Picture this you are sitting in a class room with a book in front of you which has ISTEP+ in bold print on the front along with a spot for your name, spelled out letter by letter. Your teachers have been referring to the type of requirements that would be on this test all school year, and now it is finally time to take this final test. As your teacher finishes reading the book filled with rules for this test you have taken many times, he writes the time the test will be complete on the chalk board and the test begins.

 

42 out of 50 states use Common Core Standards Initiative for both Language and Math. The only states this doesn’t include is Minnesota, which only has adopted the Language Common Core Standards. Indiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina of which originally adopted these standards but has since replaced them, and Texas, Alabama, Virginia, and Nebraska of which have never had any of these standards.

 

Many people believe that every year more kids fail due to the standards changing each year. Studies show that since the 2014-2015 school year passing rates have gone down in each subject.  In Indiana, the average passing rate for Language Arts in the past three school years was about 66.2%. In Fort Wayne Community the average passing rate was 56.8%, and for Blackhawk Middle School the average was about 65.6%.