons include:

Common Core is for high-school seniors- It requires students about to start college (entering into adulthood) to read more nonfiction (70%) and less fiction (30%) while in school. This implies that children start with fiction, and it declines as they advance in their studies.

According to top scholars Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky, they realized that college readiness is likely to decline due to the English curriculum focusing on reading nonfiction information as it reduces literacy traditions. Well, students who are ready for college already have experience with complex terms of literature. There is no connection between informational reading and college readiness.

Again, common Core eliminates the pathways for students to study Algebra 1 while in grade 8. If a student wants to pursue a science or math career field, then taking Algebra 1 in grade 8 is a crucial step.

Statistics show that between 2013 and 2015, teaching Algebra1 in grade 8 declined to 29% from 33%. The reason is that common Core reduces the expected levels of math completion for high school to partially completed Algebra II course. Now, when a student enters college, they have to take other related courses before calculus. According to Sandra Stotsky, the Common Core standards are relatively low since they can’t produce great scientists and engineers.

The Student Succeeds Act states that even universities with outstanding portfolios must admit students at a low-level of preparation to enroll in a credit-bearing program and not remedial coursework. The idea isn’t significant, especially for science programs. It reduces the education quality.

However, we can’t conclude the effects of common Core on high school graduates because most American schools haven’t enrolled in the program. However, few available results are something to worry about. According to Wurman, the overall ACT scores have reduced from 2009, and the trend had been worse in 2015.

Even after David Coleman, the Common Core’s chief architect, tried to revamp the SAT image; the results had many issues.

The outcome of redesigned math problems came out confusing as they were wordy. Students who have challenges interpreting the language faced the rough side. In the end, the doubts about how students are prepared for college to keep on escalating.

The American education policy isn’t for economic and personal development for the entire public to bring out the best citizens. Unfortunately, the Common Core system advocates for career preparedness but not the public’s well-being at large.