Military families move a lot. A Permanent Change of Station (PCS) becomes a rite of passage for us and is an inevitable occurrence for military members. The statistics are out there. We move on average every 2 and a half years, which can add up to about 7 moves for a military child in grade school.
In the course of 5 years, I attended 4 different schools growing up as a military child in 2 different countries and 3 different locations.
I remember the struggle with figuring out where I belonged, especially with my mid-school year move. The things I worried about, however, were more like, “how do I fit in with everyone else?” instead of, “how is the school curriculum?”
I did realize I had either some catching up or lull time with learning. Who knows if that was actually the best for me?
Since military children attend many different schools in different states, will the national Common Core Standard benefit their education?
My last school was off-base in a civilian neighborhood, where I didn’t know any military kids. Luckily, I was able to finish out my grade school in one location from then on – with sacrifice though. My dad would get stationed elsewhere, but my mom and I stayed. That’s a long story for another day.
One of the main reasons for my father being a geographic bachelor or geo-bachelor was the fact I was thriving at school and my parents didn’t want to disrupt the process. By the time a big move came up, I was approaching high school and my father was at the end of his military career, so it made sense. My dad wanted to retire in Texas and we made the 2 years apart work.
Not every military family shares our story and moving occurs at so many different points for us all, which is why Common Core is interesting to military families with school-age children as well as military educators.
The Common Core Standard is an initiative created by multiple state education chiefs and governors. The adopters of Common Core recognized the importance of establishing a precedent for young learners to gain knowledge to help them with college and career.
In addition, there are several states already in agreement with the benefits of the program, which provides uniformity that could strongly benefit military children in particular. Common Core acts as a bridge to keep curriculum similar, so no matter where a military child moves, they would be at the same point in their educational journey.
So far, 42 states in addition to the District of Columbia have or will be incorporating Common Core standards in their schools. According to the Military Times,
DoDEA is in the process of transitioning to Common Core, which it calls ‘College and Career Ready Standards,’ over the next 5 years.
Despite praise from some military families, the Common Core standard is also met with controversy from vocal opponents. Several critics say that implementing Common Core doesn’t necessarily improve overall testing. A big drawback from Common Core is that states would get less control over the curriculum since it would be something they agree to incorporate. As a result, some states have edited their take on Common Core or even rescind their claim.
The big question military families have about Common Core is will this curriculum be good for my child.
I encourage you to take a deeper look at the Common Core website to form your own opinion. Of course, if you’ve seen it in action, I’m curious to hear your thoughts too.
