Are the Common Core State Standards Helping or Hurting?

I have mixed feelings on the government’s attempts to make education better and stronger in the United States. The latest attempt, the Common Core State Standards, is another attempt to make sure children do not fall through the cracks in the system. Too many children are passed from grade to grade without mastering the previous grade’s basics. Most states have adopted the Common Core Standards for their schools. The problem is, it’s extremely difficult to create “tests” that measure what children are learning. Some people just don’t test well and never will. Howard Gardner writes in The Multiple Intelligences of Children, that some children learn through numbers, some through reading, some through physical play, some through music…and that children shouldn’t be penalize because they don’t learn in the general way. I agree that there needs to be some sort of basic accountability for schools to ensure that children have a strong basis before moving onto the next grade. However, standardized testing seems to harming as many children as it helps.