Link: http://www.corestandards.org/other-resources/key-shifts-in-english-language-arts/ For my last blog post I looked at the common core's specific math standards. Now I decided to look at the specific English language arts standards as listed on the common core website. The standards on the surface seem to be almost as vague as the math standards. They did seem to focus on reading comprehension and more specifically on the ability to read non-fiction texts and extract information from them, specifically in inter-disciplinary settings. I recall reading in the PISA report that US students are among the worst in the world at applying knowledge from one area of study to another so this could be a useful exercise (the math equivalent was present in the math standards in the form of word problems). The English standards fail to seriously mention writing, instead focusing on reading and comprehension scores. I have noticed throughout my education that this is an strategy shared my many of my english teachers: that reading lots of good writing and studying good writers will teach one how to write well even if one does not specifically study writing per se. While I cannot speak to the efficacy of the approach in the general population I do think that for me more specialized writing education would have been helpful. Like in the math standards the english standards provide vague learning objectives but not strategies for achieving these . My brief appraisal of the common core standards leaves me with the question: once nationalized standards are accepted how specific should they be? Should the government provide only standardized tests while leaving teachers to figure out how to teach the material. i suspect that a federal attempt to standardize the curriculum would be met with even more opposition that the current (already hotly contested) common core proposal. However, there seems no better way of achieving educational equity than mandating not just that the same material be taught in all classrooms but that it be taught in a specif way.