Article Rebuttal
John Alton
BCOM 275
Dec. 22, 2014
Lileen Coulloudon

Article Rebuttal
For the subject of my article rebuttal I have chosen a topic that I wanted to educate myself on by examining both viewpoints, and evaluating my own stance once I have more information. While the real topic is very broad and covers quite a few disciplines, many people now lump several issues into one big talking point called “Common Core”. As a father of two young children this issue has a very real outcome for me, and I wanted to examine why this issue was so polarizing.
As defined by www.corestandars.org, Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. To take this issue to its simplest point, Common Core achieves its goals through standardized testing. This concept was born of the desire to benchmark American students against others.
I found the need to search outside of my normal newsfeeds and websites to find an article to rebut. When I found Six ways the Common Core is Good for Students featured on the neaToday website I knew the six points were thinly veiled propaganda. It had six well defined reasons that Common Core was going to do all that it promised to do, and gave examples as well as testimonials from educators who were finding that Common Core was working. Interestingly enough, several times in the article the point was made to distance Common Core from No Child Left Behind. Bush’s NCLB and Obama’s Race to the Top programs can really be thought of the beginning stages of the Common Core standardized test mentality.
The article opens with an indictment of CC’s detractors; “As the Common Core debate heats up, we’ve heard a lot from policy makers, politicians, and even TV talk show hosts about the challenges posed by the new standards and whether they’ll help or hurt education. With all the chatter, the voices of the professionals who are actually responsible for implementing the Common Core have been all but drowned out in the mainstream media.” (Long, 2013) This seemingly benign statement about who is qualified to criticize sets the tone for the rest of the article. This statement reminds you already distrust the mainstream media, why listen to the pundits and talking heads now? The article goes on to list the six “virtues” of CC by 1. returning creativity, 2. spending more time on one subject, 3. returning rigor to the classroom, 4. returning collaboration between the standards makers and educators, 5. making equity a standard nationwide, and 6. getting kids ready for college.
While all six are goals parents and educators want to see in their child’s classroom, the conclusions made are based upon a slight twist of the information. The narrowing of curriculum had already taken place under NCLB, schools not wanting to fall below the minimum scores and receive less federal funding had already pulled back what was not tested—the arts, history, civics, literature, geography, science, physical education. Teachers were increasingly teaching to the test in an effort to bring up scores to keep the money rolling in. The loss of individual teacher control in the classroom became worse in response to the economic crisis of 2008, Congress gave the U.S. Department of Education $5 billion to promote “reform.” Secretary Duncan launched a competition for states called “Race to the Top.” If states wanted any part of that money, they had to agree to certain conditions, namely, adopting CC. (Strauss, 2014) CC also has no provisions for review or revision, the standards created in 2009 may as well have been written in stone.
I find Common Core to be good intentions gone bad. The tenants of CC are to raise up everyone together; but the idea of applying the same method regardless of situation is doomed to fail.

References
Long, C. (2013, May 10). Six Ways the Common Core is Good For Students. Retrieved from http://neatoday.org/2013/05/10/six-ways-the-common-core-is-good-for-students-2/
Strauss, V. (2014, Jan. 18). Everything you need to know about Common Core — Ravitch. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/18/everything-you-need-to-know-about-common-core-ravitch/