Essay on Common Core: Setting Academic Standards to Make US More Competitive

Introduction

Common core is setting standards in the United States mainly meant to prepare students for careers and college, which makes the United States more competitive academically. These standards are benchmarks for what all students are expected to know and do throughout their educational process. The common core entails several benchmarks based on all grade levels. Language arts and math are the main areas in which the standards focus (Nelson, 2015). The language arts standards are evidence-based arguments, while math standards only focus on fewer topics that progress logically from one grade to the other. The common core standards ensure that all students in public schools are prepared for college and careers regardless of where they live. I cannot entirely agree with the common core in education because they only prepare students for what to expect and do not give students the real opportunity for careers. Another disadvantage is that a student might be talented in doing something else other than education. Hence, it seems like a waste of time to prepare them for things they are not gifted or interested in.

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Transgender Students

A transgender student in the United States has been accepted through the creation of awareness, which is highly reflected in all the national schools. Unfortunately, most of the education leaders have not received enough typical training based on transgender students; hence they express a lot of fear when working with transgender students (American Psychological Association, 2015). the staff is supposed to be educated about transgender issues to prevent discrimination and bullying among the students in schools. Anti-discrimination and anti-bullying policies are highly enforced to foster a healthy learning environment for all students. I cannot entirely agree with the acceptance of transgender issues in education since their implementation interferes a lot with most of the students' performances. A lot of time is wasted training staff on how to treat transgender students instead of maximizing time for studies.

Teacher Performance Evaluation

Evaluation of teacher's performance follows specific criteria and descriptions to help the teachers and administrators understand the standard language for teachers' performance evaluation. The main goal of the evaluation process is to ensure that there is always the improvement of instructions facilitation. Some of the criteria include examining interactions among the students, student's motivations, classroom management, and plans instructions, among others (McNergney, Imig, and Pearlman, 2020). Through the process of evaluation of teachers' performance, strengths and weaknesses are identified; hence improvement can be made where need be. In my opinion, these evaluation criteria are accurate since they reflect the teachers' performance fully.

References

American Psychological Association. (2015). Supporting Transgender and Gender Diverse Students in Schools. https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/programs/safe-supportive/lgbt/school-administrators.pdf

McNergney, R., Imig, S., & Pearlman, M. (2020). Teacher Evaluation - OVERVIEW METHODS. Education.stateuniversity.com. Retrieved 22 February 2020, from https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2482/Teacher-Evaluation.html.

Nelson, L. (2015). Everything You Need to Know About the Common Core. [online] Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/2014/10/7/18088680/common-core [Accessed 22 February. 2020].