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Arcadia Weekly Apr 03, 2014
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AUSD adopts ‘Common Core’
By SHEL SEGAL
The Arcadia Unified School District is now aligned with most of the country.
As the state of California – and the district – have adopted what is known as Common Core, students in Arcadia will be studying subjects at the same time as students in 46 other states, said Jennifer Prince, a teacher on assignment for the district.
Prince said Common Core is meant to help students compete in the 21st century national and global economy.
“Common Core is a backwards vertically aligned standards,” Prince said. “They started with college and career. There was feedback from major colleges saying these kids come out and they’re not prepared for the real world. They’re good test takers, but they don’t have any real life skills.”
Prince also said as Common Core was being developed, it was developed for the higher grades first and worked down from there.
“What they said was if they need to do this in college and career, this is what they need to do at the end of 12th grade and they built backwards,” she said. “Instead of having random standards in each grade, there’s a progression of standards and it’s a more narrow field. You go more deeply into (subjects).”
Prince said each state can make a 15 percent alteration to Common Core to suit its needs and she added while education has primarily been a local item up until now, it needs to change for the benefit of the students.
“We live in a national economy,” she said. “It can’t be enough for this is what’s good for us here locally. What if our kids don’t stay here forever? What if they need to go compete with kids from Harvard and Brown? If you are taking a class in New York or Chicago or Arcadia you’re getting the same education.”
In addition, Prince said students across the country should benefit from Common Core.
“It’s a matter of getting those standards across the board,” she said. “Everybody has the same expectations and it levels the playing field. It gives you the baseline and what kids need to know.”
Common Core will also change the way some subjects are taught, Prince said.
“A lot of it is going away from rote memorization and getting to get the kids to think more about that subject matter,” she said. “With history, for example, it doesn’t matter if you memorize every single date and every single general. What’s important is how it played out.”
(Shel Segal can be reached at ssegal@beaconmedianews.com. He can be followed via Twitter @segallanded.)
