News Brief

Common Core: Setting the Record Straight

Chris Minnich, Executive Director of CCSSO, and Richard Laine, Education Division Director of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices address the recent questions and concerns raised in the media and the policy community about the origin and implementation of the Common Core State Standards. They maintain that the development of the Common Core was not a federal effort, but one driven by state leaders, in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, K-12 and higher education experts, and business representatives. The standards are not a curriculum intended to dictate how and what teachers teach in their classrooms; they are a clear set of shared goals and expectations for the knowledge and skills that will help students succeed in college or a workforce-training program. Minnich and Laine acknowledge that while there is still much work to be done in states to ensure that the Common Core successfully improves student achievement, "The standards enable states, if they choose...to pool their collective expertise to create the best tools and resources to help local educators improve the effectiveness of their teaching and their students' learning." Read the full article here.