Students in the United States are lagging behind their peers in other countries around the world. It's a story often heard in the news. But now that New York state is implementing a tougher curriculum called the Common Core, parents are complaining that the new standards are too difficult for their children.
Ursula Burns, the chairman and CEO of Xerox, writes about the hypocrisy between our lagging educational standards and the uproar over trying to improve student outcomes. In a column for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, she argues that a majority of students who apply to college are unprepared for the challenge, and applying the Common Core curriculum will help students be more prepared:
New York is one of the first states to link its standardized tests to Common Core standards; in fact, it did so in the first year that the standards were in place. Confusion, panic, and low scores inevitably followed. That doesn't mean we should turn back. It means we have more work to do.
