The Common Core State Standards have gotten a lot of press lately – most states are eagerly rewriting curriculum and creating plans to implement these common standards in schools across the country. President Obama has enthusiastically backed them as one of the main aspects of solving the educational dilemma in the United States – no longer will students be at a disadvantage because of differing state standards.
The problem is, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, standards (of any rigor) do not cause higher performing students. Standards are not new to schools, the new aspect is having the same standards across the whole country. The problem is that the data is showing the standards already in place are not actually related to state achievement. Likewise, how rigorous the standards are is unrelated to achievement.
So it looks like the Common Core State Standards will NOT actually improve student achievement. The Common Core Standards WILL, on the other hand, test students on the same standards whether you live in California, Florida or Ohio. The problem here is that within one state, regardless of the standards in place, there is a wide spread of scores. Since all that is changing with common standards is the state to state differences, there is going to be little impact on the actual spread of scores.
So is that confusing enough? Let me try to explain it a little better.
If you give one test to 100 students, you will get a great spread in results – some will do great, some will do average and some will do poorly. Now picture several groups of 100 students, each getting their own test and each having a similar spread of results. Now give each group of students the same test. The spread in results will still be there. The fact that every group was given the same test doesn’t change the fact that there will be a spread in results.
So, sorry everyone, but common core standards (as much as we might legitimately need them), will not solve an achievement problem.
Reference: 2012 Brown Center Report on American Education; How Well are American Students Learning? Feb. 2012, Vol. 3, Num. 1 by Tom Loveless, Senior Fellow, The Brown Center on Education Policy.
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