7/29/2019 Common Core Standards Devastating Impact on Literary Study and Analytical Thinking by Sandra Stotsky

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Issue BrIef

Since coming to oce, theObama Administration has

been intent on standardizing what

is taught at each grade level in all o

the nations schools. It has used its

agship Race to the Top com-

petitive grant program to entice

states to adopt the K12 standards

developed by a joint project o the

National Governors Association

(NGA) and the Council o Chie

State School Ocers (CCSSO). It

has also suggested, in its 2009Blueprint or Education Reorm,

that adoption o these common

standards could one day be a quali-

cation or states wanting uture

Title 1 dollars or low-income

schools.

Parents, teachers, and education

leaders along the political spectrum

are increasingly raising questions

about the constitutionality and

transparency o this joint project,

called the Common Core StateStandards Initiative (CCSSI). They

are also expressing concern about

the high cost o implementing the

standards and the national tests

that will be based on them, as well

as the potential loss o local control

o curriculum and instruction.

Common Coe: A Step

Backwads o Englsh

Standads. Little attention has

been paid to the academic quality

o the mathematics, literature, andwriting standards that NGA and

CCSSO developed, despite the act

that they were not internationally

benchmarked or research-based.

The atal aws in the Common

Core English Language Arts (ELA)

standards went unnoticed because

over 45 state boards o education

and/or their governors hastily

adopted the standards in 2010, in

some cases long beore they were

written or nalized.Most states agreeing to adopt

the Common Core English

Language Arts standards may well

have thought they were strength-

ening high school English course-

work. However, the architects o

Common Cores ELA standards

never claimed that their standards

would do so. Rather, they claimed

that these standards would make

all students college-ready.This extravagant promise was

and remains undergirded by a

belie that a heavy dose o inor-

mational or nonction reading (50

percent o reading instructional

time in the English class at every

grade level) will result in greater

college readiness than a concen-

trated study o complex literature

in the secondary English class will.

Loss o Classc Lteate.

Why do Common Cores architectsbelieve that reading more nonc-

tion and inormational texts in

English classes (and in other high

school classes) will improve stu-

dents college readiness?

Their belie seems to be based

on what they see as the logical

implication o the act that college

students read more inormational

than literary texts. However, there

is absolutely no empirical research

to suggest that college readinessis promoted by inormational or

nonction reading in high school

English classes (or in mathematics

and science classes).

In act, the history o the sec-

ondary English curriculum in

20th-century America suggests

that the decline in readiness or

college reading stems in large part

rom an increasingly incoherent,

Common Core Standards Devastating Impacton Literary Study and Analytical Thinking

Sandra Stotsky

No. 3800 | DECEMBER 11, 2012

This paper, in its entirety, can be ound at

http://report.heritage.org/ib3800

Produced by the Domestic Policy Studies Department

The Heritage Foundation

214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE

Washington, DC 20002

(202) 546-4400 | heritage.org

Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily

refecting the views o The Heritage Foundation or

as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage o any bill

beore Congress.

7/29/2019 Common Core Standards Devastating Impact on Literary Study and Analytical Thinking by Sandra Stotsky

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iSSuE BriEf | NO. 3800

DECEMBER 11, 2012

less challenging literature curricu-

lum rom the 1960s onward. This

decline has been propelled by the

ragmentation o the year-long

English course into semester elec-

tives, the conversion o junior high

schools into middle schools, and

the assignment o easier, shorter,

and contemporary textsoten in

the name o multiculturalism.

From about the 1900sthe

beginning o uniorm college

entrance requirements via the col-

lege boardsuntil the 1960s, a chal-

lenging, literature-heavy English

curriculum was understood to beprecisely what pre-college students

needed. Nonetheless, undeterred by

the lack o evidence to support their

sales pitch, Common Cores archi-

tects divided all o the ELA read-

ing standards into two groups: 10

standards or inormational read-

ing and nine or literary reading at

every grade level.

This misplaced stress on inor-

mational texts (no matter how

much is literary nonction) reectsthe limited expertise o Common

Cores architects and sponsoring

organizations in curriculum and in

teachers training. This division o

reading standards was clearly not

developed or approved by English

teachers and humanities scholars,

because it makes English teach-

ers responsible or something they

have not been trained to teach and

will not be trained to teach unless

the entire undergraduate Englishmajor and preparatory programs in

English education are changed.

Common Cores damage to

the English curriculum is already

taking shape. Anecdotal reports

rom high school English teachers

indicate that the amount o inor-

mational or nonction reading they

are being told to do in their class-

room is 50 percent or more o their

reading instructional timeand

that they will have time only or

excerpts rom novels, plays, or epic

poems i they want students to read

more than very short stories and

poems.

Long-Tem Conseqences.A

diminished emphasis on literature

in the secondary grades makes it

unlikely that American students

will study a meaningul range o

culturally and historically signi-

cant literary works beore gradua-

tion. It also prevents students romacquiring a rich understanding

and use o the English language.

Perhaps o greatest concern, it may

lead to a decreased capacity or

analytical thinking.

Indeed, it is more than likely

that college readiness will decrease

when secondary English teachers

begin to reduce the study o com-

plex literary texts and literary tra-

ditions in order to prioritize inor-

mational or nonction texts. This isbecause, as ACT (a college entrance

exam) ound, complexity is laden

with literar y eatures: It involves

characters, literary devices, tone,

ambiguity, elaboration, structure,

intricate language, and unclear

intentions. By reducing literary

study, Common Core decreases stu-

dents opportunity to develop the

analytical thinking once developed

in just an elite group by the vocabu-

lary, structure, style, ambiguity,point o view, gurative language,

and irony in classic literary texts.

It will be hard to nd inorma-

tional texts with similar textual

challenges (whether or not literary

nonction). A volume published

in 2011 by the National Council

o Teachers o English on how

English teachers might implement

Common Cores standards helps us

to understand why. Among other

things, it ofers as examples o

inormational or nonction texts

selections on computer geeks, ast

ood, teenage marketing, and the

working poor.This is hardly the

kind o material to exhibit ambigu-

ity, subtlety, and irony.

Common Coe is Not the

Answe

An English curriculum over-

loaded with advocacy journalism or

with inormational articles cho-

sen or their topical and/or politicalnature should raise serious con-

cerns among parents, school lead-

ers, and policymakers.

Common Cores standardsnot only present a serious threatto state and local educationauthority, but also put academicquality at risk. Pushing atallyawed education standardsinto Americas schools is not the

way to improve education or

Americas students.Sandra Stotsky,Proessor o

Education Reorm at the University

o Arkansas, was ormerly Senior

Associate Commissioner at the

Massachusetts Department o

Education and in charge o the

development o the states widely

praised English Language Arts

standards. Their heavy emphasis

on literary study is considered a

major reason or the Bay States

frst-place scores on NAEPs readingtests. For urther details, see the

recent report by Mark Bauerlein

and Sandra Stotsky, How Common

Cores ELA Standards Place

College Readiness at Risk, http://

pioneerinstitute.org/pd/120917_

CommonCoreELAStandards.pd.