EDITORIAL: Preparing for Common Core

The state cannot opt out of the Common Core nor can it go back to its old standards because those previous standards did not include college and career readiness. Common Core opposition is something that unites people on both sides of the ideological spectrum, and we believe it will hurt our state.

However leery we are of federal overreach and the continuing push to overtest students to the point where they can barely learn, it is unlikely to go away. So, the gap between now and the adoption date of Common Core is a unique opportunity we should all grasp. Now is a time for us to all get educated on our children’s education and take the steps we need to prepare our students for these new standards and for their future.

While we expect teachers and school administrators to do their homework, we are primarily speaking to parents.

Information on the Common Core standards can be found at www.corestandards.org. We suggest all parents become familiar with these standards. While the standards are complicated, this gives us all a chance to ask questions and figure out what these new standards mean for our children.

Once parents have figured out what they mean, they can be better equipped to know what their children need to achieve and what they need to do to help them get there.

Common Core is another instance of the federal government trying to tell states how to handle things in their own backyards. Though we can’t do anything about the standards changing, we can do a lot about how we prepare our children to meet those changes and the ones they will continue to face in the future.