Last Monday marked the four-year anniversary of the Common Core State Standards, which were originally adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. Four years into this bold initiative, most remain committed to these higher expectations for students, even while a few states are changing their commitment to these standards.
NPR ran an interesting piece the other day highlighting some major challenges facing states and educators as they work to implement them ahead of the initial testing called for next year.
For many students around the country, the Common Core State Standards will feel tougher than what they’re used to, NPR reports. That’s because they’re tougher than what states previously have asked of their students. It will be quite a change for many.
Textbooks and lesson plans needed
But that’s not the only change the standards will require, and therein lies one of the key challenges during this initial implementation phase.
Developing the new curricula and materials capable of teaching to the new standards is absolutely necessary if Common Core is to succeed. Think textbooks, lesson plans, and homework assignments.
The need for more and better materials accounts for some of the implementation stumbles we’ve already seen. While progress has been made in the past couple of years, state and local educators and school officials still have a lot of work to do.
The importance of measuring outcomes
Another element critical to the success of the standards is assessment.
In the business world, the task of measuring and assessing is fundamental to improvement and excellence, whether it’s safety performance, financial results, or any part of a company’s daily operations. Without metrics and accountability, we in the business community would lack a clear understanding of how we were doing in pursuit of our goals.
The same principle of measuring what you value holds true for education as well.
This emphasis on continual assessment is one of the key virtues of the Common Core. New tests are being developed that have the potential to measure student learning on a deeper level, with more meaningful questions and more informative results.
Two such assessment systems – the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium – get the most attention, but other states are also developing new tests (see, for example Utah and Kansas).
A challenge for local officials and educators
It’s up to educators and administrators in the states to implement effective assessment metrics. Of course, some have done a better job than others so far, but all are going to have to meet a minimum threshold of acceptability if the new standards are to mean anything.
I’ve talked before about the wide latitude that state and local officials have under the Common Core, and the assessment challenge is a prime example.
NPR summed it up well in noting the Common Core State Standards aren’t a creature of the federal government as many of their critics claim. “Washington’s not on the hook here. States are. Governors signed on — Democrats and Republicans alike — because they saw something necessary and ambitious. And implementing ambitious is never easy.”
It’s not easy, but it is necessary.
