Assessing the Common Core Standards

Abstract

This article responds to comments on the authors’ Educational Researcher article “Common Core Standards: The New U.S. Intended Curriculum” (April 2011). The authors note points of agreement and difference with the commentators. They observe that Cobb and Jackson, in their response, and Beach, in his, appear to accept the authors’ methods and findings, although these commentators suggest additional perspectives that should be brought to bear when addressing quality and change. The authors agree with Beach, Cobb, and Jackson that quality is difficult to define and assess, and they state that additional conceptualizations of mathematics and English language arts content and additional conceptualizations of how to define and measure alignment among content standards, materials, assessments, and instruction should be explored. They look forward to renewed efforts in this research area.

Is the Common Core racing America to the top? Tracking changes in state standards, school practices, and student achievement

“…The "common core state standards" (CCSS) initiative, launched in 2009 and implemented in 42 states as of 2015, was intended to help fix this 'race to the bottom' problem by having the states adopt uniformly high standards for college and career readiness, that is, what K-12 students should know in English Language Arts and Mathematics at the end of each grade (Common Core Standards, 2013;Gewertz, 2013;Lee, 2016;Porter, McMaken, Hwang, & Yang, 2011).…”

Teaching Mathematics in Kindergarten: How Does Instruction Differ by Classroom Ability?

“…Because new mathematics standards focus more on in-depth understanding of fundamental mathematics concepts, student development of strong mathematical problem-solving skills is a key goal of current teacher practice (Berry, 2019; NCTM, 2014b). Problem solving represents the higher cognitive demands present in today’s standards compared to previous state standards in mathematics (Porter et al, 2011) and leads to increases in student achievement (Guarino et al, 2013). In the early grades and in elementary school, problem-solving practices in mathematics have largely gained traction through student inquiry approaches such as Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) (Carpenter et al, 2000).…”

Eğitim Politikası Riskleri: Zorlu Sorunlarla Mücadele

“…Bu bölümde, Amerikan eğitim sistemindeki standardizasyon reformları eleştirilmektedir. ABD' de eğitim bürokratları tarafından oluşturulan Ortak Temel Eyalet Standartları (Common Core State Standards -CCSS), kâr amaçlı şirketler tarafından geliştirilen hedeflere dayanan ve öğrenciden uzak bir eğitim politikasıdır (Porter, McMaken, Hwang, & Yang, 2011). Bu bölümde, yerel müfredat geliştirme ve uyarlanmış (customized) politikalardan uzaklaşıp merkezi müfredat planlamaya geçiş yapan Amerikan politikası eleştirilmektedir.…”