Introduction

If the topic of Common Core has come up in your everyday conversations with everyday people, then according to a Gallup Poll you are one of only one-third of all Americans that have ever even heard of the term. And of those who have heard the term, chances are their support or opposition of the initiative is intense. So what exactly is this initiative? It was started in 2009 by a group of Governors and State Education Chiefs, and until the fall of 2012 had tremendous support and acceptance in the state legislatures across the country. What happened? To fully understand, it’s best to start at the beginning – or at least the beginning of today’s education reform movement.

Education Standards

Educational standards are detailed descriptions of what a student is expected to know and be able to do at a specific stage of their education – such as the end of a course, grade, or grade span. They contain coherent and rigorous content and encourage the teaching of advanced skills, but they do not describe any particular teaching practice, curriculum, or assessment method.

Standards vary in content, purpose, and design and each set of standards is unique, but there is often a great deal of commonality from state to state. For example, while different sets of mathematics standards use different descriptions, or sequence specific learning expectations differently, most mathematics standards describe similar quantitative concepts, principles, and reasoning.

Like most reform measures in education today, the idea of standards in education dates back to the famed 1983 publication A Nation at Risk, which called for schools at all levels to “adopt more rigorous and measurable standards”. The requirement for standards and aligned assessments has since been a feature of federal legislation including in the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) of 1994 and No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), and has exerted a strong influence on state and local decisions about education policy and practice.

Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a set of standards that outline basic expectations in the areas of English language arts and mathematics and are specifically designed to ensure students are ready to succeed in college or a career by combining the best education practices from around the country with competitive international standards. The standards do not dictate the content of lesson plans or school curriculum.

The CCSS were formulated based on extensive evidence and research from a variety of sources, which included: comparisons of top-performing state and international programs, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), scholarly research, workforce training data, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

The highly collaborative development process included input from a diverse population of elected officials, education experts, educators, and over 10,000 public comments submitted after releasing drafts and revisions throughout 2009-2010. 

History of Common Core

Throughout 2006-2007, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Pew Center on the States collaborated on an initiative first introduced by the National Governors Association chair at the time, Janet Napolitano. Her initiative focused on improving education in math and science across America in order to ensure that American schools remained competitive internationally.

A task force composed of governors, business and academic leaders, education policy experts, NGA Center affiliates, and researchers from the Pew Center on the States collected research, held debates, and produced a report outlining six guidelines for states to invest in and improve innovation based on the best education practices already existing in many states. (The final report from 2007 may be found here).

This report served as inspiration for another initiative released in 2008. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the National Governors Association (NGA), and Achieve Inc. created Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students get a World-Class Education, discussing a set of common state standards in K-12 to promote international competitiveness.

Governors, chief state schools officers, state education policy experts, and teachers began forming the Common Core State Standards Initiative in 2009, focusing on college and career readiness for American students.  The group published drafts for state review and public comment in early 2010, using the feedback to finalize the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and release the final initiative in June.

(A detailed timeline and history may be found at the Common Core website here).

A State-Led Initiative

Common Core is a state-led initiative. State leaders, experts, and teachers pioneered the creation of the standards, and have overseen decisions regarding their realization in local schools and together made decisions to meet the requirements. No federal funding has been used in designing or revising CCSS, however to the perceived detriment of the movement, the Department of Education has tied competitive grant monies and NCLB waivers to the implementation of standards that are Common Core in all but name.

Still since 2010, states have conducted their own review and implementation processes of the CCSS. As of March 2014, 44 states, the District of Columbia, and a collection of outlying U.S. territories have adopted the CCSS and are currently configuring implementation of the standards.