Student Perspectives on the Common Core: The Challenge of College Readiness at Urban High Schools

Abstract

The Common Core State Standards were designed to prepare all students for college and careers. Using theories of cultural capital and culturally relevant pedagogy, this study of 54 college-bound, inner-city high school seniors seeks to determine how students perceive their college readiness during the implementation of the new standards. While the Common Core promotes the development of higher-order thinking skills and cultural competence, students reported that their schools struggled to meet both of these goals. The findings call into question the capacity of the Common Core to prepare all students for college due to challenges of implementation.

Keywords

college access urban education culturally relevant pedagogy subjects high school programs

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ACT. (2005). National collegiate retention and persistence to degree rates. Retrieved from http://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/retain_2005.pdf

ACT. (2015). National collegiate retention and persistence to degree rates. Retrieved from https://www.ruffalonl.com/documents/shared/Papers_and_Research/ACT_Data/ACT_2015.pdf

Ajayi

(2016). High school teachers’ perspectives on the English language arts common core state standards: An exploratory study. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 15, 1-25.

Avila

Moore

(2012). Critical literacy, digital literacies, and common core state standards: A workable union? Theory into Practice, 51, 27-33.

Banks

J. A.

(2001). Citizenship education and diversity: Implications for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 52, 5-16.

Bourdieu

(1977). Outline of a theory of practice (Vol. 16). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Bourdieu

(1986). The forms of capital. In Richardson

J. G.

(Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241-258). New York, NY: Greenwood Press.

Bourdieu

(1996). Masculine domination revisited. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 41, 189-203.

Carter

P. L.

(2005). Keepin’ it real: School success beyond Black and White. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

10.

Cobb

Jackson

(2011). Assessing the quality of the common core state standards for mathematics. Educational Researcher, 40, 183-185.

11.

Cohen

E. G.

Lotan

R. A.

(2014). Designing groupwork: Strategies for the heterogeneous classroom (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

12.

Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2015). Available from http://www.corestandards.org

13.

Conley

D. T.

(2007). Redefining college readiness. Eugene, OR: Educational Policy Improvement Center.

14.

Conley

D. T.

Drummond

K. V.

de Gonzalez

Rooseboom

Stout

(2011). Reaching the goal: The applicability and importance of the common core state standards to college and career readiness. Eugene, OR: Educational Policy Improvement Center.

15.

Cook-Sather

(2002). Authorizing students’ perspectives: Toward trust, dialogue, and change in education. Educational Researcher, 31(4), 3-14.

16.

Delpit

(1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. Harvard Educational Review, 58, 280-299.

17.

DiMaggio

Mohr

(1985). Cultural capital, educational attainment, and marital selection. American Journal of Sociology, 90, 1231-1261.

18.

Dover

A. G.

(2016). Teaching for social justice and the common core. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 59, 517-527.

19.

Duncan-Andrade

J. M. R.

Morrell

(2008). The art of critical pedagogy: Possibilities for moving from theory to practice in urban schools (Vol. 285). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

20.

Erickson

(1987). Transformation and school success: The politics and culture of educational achievement. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 18, 335-356.

21.

Freire

(1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum.

22.

Hamilton

L. S.

Stecher

B. M.

Yuan

(2012). Standards-based accountability in the United States: Lessons learned and future directions. Education Inquiry, 3, 149-170.

23.

Harper

S. R.

(2012). Black male student success in higher education: A report from the national Black male college achievement study. Philadelphia: Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education, University of Pennsylvania.

24.

Hursh

(2007). Exacerbating inequality: The failed promise of the No Child Left Behind Act. Race Ethnicity and Education, 10, 295-308.

25.

Ladson-Billings

(1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 465-491.

26.

Ladson-Billings

(2009). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. Chicago, IL. John Wiley.

27.

Lamont

Lareau

(1988). Cultural capital: Allusions, gaps and glissandos in recent theoretical developments. Sociological Theory, 6, 153-168.

28.

Lareau

(2015). Cultural knowledge and social inequality. American Sociological Review, 80, 1-27.

29.

Lareau

Weininger

E. B.

(2003). Cultural capital in educational research: A critical assessment. Theory and Society, 32, 567-606.

30.

Lewis Ellison

. (2017). The matter of parents’ stories: Urban African American mothers’ counter-stories about the Common Core State Standards and Quality Teaching. Urban Education. doi: 0042085917702199.

31.

Mathis

W. J.

(2010). The “common core” standards initiative: An effective reform tool? Boulder, CO: Education and the Public Interest Center.

32.

McDonough

P. M.

(1997). Choosing colleges: How social class and schools structure opportunity. Albany: State University of New York Press.

33.

Miles

M. B.

Huberman

A. M.

(1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). London: Sage

34.

Milner

H. R.

(2012). But what is urban education? Urban Education, 47, 556-561.

35.

Mitra

(2004). The significance of students: Can increasing “student voice” in schools lead to gains in youth development? Teachers College Record, 106, 651-688.

36.

Moore

J. L.

III Ford

D. Y.

Milner

H. R.

(2005). Recruitment is not enough: Retaining African American students in gifted education. Gifted Child Quarterly, 49, 51-67.

37.

Morrison

K. A.

Robbins

H. H.

Rose

D. G.

(2008). Operationalizing culturally relevant pedagogy: A synthesis of classroom-based research. Equity & Excellence in Education, 41, 433-452.

38.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_326.10.asp

39.

National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform: An open letter to the American people (A report to the nation and the secretary of Education). Washington, DC: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office.

40.

No Child Left Behind Act (2001), Pub. L. No. 107-110.

41.

Noguera

P. A.

(2009). The trouble with Black boys: . . . And other reflections on race, equity, and the future of public education. San Francisco, CA: Wiley & Sons.

42.

O’Connor

(1997). Dispositions toward (collective) struggle and educational resilience in the inner city: A case analysis of six African-American high school students. American Educational Research Journal, 34, 593-629.

43.

Paris

(2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41, 93-97.

44.

Paris

Alim

H. S.

(2014). What are we seeking to sustain through culturally sustaining pedagogy? A loving critique forward. Harvard Educational Review, 84, 85-100.

45.

Payne

Laughter

(2013). Culturally relevant pedagogy in ELA. English Leadership Quarterly, 35(3), 2-5.

46.

Pew Research Center. (2014, February, 11). The rising cost of not going to college. Retrieved from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/02/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college/

47.

Plunk

A. D.

Tate

W. F.

Bierut

L. J.

Grucza

R. A.

(2014). Intended and unintended effects of state-mandated high school science and mathematics course graduation requirements on educational attainment. Educational Researcher, 43, 230-241.

48.

Polikoff

M. S.

(2015). How well aligned are textbooks to the common core standards in mathematics? American Educational Research Journal, 52, 1185-1211.

49.

Polikoff

M. S.

Hardaway

Marsh

J. A.

Plank

D. N.

(2016). Who is opposed to common core and why? Educational Researcher, 45, 263-266.

50.

Porter

McMaken

Hwang

Yang

(2011). Common core standards: The new US intended curriculum. Educational Researcher, 40, 103-116.

51.

Ravitch

(2013, February 26). Why I oppose the common core standards. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/26/why-i-oppose-common-core-standards-ravitch/

52.

Roscigno

V. J.

Ainsworth-Darnell

J. W.

(1999). Race, cultural capital, and educational resources: Persistent inequalities and achievement returns. Sociology of Education, 72, 158-178.

53.

Rothman

(2011). Something in common: The common core standards and the next chapter in American education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

54.

Sablan

J. R.

Tierney

W. G.

(2014). The changing nature of cultural capital. In Paulsen

(Ed.), Higher education: Handbook of theory and research (pp. 153-188). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

55.

Saenz

V. B.

Ponjuan

(2009). The vanishing Latino male in higher education. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 8, 54-89.

56.

Steele

C. M.

Aronson

(1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797-811.

57.

Stosich

E. L.

(2016). Joint inquiry: Teachers’ collective learning about the common core in high-poverty urban schools. American Educational Research Journal, 53, 1698-1731.

58.

Sullivan

(2001). Cultural capital and educational attainment. Sociology, 35, 893-912.

59.

Tate

W. F.

(1995). Returning to the root: A culturally relevant approach to mathematics pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 34, 166-173.

60.

Tierney

W. G.

(1992). An anthropological analysis of student participation in college. Journal of Higher Education, 63, 603-618.

61.

Tierney

W. G.

(1999). Models of minority college-going and retention: Cultural integrity versus cultural suicide. Journal of Negro Education, 68, 80-91.

62.

Trilling

Fadel

(2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times. New York, NY: John Wiley.

63.

Valenzuela

(2010). Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. Albany: State University of New York Press.

64.

Villalpando

(2003). Self-segregation or self-preservation? A critical race theory and Latina/o critical theory analysis of a study of Chicana/o college students. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16, 619-646.

65.

Warren

Murphy

(2014). Implementing the common core state standards in California. Stanford, CA: Public Policy Institute of California.

66.

Welner

K. G.

(2014). The lost opportunity of the common core state standards: Until we focus on closing opportunity gaps, the common core will be part of the problem, and its potential benefits will never be realized. Phi Delta Kappan, 95(7), 39-40.

67.

Yonezawa

(2015). Student voice and the common core. Teachers College Record, 117(13), 39-58.

68.

Yosso

Smith

Ceja

Solórzano

(2009). Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate for Latina/o undergraduates. Harvard Educational Review, 79, 659-691.