Common Core State Standards

The CCSS in my opinion are a step in the right direction.  Making a set of goals that is readily available and easy to relate with subject material will undoubtedly create accountability for teachers across the board.  My goal is to be very familiar with each goal so that I can see where they fall with lessons, readings, or coursework.  Each goal is a very narrow and specific goal, which will be easy to incorperate into a lesson.  The coursework and goals for the specific grade levels are mapped out and easy to read.  The introduction to secondary education goals even gives concise goals.  Students " are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades"(CCSS).

The CCSS creates a level of continuity for the education system across the US.  The simple goals for each content area give all teachers milestones and goals that they know every other teacher is following.  While CCSS may or may not be a step in the right direction, it is a step that the US education system is taking together.  Working together on education and using the same standards across the board will create accountability for all educators.

The one thing that truly stood out to me was how similar each content area was with its goals.  Each of the content areas had ten goals each, and all goals are largely similar.  The content areas in the sub categories are even the same throughout every content area.  They all have key ideas and details, craft and structure, integration of knowledge and ideas, and range of reading and level of text complexity.  This will make it easier for teachers to transition goals and determine what needs to be taught.  Each teacher that learns the CCSS knows that they have to incorporate these four sub categories, and within each sub category the actual goals are largely similar.  A goal for 6th grade literature is "Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone" and the corresponding Informational Text goal is "Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings" (CCSS).  As we can see, there isn't much different about the two goals.  They have the same common goal, but branch out a tiny bit depending on the larger goal.  This makes learning and memorizing the goals that much easier because you know what goal 6 is for literature, and now you have a fairly good idea of what goal 6 is for every other content area in English.  This ease will help teachers and allow them to seamlessly transition between content while using goals that are largely similar rather than changing content areas while having to completely change goals.  CCSS makes understanding and knowing goals much better for teachers, and when teachers are comfortable with the goals they are teaching, the student prospers also.