Good and bad, for both students and teachers.
The biggest issue is that it was adopted for all grades immediately. My wife teaches seventh graders and has had to to abandon some parts of it because the kids just haven't learned to think that way. I think starting from pre-K and growing up with it won't be much of a problem. They should have rolled it out that way to begin with. Start in kindergarten and then roll it in grade by grade as they go. I don't think Common Core is the big scary monster everyone thinks it is. It's just different methods with a general standard of what should be taught at what age. Nothing wrong with that. The biggest issue is the testing. Well it's the testing to see where the kids are to get ready for bench mark tests, which are tests to see what they need to do to get ready for the main test. Not to mention the state tests along the way. Pearson and other companies are making a killing off selling this crap to the schools. It handicaps your teachers into teaching toward tests, instead of teaching and then testing to see what the kids have learned. It's what happens when people who have never taught think they know what is needed to fix the education system. They run it like a business. Here are the definitive results we want and here's how we're going to get them. Great for widget makers, banks, etc. Terrible for education in which there is really no tangible output and there are no earnings to analyze. You can't quantify knowledge, especially when you are working with kids from all kinds of family structures and economic levels. The current system treats each kid like the same input when that is just so far from the case. So what they've done is made it near impossible for teachers to actually spend the time to connect with the students and figure out how to teach each one. There is probably a little more freedom for this at a private shcool, but in the end it actually is about income and expenses, so there can quite a bit more opportunities and in public schools. This obviously isn't true across the board, but anecdotaly, I wouldn't pull my kid out of the Northwest or Brandon zones to go to Hartfield. So... don't be afraid of Common Core, be wary of the testing. I figure the most important thing I can do as a parent is let my child discover his own way, nurture that, and be there to help when he needs it. I may not be able to get the answers, but as long as I show that I'm willing to put the effort into his education then maybe he will do the same. And you will also be surprised with most of the teachers. They absolutely welcome any parent who puts in an effort to understand what their child is learning and what is being taught. What they don't like is never hearing from you until little Billy has a D average and you blame them for not knowing how to teach. And that covered a lot... mostly ramblings because it flashed me forward two years to when my little guy will be off to kindergarten. Wish time would slow down!
