Common Core State Standards

This September 14, 2011 Huffington Post blog, written by Jack Jennings, discusses the Center on Education Policy Report, Common Core State Standards:  Progress and Challenges in School Districts’ Implementation.

In the fall of 2009, CEP surveyed state officials about their implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and included in this survey were some questions about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). We conducted a similar survey of school districts officials in the winter of 2010 and also included some questions on the CCSS. State responses to our CCSS questions can be found on page 3 and in figure 4 on page 9 in the state report. District responses to the CCSS questions can be found on page 15 of the district report. Links to the two reports appear below.

This report, based on a nationally representative sample of school districts, examines school districts’ perceptions and early implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  The report finds that approximately three-fifths of the districts in states that have adopted the CCSS agree that the new standards in math and English language arts are more rigorous than the ones they are replacing, and a similar proportion of districts expect the CCSS to improve students’ skills in these subjects.  The survey results also show that district officials see relatively little resistance to the standards from parents, community members, and local educators, with only 10% of districts in the adopting states considering resistance from teachers and principals to be a major challenge in implementing the standards, and just 5 percent view resistance from parents and community members as a major challenge.  However, adequate funding to implement all aspects of the CCSS was viewed as a major challenge by 76% of districts in CCSS-adopting states, and as a minor challenge among 21% of such districts.

The American School Board Journal (September 2009) contains an article on national or common academic standards written by Jack Jennings, CEP’s president.

On January 10, 2011, Jack Jennings, CEP's president, appeared on Washington Journal, a regular program on C-SPAN. The topics discussed included CEP's December 2010 report on the achievement gap, CEP's January 2011 report on common core state standards, the education agenda facing the 112th Congress, and many other issues.

C-SPAN's Washington Journal - January 10, 2011 from Center on Education Policy on Vimeo.

Education Writers Association's executive director Caroline Hendrie talks with Diane Stark Rentner of the Center on Education Policy about CEP’s report, Common Core State Standards: Progress and Challenges in School Districts' Implementation, and how school districts are transitioning to the Common Core State Standards.

On May 3, 2011, the Center on Education Policy issued an open letter to the member states of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), which are developing assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards.  The letter, which is based on CEP’s five-year extensive analysis of state testing results, raises some issues regarding the setting of the cut score for proficient performance and the reporting of results.   The suggestions are offered in an effort to make the new assessment systems as useful as possible to policymakers, educators, researchers, parents, and the public. Also posted below is the response from SBAC.

Upon his retirement from the leadership of CEP, Jack Jennings reviews in this paper the three major school reform efforts of the last 50 years, proposes an agenda focused on the classroom, and advocates for the creation of a federal civil right to a good education to advance that agenda.

In the fall of 2010, the Center on Education Policy surveyed state officials about their efforts to adopt and implement the Common Core State Standards in reading and math.   The survey found that states that have adopted the standards have plans for changing policies and programs, such as developing or adopting new assessments, modifying curriculum materials, and offering professional development for teachers, to ensure that the standards are fully implemented at the classroom level. However, many of these changes will not be fully in place until 2013 or later.

This report, based on a fall 2011 survey of 35 Common Core State Standards-adopting states (including the District of Columbia), examines states’ progress in transitioning the new standards.  The vast majority of the states in the survey believe that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are more rigorous than previous state academic standards in math and English language arts.  The vast majority of survey states are taking steps to familiarize state and district officials with the new standards and to align curriculum and assessments.  However, most of the states in the survey do not expect to fully implement the standards until 2014-15 or later.  In addition, a majority of the responding states caution that having adequate resources is a major challenge to full implementation of the CCSS.