So Arizona’s education system has cracked down to business on education reform. It’s great to see that individual states and school districts are doing their part to help America’s students get to where they need be in reading, math, and science. It really is a sum of everyone’s efforts that will bring about the change that we need. We can’t wait around for government policies and legislation to take shape; there simply isn’t enough time, and education reform is the responsibility of, well, everyone.
That’s why former CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett, now a charter-school executive, is reaching out to educators to discuss the implementation of the Common Core Standards (standards for math and English achievement). Recently he went to Tucson to gain feedback from educators on the new Common Core Standards, teacher evaluations, and educational funding.
Education reform
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So what are the Common Core Standards doing for Arizona’s educational system? Think of it as sort of a strategy for getting kids in America to get to the achievement levels they need to be at. According to an interview with Barrett, the Common Core Standards is an “international benchmark” of where students in America need to be in order to be to compete with other countries. Furthermore, based on these goals, school curriculum can be adjusted to help kids get to those levels.
Barrett made another important point in the interview over the issue of children dropping out of school, claiming that schools need to make education in the classroom more relevant to kids.
I think Arizona’s approach using the Common Core Standards is a great starting point; setting goals and adjusting practices accordingly ensures that we are indeed heading in a direction when it comes to education reform instead of randomly making changes and hoping that better test scores will come about (much equivalent to a chicken running around with its head cut off).
I agree with Barrett’s claims that schools need to make learning more relevant to kids. There sometimes appears to be a gap between the “school world” and so-called real life, and bridging this gap should be of upmost important if we want to keep kids interested and invested in their education.
Resources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/ex-intel-ceo-praises-stat_n_2048382.html?utm_hp_ref=education
