A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position

Essay topics:

A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position.

Nations should allow local school boards and school districts to set their own curriculum, while also requiring each district to set and meet an appropriately rigorous curriculum. I disagree that a national curriculum is necessary for primary and secondary education.

Primarily, control of curriculum decisions should be allocated to regional bodies so that local differences can be taken into account. For instance, history and political science courses could address local politics and local history and give students opportunities for civic engagement. Students should be able to study and discuss issues at play in their own communities, especially during election seasons. Science courses could also take advantage of local differences through active study of wildlife, geology, and weather patterns. For example, a science unit could be based around taking measurements of humidity and temperature and comparing with historical data. Additionally, a physical science curriculum could include observation of fossils, vegetation, and landforms commonly found around the students' own homes. This direct application of curriculum to life can only enhance student retention of the material and is superior to studying only the geology and politics prescribed within a national curriculum.

Additionally, curriculums chosen at the local level can also include units with cross-curricular studies and opportunities for field trips. For instance, a middle school curriculum in Lawrence, Kansas could have a unit focusing on regional effects of the civil war, including border wars with Missouri, the burning of Lawrence, and populist laws in Kansas. Students could visit local history museums and the home of activist John Brown in order to see the history come to life and crystallize their learning. Alternatively, a middle school curriculum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania would likely rely heavily on famous historical sites and documents of the United States' founding fathers. Field trips allow students to walk the very steps of the constitutional congress and can inspire projects based on political history and biographies. Of course, middle schoolers throughout the nation would all study both the civil war and the founding of the United States at some point, the emphasis can be flavored by regional differences and access to historically important sites.

Superintendents and school boards should be trusted to develop appropriate, rigorous, effective curriculum for the schools within their control. Currently, in the United States, each state has it's own state testing protocol and timeline. Educational leaders need autonomy to ensure students are prepared for these state exams and they should be trusted to shift resources based on student needs. It is possible that in one state, math scores are high and students need a more robust literature curriculum with more time dedicated to fiction and non-fiction. Another state may see strong literacy and phonics scores yet have graduates with deficient mathematical and trade abilities. Each of these states would choose to improve student outcomes with different priorities in the curriculum and they should be given the opportunity to do so at a local level.

While a national curriculum would be too restrictive to ensure the best student outcomes across a large nation, having a national conversation about educational standards and solutions is ideal. The Common Core is valuable in that it gives clear targets for each grade level so no state lags far behind in expectations. These national standards should be available while laws should ultimately give states and school boards final control over their full curriculum. There has been a recent trend toward online schooling available to all as public education. Despite extensive oversight, it is still possible for these students to spend very little time studying, to easily fall behind without notice, and to lack social competence and social learning provided in a traditional school setting. However, a national curriculum would not necessarily solve this, and high expectations and audits would prove to be more effective.

In conclusion, a national curriculum should not be required. Instead, state educational institutions and local school boards should have the responsibility and the autonomy to make decisions for students based on regional differences and evaluation of student needs.

Votes
Average: 6.6 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, however, if, may, second, so, still, while, for example, for instance, in conclusion, of course

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.5258426966 108% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 30.0 12.4196629213 242% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 40.0 14.8657303371 269% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 4.0 11.3162921348 35% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 22.0 33.0505617978 67% => OK
Preposition: 83.0 58.6224719101 142% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 12.9106741573 163% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3775.0 2235.4752809 169% => OK
No of words: 669.0 442.535393258 151% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.64275037369 5.05705443957 112% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.08576781939 4.55969084622 112% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.95542648057 2.79657885939 106% => OK
Unique words: 329.0 215.323595506 153% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.49177877429 0.4932671777 100% => OK
syllable_count: 1184.4 704.065955056 168% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59117977528 113% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 6.24550561798 80% => OK
Article: 9.0 4.99550561798 180% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 3.10617977528 64% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.77640449438 281% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.38483146067 114% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 20.2370786517 143% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 23.0359550562 100% => OK
Sentence length SD: 41.699536777 60.3974514979 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 130.172413793 118.986275619 109% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.0689655172 23.4991977007 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.48275862069 5.21951772744 67% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 7.80617977528 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 17.0 10.2758426966 165% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 5.13820224719 78% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.83258426966 166% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.209451742908 0.243740707755 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0675291466482 0.0831039109588 81% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0440598061299 0.0758088955206 58% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.134469621955 0.150359130593 89% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0237770145613 0.0667264976115 36% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.7 14.1392134831 118% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 31.21 48.8420337079 64% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.92365168539 141% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.1743820225 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.73 12.1639044944 129% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.29 8.38706741573 111% => OK
difficult_words: 191.0 100.480337079 190% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 11.8971910112 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.2143820225 100% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.7820224719 102% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Write the essay in 30 minutes.

Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.