Here are the results of the teacher survey from the past week asking Utah teachers to weigh in on the problems with Common Core. Obviously, most teachers do not wish to have their names appear publicly. These appear in the order they were received. Click here for Part 2 of these comments.
| Comment | Grade Taught | If Administrator | County | Name |
| Common core was forced down our neck with no input. As a teacher we have to like it or a jobs are at stake. It takes the ability away from teachers to actual teach. Teachers are being threatened with lack of funds which in turn means lack of money= less teachers | 8th | Utah | ||
| I am most concerned about who has put together the common core. They have started with math and reading but have designs to push their socialist agenda onto our children when they add the science and social studies components of common core. The math standards teach a “fuzzy math” that makes it hard for parents to be able to assist their children with math, making the parents seem weak to the children. Children then learn to trust the school more than home. There are no benefits to the “new” math, in fact it slows the learning by teaching children four or more ways to get the same answer. | Assistant Principal | Salt Lake County | ||
| I oppose the Common Core, not because I think in theory that it is a bad idea, but because I believe that it has many flaws in its approach and implementation. | High school juniors and seniors. | |||
| It is a big mistake to call it common but then be the maverick state to not follow the traditional courses in math. Following the international model is sure to mean we are last on the list to have publishers and others develop worthwhile materials. I don’t have time to develop high quality materials and teach also. Further, the CC is not really new and improved. It is a revamping of the investigation philosophies some have been trying to push for years now. Students need quality instruction, not meaningless trial and error. | junior high | Utah | ||
| I oppose CCSS because they are imposed on teachers to impose on students rather than encouraging teachers to address the needs of each student and respond creatively to those needs. | Davis County | |||
| Greater centralization will result in inefficiency and waste. It will result in poorer student performance. It will lead to encroachment on the freedom to homeschool. It will create databases which are expensive and dangerous to personal liberty. The standards do not promote individuality, liberty, or excellence or greatness in education. The centralization will make it harder for parents to become involved, so less will become involved. That will hurt the education of children more than anything else. | Homeschool Co-op ages 11-14 | Utah County | Cody Nelson | |
| I think I do my best teaching when I can create the way the content is presented. Common Core standards are so specific that there is little leeway to do that. | 3rd | Cache | ||
| It was presented dishonestly to us, we had no say, it is confusing to parents and to me, it promotes a certain political agenda, it is dumbing the kids down more than they already are because of ‘no child left behind’, it takes away states control, it is not working…my kids are NOT learning necessary tools to succeed | 6 | salt lake | ||
| I opposed Common Core Standards and assessments because they are poorly considered. The language standard is based upon whole language methods which have a long history of being ineffective and even harmful to developing language skills. The math standards are likewise proven faulty. Other standards in Literature, Handwriting, etc. are not based upon sound reasoning. I fully accept that individuals may use these systems if they disagree with me. I do not see that one viewpoint should be imposed universally. The decision about education content, standards and methods would be better accomplished on a more localized and individual level than it is now, not on a more centrist level. Government agencies have not been demonstrated to manage education well and have no right engaging in the kind of tracking, evaluation and directing of students that has been proposed. | I have taught preschool, Kindergarten and all elementary levels. | Utah County | ||
| I oppose central control, period. I cannot imagine ANY group, committee, etc., however benign, making decisions for the entire nation. Local control should be just that, local. | junior high, retired | Utah County | ||
| It takes away our local and state rights to decide what our children will be taught. I believe it is the key lynchpin in turning our constitutional republic into a managed economy (socialist or communist government)! | 5 | Utah | ||
| Reading under the Common Core is very boring for both the student and the teacher. The students read for a few minutes and then are tested (constantly). I love reading but I hate this approach. There is no chance to get into the story and really enjoy learning to read. Math has been made into a complicated mess, for example rather than carry the 10 over into the 10’s column, the student must rearrange the numbers into 10’s and ones and then add. This confuses the student and isn’t necessary. I especially hate that the testing is based completely on the Common Core. | Retired fourth grade teacher | Millard | Barbara Nickle | |
| privacy issues; too much testing; too much indoctrination; math is arbitrary and haphazard in intro of ideas and execution; much curriculum is age inappropriate-some too advanced, some too easy, again it is haphazard | several | Weber | ||
| These are beyond Federal level standards and being used as a stepping stone for international standards. Common Core is another move toward creating a global work force that is not liberty-minded. It moves the role of family, parents and local community away from the individual. | 12th Grade, High School | Utah | ||
| The federal government should have no role in public education. The larger the institution, the less voice individual parents and teachers have. | University | Davis | Vincent Bates | |
| 1. Less classic literature. 2. Nontraditional math 3. No voice for teachers 4. Constitution violated | 4th | Wasatch | ||
| It dumbs kids down, puts us behind schedule where we were, removes local control, eliminates creativity, omits important curriculum like cursive writing & classic literature, it forces “fuzzy math” based on common consent as opposed to fact-based math on individual merit, it was signed onto outside of proper legislative procedures & without public input. It is Socialized education, one size fits all and it doesn’t fit. It will only serve to harm our kids’ education, not improve it. | K – 5 | Davis | ||
| I oppose MANY things prior to this and this is just another BIG step in the wrong direction. I’m pretty radical. I don’t believe our neighborhood schools need district people at all. We all have computers now and these positions are outdated. I get more help from colleagues and think ONE each year should get the SALARY of a principal and rotate WHO does that from year to year. NO district “help” – all they do is get in the way and BOTHER teachers in the end. They’ve become a pain. We can find all the conferences we want to go to. Just give us THEIR paycheck money and take away ANOTHER big, growing, unnecessary “gone wild” institution. I’ve read enough on my own about common core and they are the ones being SHEEP and forcing this on teachers who know their OWN LESSONS do a better job – PERIOD. | Retired – taught special education and quit because I couldn’t STAND being in the schools and being ordered around like a peon. If they continue this way – they need high school grads to take our place. All that education is hardly needed with dictators | Canyons District | Susan Wilcox | |
| The loss of literature and creative writing as part of the Language Arts core curriculum, and the infusion of intrusive questioning about our children’s personal lives under the guise of demanding them to write argument papers exclusively. | 7-9 | Utah | ||
| These so called standards actually lower educational standards and subvert fact based curriculum by rewriting traditional information to a socialist agenda and manipulating test answers to that end. | Sixth | Weber | ||
| It gives too much control to the federal government and makes it virtually impossible to make changes locally when needed. | Second | Salt Lake County | ||
| I am a second grade teacher who is now being forced to teach the Common Core. It is so frustrating. This was forced upon us with no preparation. We meet every Friday afternoon to learn about the Common Core yet we do not get to question it. Some questions we have is the flow of the Common Core. We are told we are not to review. You only teach your standards so if a child is not ready for that standard they do not get to review the standard. An example is Money is only taught in the second grade. If a student is not ready or does not understand the concept they are not taught money again in any other grade level. Regrouping is taught in grade 2 which some children are not developmentally ready to understand. These standards have ignored the Development of children through Piaget. For example the writing curriculum is too hard for some students. Why are we teaching kindergarten students how to write a research paper..they are not ready for this. Let’s focus on standards they are ready for..This is ridiculous. | Second | |||
| Federal top down hog wash written by pseudo experts whose religion is socializing and progressivizing our schools and our children. | University online and in the Utah corrections system. | Director of education and training | Salt Lake County | |
| I oppose common core because it is giving control of educational decisions to the federal Government and leaves no transparency as to how these standards are written. These decisions should be at the local level. The common core standards are a weak minimal standard which will make US and Utah children unable to compete with other top educational countries.This is especially evident in math and science. Utah has many highly technical industries and business needing engineers and scientists. Utah needs to be able to have its own standards to educate residents to be able to complete advanced degrees in the scientist and engineering and technical fields. If we cannot do this we are giving away jobs to foreigners (from Singapore , and China etc). These jobs need to be filled with Utah students.The common core standards and curriculum do not prepare students adequately in math and science. Another advantage is that I believe Utah will be stuck with the high cost of implementing these standards. These standards also introduce the national tracking pf student data which goes against the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). I am not comfortable with testing and tracking students on psychometric attributes. | High School 9-12 | Weber | ||
| For first graders we now have even more “push-down” curriculum which pushes even more down the throats of our little ones we are supposed to inspire to love learning. | First Grade | Davis | ||
| It is taking away the the creativity of the teacher and the individual needs of the students. It’s making robots instead of thinking and learning on a higher standard. IT WILL NOT BE COST EFFECTIVE IN THE LONG RUN. STUDENTS GOING THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL WILL NOT BE READY FOR HIGHER LEARNING. We want to be in charge IN our state and the education of our children When the Federal Government gets its hands into the private institution of public learning, it will be near impossible to remove it. DON’T SUPPORT COMMON CORE! | THIRD GRADE | DAVIS | ||
| Because it infringes on the rights of the states and puts pressure to adapt to a national standard. | I home school and teach all grades, but currently 8th, 9th and 1st grade | Summit | ||
| It is unconstitutional, oversteps parental rights and our God-given rights. It clearly isn’t about education, it’s abou | ||||