By Imani Brown
CCC Journalism Program
Members of the Camden County College community have various opinions about Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s stances on America’s Common Core Standards for education.
Trump, the Republican, disagrees with the standards. He called them “a total disaster” during a campaign rally at Clemson University and stated in a campaign ad he’s “a tremendous believer in education but thinks education should be at a local level.”
He wants to get rid of Common Core if he’s elected president Nov. 8.
Some people, including some CCC students, agree with his stance on the standards.
“I think he puts it very well that not every kid learns the same way and that’s what the Common Core is doing. It’s teaching every kid the same thing and not every kid can learn the Common Core way,” said education major Dorothy Steward.
Stated education major Elizette Peralta, “Students don’t learn at the same pace as other students. They need to get in a class that will do their pace and teach them what they want.”
On the other hand, Elementary and Secondary Education Professor Karen Feldman disagrees with Trump’s comments, saying, “Common Core Standards, for the most part, are at a local level or at least a state level. I think that’s where they belong. There needs to be standards.”
Clinton, the Democrat, says the controversy behind Common Core Standards is “an unfortunate argument.” She expressed this view during an April 2015 educational roundtable at Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa, when responding to a part-time high school teacher’s concerns about American education and the Common Core Standards. Common Core “wasn’t politicized,” Clinton explained. “It was to try to come up with a core of learning that we might expect students to achieve across our country, no matter what kind of school district they were in, no matter how poor their family was, that there wouldn’t be two tiers of education.”
Since being established in 2009, the National Common Core Standards have changed the face of education and the way kindergarten to 12th grade students learn in America. According to the website CoreStandards.org, they are “a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy.” Each student is responsible for meeting certain criteria by the end of each grade and is expected to have specific skills and knowledge that will benefit them in the long run for college and real world applications.
The standards have made their mark in America with 42 of 50 states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia adopting them in their curricula.
Secondary and Elementary Education Professor Karen Feldman grades students’ quizzes. By Imani Brown, CCC Journalism Program