As an introspective and studious high school student at Snohomish Senior High School, I am left to question the quality of my education. After all, I did not participate in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium this first year nor did I have a Common Core education from kindergarten. I am confident in my abilities, in my teacher’s abilities, without a nationwide test telling me so. Time and time again I have seen teachers simply “teaching to the test,” in both Advanced Placement and regular level classes. Common Core is forcing teachers to teach to the test, not to the state standards or what the children need more time learning. A more nationally unified, or “common” education system is not necessary, nor is it healthy for students who may not yet be able to proficiently read.
In Washington alone, many high school juniors refused to participate in the SBAC testing days. Why should students be forced to take even more standardized testing? Why should all schools be required to teach the exactly same thing, when the standards are supposed to be decided at the state level? Ironically, the Pacific Northwesterners like to think of themselves as progressive, but progress constitutes advancement, not regress. Common Core is the essence of relapsing into socialist values and organizations. Yes, public schooling in itself is a socialist program, but forcing students to learn exactly what is on a specific test is crossing the line. A “common” curriculum will not encourage exceptionalism and help our country achieve greatness academically and all around, once again. An “evidence-based” test will not make me any smarter. If anything, it will give me test anxiety that could follow me for years to come, like many elementary level students will have after this year’s SBAC testing anxiety. We were told there was a 60 percent to 70 percent failure rate. How do the makers of the test suppose that will make our upcoming generations feel about themselves? Washington needs mature, confident, contributing members of society, not those who are damaged and self-conscious after years of being told they are not smart enough to even be “common.”
Many are unaware of the cost of implementing Common Core. It takes only a few minutes with Google to find out just how much it will negatively affect our community. Common Core demands millions of dollars to make the switch in each state, with making the curriculum, retraining teachers and replacing textbooks. They are trying to “reinvent the wheel” in subjects, such as math, that have been the same for centuries. There is no reason for this. Education does not need to be made common, it needs to be made exceptional.
Janelle Killen
Snohomish
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