After taking over a year to develop and build on a foundation of previously established college and career readiness standards, the Common Core State Standards have now been published.
You should know that…
• The Standards were developed by the Council of Chief State School Officials and the National Governors Association, along with input from numerous teachers, parents, school administrators, business and civil rights leaders, and are designed to replace the many uncoordinated currently defined by the states
• Only Texas and Alaska did not participate.
• Standards address English Language Arts (ELA), History/Social Studies Literacy, Science and Technical Subjects, and Mathematics, K-12.
• All are “1) research and evidence-based; 2) aligned with job and college expectations; 3) rigorous; and 4) internationally benchmarked.”
• States can add up to 15% of their own standards to fill in the gaps.
If adopted nationally, as expected, all states, therefore all districts, will essentially follow the same curriculum guidelines, allowing a child to transition smoothly, for example, from a school where Oklahoma City to one in Philadelphia, without losing ground or repeating much material.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Education is reviewing state applications for the second round of the Race to the Top (RTTT) grant competition. In the first round, Pennsylvania placed seventh; only Tennessee and Delaware won that time. This time, 35 states and the District of Columbia are trying again.
Initially, Education Secretary Arne Duncan made adoption of national standards a requirement for RTTT implementation, but organizations such as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development were wary of such a mandate. As a result, adoption now awards a state additional points on its application.
Competing in this second round suggests that these 36 applicants are likely to adopt the Standards.
And it is incumbent on all of us to read all of the Standards, which represent “what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade.”
You’ll find, for example, that instead of a list of required readings, the English Language Arts Standards include an appendix with suggested grade-level appropriate texts. The exception: High school juniors and seniors must study the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, and a play by Shakespeare.
Meanwhile, you would also discover, for example, that third graders could describe characters in a story, sixth graders could compare and contrast various texts, while eleventh graders would demonstrate knowledge of 18, 19, and 20. Founding works of the 19th century in American literature.
And when it comes to writing, the standards state, for example, that a fifth grader would successfully write well-supported opinion pieces, while an eighth grader could write arguments based on relevant evidence, and last year could convey complexes. ideas, concepts and information clearly.
Grades 6-12 History/Social Studies Literacy and Science/Technical Standards include:
• Identify aspects of a text that reveal the author’s point of view or purpose.
• Analyze an author’s purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text, defining the question the author seeks to address.
Meanwhile, the Mathematics Standards include, for example, the expectation that first-grade students can solve word problems that require the addition of three whole numbers whose sum is less than or equal to 20, while 5th-grade students graders can handle fractions with unlike denominators, 8th graders can use rational approximations of irrational numbers, and high school students could apply the Remainder Theorem.
Of course, adoption would force states to amend their standardized tests and curricula to conform to the Standards. It’s worth it?
The founder and president of the Core Knowledge Foundation and emeritus professor of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, ED Hirsch, Jr. says, “This is a welcome acknowledgment that only a grade-by-grade, cumulative curriculum centered on a coherent content, can lead to the high level of literacy the nation needs. In short, the Common Core Standards represent a fundamental and long-awaited rethinking of the dominant process approach to literacy instruction in the United States.”
Meanwhile, Walt Gardner, who trained as a teacher and lecturer in the Los Angeles Unified School District at the UCLA Graduate School, is now an educational contributor to major newspapers and magazines. He writes that “National standards are not a panacea for the ills that afflict public education, but they are a step in the right direction. There are always risks involved in an undertaking of this magnitude. On balance, however, I think it is worth worth taking.”
The bottom line: These Standards, developed, as they were, by experts, will provide teachers with flexible guidelines they can follow as they develop lesson plans that will meet the needs and interests of their students.
And that’s an advantage, no matter how you look at it.