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Common Core Standards
Providing Higher Education Input on New National Standards for K-12
Education
The Common
Core State Standards Initiative is a joint effort by the
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA) and the
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in partnership with
Achieve, ACT and the College Board. Governors and state commissioners of
education from 48 states committed to joining a state-led process to
develop a common core of state standards in English language arts and
mathematics for grades K through 12.
NGA and CCSSO have pledged that these standards will be research and
evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and
work expectations and include rigorous content and skills. The college
and career ready standards are expected to be publicly released in
September 2009. The grade-by-grade standards work is expected to be
completed in December 2009.
ACE is highly supportive of this unprecedented national effort to raise
student achievement to a college- and career-ready level. Further,
ACE believes that higher education must play an active role in crafting
these standards. There are faculty members involved in drafting
the standards, but these groups are by necessity small, so wider vetting
is necessary. Higher education must be involved in order for the
standards to realize their full potential as a tool for increased
student achievement:
- If faculty believe that the standards have been well vetted by their
peers and deemed credible by the appropriate disciplinary organizations,
colleges and universities will be more likely to endorse the standards
and to adapt their admissions and placement policies to reflect the
standards—and the assessments that will eventually accompany
them.
- If colleges and universities validate that the Common Core standards
accurately represent the knowledge and skills that students must possess
to succeed in higher education, it will be much easier for the Common
Core to gain acceptance among key stakeholders such as business leaders,
parents and local school boards. Students also will be more likely
to take the standards seriously if they see the connection between these
standards and the admissions and placement requirements of colleges and
universities.
- Ultimately, if the standards are embraced by higher education, a
huge opportunity opens to create a much more seamless pathway for
students from high school into college.
To facilitate review of the college- and career- ready standards under
the tight timeframe of the Common Core Initiative, ACE is partnering
with the Conference Board on the Mathematical Sciences and the Modern
Language Association. These disciplinary organizations have named
expert panels to review the standards during a one-month open comment
period from mid-September to mid-October (the Modern Language
Association consulted with the National Council of Teachers of English
to develop the English language arts review panel). Members of
the English
language arts and mathematics panels
will review the draft standards in late September and meet in early
October to discuss their impressions and arrive at their highest
priority concerns. NGA and CCSSO have assured us that these
concerns will receive their serious consideration as they finalize the
standards.
ACE hopes to issue a statement at the conclusion of this process
endorsing the standards development and vetting process. ACE will
provide a wide range of disciplinary and higher education leadership
associations an opportunity to sign on to this public statement.
As states proceed to adopt the Common Core standards in 2010, ACE will
partner with other higher education organizations to disseminate
information about the standards to colleges and universities and to
facilitate conversations within higher education and between higher
education and elementary/secondary education about the implications of
these standards for higher education.
ACE is grateful to the Carnegie Corporation of New York for its support
of the review panels.
| The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a joint effort by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in partnership with Achieve, ACT and the College Board. |
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