ASCD's director of public policy David Griffith shares a status report on the Common Core State Standards initiative and its implications for educators. Watch EL for more such reports in the coming months.
The long-standing K–12 academic standards developed by individual states have come under increasing scrutiny and criticism because of the standards' varying quality and the resulting wide disparities in student proficiency as measured under No Child Left Behind and highlighted by National Assessment of Educational Progress scores.
In June 2010, a new set of academic K–12 standards in language arts and mathematics were publicly introduced. The standards, known as the Common Core, are the joint initiative of the membership associations representing U.S. governors and state superintendents; they were developed with the input of states and in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders. ASCD is an endorsing partner of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
To date, more than 40 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards. Such widespread adoption will enable meaningful comparisons of student proficiency in reading and math across nearly all states. Indeed, two federally funded consortia of states that have adopted the standards are each developing a state-of-the-art K–12 assessment system aligned to the new standards.
The Common Core standards are internationally benchmarked and backed by evidence showing that students' mastery of them leads to preparedness for higher education and the workforce. The initiative defines college and career readiness as the ability "to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce-training programs." The standards are intended to be useful to classroom teachers and accessible to students, parents, and the general public. In addition to outlining key content that students must understand, the standards emphasize cognitive skills that ensure students are able to apply what they learn.
The newer, higher standards will require schools and communities to better and more comprehensively support student learning. For the Common Core standards to succeed, they also need to be part of a whole child approach to education that ensures students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.
Equally crucial to the success of the Common Core, classroom teachers must be fully equipped to elevate the standards from mere words to tangible improvements in learning. Indeed, the new standards are more advanced and require students to learn more specific content knowledge as well as to demonstrate a deeper applied understanding of their learning. As such, new and veteran teachers will have to reconsider how best to teach the standards and determine students' comprehension. For future teachers, state teacher preparation programs and licensure policies will need to be revised to align with the new standards. Educators will need targeted professional development to help them understand the standards, develop new lesson plans, deliver effective instruction, and use new assessments.
For more information about the Common Core State Standards, including implementation resources, visit ASCD's Common Core web page at www.ascd.org/commoncore or e-mail ASCD's public policy unit at policy@ascd.org.
