Unlike other news sources that I have read about the Common Core standards, this one finally tells the audience some more detailed information. It clarifies that the proposed standards would not go into effect until the 2014-2015 school year and that over 40 states have agreed to adopt it. Additionally, it has primary sources to give the story a first hand glance into the education system that needs reformation. To understand what is going on, these types of sources are crucial. But to make the story more fair, they should include the other side of the spectrum. What do those people who are against the Obama plan have to say?

This article gave excellent insight to how much education should be reformed. Without directly stating that they dislike a certain political group, the author shows where it stands on the political spectrum. Rather than simply bash the Bush regime, the author gives reasons like mentioning that the No Child Left Behind act was a flop. With that, we can tell she id more left-leaning. I consider this a well thought out article because unlike other articles that say children need to be educated, this article mentions that teachers need help too. It's not to say it is the teachers' fault for low test scores, but with better teacher training and planning, students could be even more successful.

This article seems less complete than other articles that I have read about the same topic. This may be because it was written months ago, in the earlier stages of the nation-wide standards proposal. If that is the case, I think this article needs to be updated or at least have a link to a newer article. Although the article had good intentions and some relevant information, I feel it was rushed and put together sloppily. It gives short sentences about the states that have approved or not approved the standards then jumps into another short paragraph about another state without going too in-depth.

One main aspect about this article that I liked was the fact that it explains to the reader what exactly is going on in the loan program. By cutting out the middleman in loan services, more money goes dirctly towards helping students. It's an excellent source that answers questions before they are even asked. For example, I was wondering where exactly this extra money would be going to. How would it be beneficial in the educational field? If the reader continues into the article, they find out that a portion goes directly to the Pell grant fund. In addition, I would consider this good journalism because it gives both sides to the story. While starting off the article with the Democratic beliefs, it continues on and gives a ... More »

I thought this article was informative but not too in-depth to the point where it is too overwhelming. For people just hearing about the proposed nation-wide standards, this article is a good starting point. It was just enough to introduce the reader to the prospects of the Common Core national standard idea. It made a good argument about why national standards would help set an educational bar across the country. A good example that stood out was the fact that oftentimes young children get hung up on learning how to "read" a word rather than understanding the overall context of a book. And education needs to be reformed to fix that.