Starting this school year, Sierra Vista High School began the transition from Nevada Academic Content Standards to Common Core State Standards.

Common Core is a new method of instruction and organization designed to hold all states to the same core standards.  

According to the Nevada Department of Education website, the goal of the Common Core system is to “ensure that Nevada students are college and career ready using research-based and globally-benchmarked standards.”

This new system has already been implemented in grades K-8 in English Language Arts and K-2 in mathematics. In SVHS, Common Core has been implemented in the English department.

SVHS English teacher Amanda Gardner helped write the Common Core standards for Clark County School District.

“[Common Core] seeks to teach students how to think critically of the work in front of then and that work’s connections to their other subjects and the world around them,” said Gardner.

SVHS Assistant Principal Deborah Kral stated, “[Common Core] is going to teach students how to think critically, to justify their answers, to reason, and analyze.”

In other words, instead of a system in which students simply regurgitate information through memorization, these standards will force students to think and apply what they learn in the classroom to the outside world. 

With that being said, CCSS demand a complete overhaul of SVHS’ core curriculum. All classes will be evaluated to see if they meet CCSS. This evaluation means that many classes will be placed on the chopping block.

“The district is looking at every course and comparing it to Common Core Standards. If it doesn’t meet the standards, it will be revised, retired, or be taken for elective credit,” said Kral.  

For example, World Literature and American Literature are classes which focus primarily on reading and understanding stories, with a minimal amount of writing. These so-called ‘boutique classes’ are to be retired in the CCSS system.

“If a teacher does an effective job of teaching Common Core Standards, students are going to leave with the ability to think critically and apply those skills in college and the world of work,” said Kral.

“Common Core forces teachers to understand the core works’ implicit rhetorical and sociological values and guide their students in how to find, create, and apply those values to other works and their own lives,” said Gardner.

SVHS English teacher Linda Rickey already teaches her classes based on CCSS. One of her students, sophomore Helen Yoo, believes that Common Core creates connections between classes.

“It sets up standards that make connections with different [subjects] and puts them together in a way that they are connected,” said Yoo.

Sophomore Gabriel Guerra, who is in Pamela Poster’s English class, thinks CCSS helps different subjects make sense together.  

“Since [Common Core] incorporates everything, it’s better for students because you’re making connections between subjects, instead of just learning one subject and focusing on that,” said Guerra.

The Nevada Department of Education plans on fully implementing Common Core State Standards in all schools by 2015.