6 Reasons to Reject CCSS for K – Grade 3

Defending the Early Years  has written a new report Common 6 Reasons to Reject the Common Core for K – Grade 3 and 6 Principles to Guide Policy). Excerpts below:

1.  Many of the Kindergarten – 3^rd Grade CCSS are developmentally inappropriate, and are not based on well-researched child development knowledge about how young children learn. ^{1, 2}
The CCSS for young children were developed by mapping backwards from what is required at high school graduation to the early years.  This has led to standards that:

• list discrete skills, facts and knowledge that do not match how young children develop, think or learn;
• require young children to learn facts and skills for which they are not ready;
• are often taught by teacher-led, didactic instruction instead of the experiential, play-based activities and learning young children need; ^{1, 2, 12}
• devalue the whole child and the importance of social-emotional development, play, art, music, science and physical development.

An example of a developmentally inappropriate Common Core standard for kindergarten is one that requires children to “read emergent reader texts with purpose and understanding.”  Many young children are not developmentally ready to read in kindergarten and there is no research to support teaching reading in kindergarten. There is no research showing long-term advantages to reading at 5 compared to reading at 6 or 7.⁶

2.  Many of the skills mandated by the CCSS erroneously assume that all children develop and learn skills at the same rate and in the same way...

3.  Early childhood educators did not participate in the development of the standards...

4.   There is a lack of research to support the current early childhood CCSS.  The standards were not pilot tested and there is no provision for ongoing research or review of their impact on children and on early childhood education...

5.  The standards do not take into account what young children today need when they get to school.  Children need play in school now more than ever. They need teachers who are skilled facilitators of play so the solid foundations can be laid in the early school years for optimal learning in the later years...


6. The adoption of CCSS falsely implies that making children learn these standards will combat the impact of poverty on development and learning, and create equal educational opportunity for all children...