Why Tennessee Should Stay the Course on Common Core

In November, Republican legislators in Tennessee set out to halt their state’s implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), a multistate effort to raise the bar for what K-12 students should know and be able to do in math and English language arts (ELA). With Senate Bill 4, these legislators are calling for a full CCSS repeal. Governor Bill Haslam has also called for public review of the standards. The moves appear primarily based on political concerns that the Common Core represents a federal intrusion into state and local decision-making and secondarily on weakening educator support, and similar backtracking moves are underway in several states.

But recent evidence suggests that educators’ support for Common Core not only improves with time invested in implementation, but that implementation efforts are being led locally—by teachers, with support from their state and district. It’s time for Tennessee to put politics aside and stay the Common Core course while listening to what types of supports teachers need to do so most effectively. In rising to higher, more mature standards, there will be growing pains. But if Tennessee holds out, educators and students would outgrow them.

Tennessee’s backtracking may sound less like politics and more like a valid response to practitioner criticism of the new standards. After all, recent high-profile polls by Gallup and Education Next suggest weak to moderate national support for the standards. According to the former, only 41 percent of teachers view the standards positively, and the latter shows a 26 percent decrease in teacher support from 2013 to 2014. A recent Tennessee survey suggests a similar decline in support among the state’s teachers this year.

But the Gallup poll also shows that in states where full implementation has occurred, the majority of teachers feel positively about the standards. And for the Tennessee survey, teachers trained in the Common Core are more likely to have positive views. The data suggest that the real issue has less to do with the standards themselves and more to do with time invested in implementation and teacher training.

There are also broader data that provide counter-evidence to these recent surveys. This fall, Scholastic released an update to its 2013 national survey on teachers’ views of the Common Core indicating that the new standards are working for teachers and their students. The update shows that over two-thirds of teachers believe implementation is going well in their schools. And in states where implementation is mostly complete, as in Tennessee’s case, teachers are more likely to feel enthusiastic about implementation and see more positive changes in their students’ academic abilities than in states where only partial implementation has occurred.

Beyond general educator support for Common Core, there’s evidence that implementation in schools is very much a locally-driven effort. A recent report by The Center on Education Policy finds that, for better or worse, teacher-developed materials are the number one source for Common Core-aligned curricular materials in math and ELA, with materials developed within the district a close second, and state materials third—quite the opposite of a federal intrusion. Repealing the standards in Tennessee would disempower hard-working teachers and dampen their willingness to generate or seek out new materials for alternative standards.

As part of a teacher-led approach to Common Core implementation, Tennessee has also invested in professional development for teachers using a train the trainer model. Beginning in 2012, the state trained 200 “Core Coaches” on the Common Core to then train 10,000 of their peers. By 2013, those numbers tripled to reach half of the state’s teaching force. While Tennessee used federal Race to the Top (RTTT) funds for these trainings, the state along with teachers led their implementation and greatly benefited from the investment. In an evaluation of the program, participants showed larger instructional and student performance gains than non-participants. With RTTT funds now dwindling, the state must decide whether to foot the bill to train the other half of its force. Ultimately, backtracking from the Common Core for political reasons would waste money spent as well as teachers’ valuable time and leadership efforts.

To be sure, there is evidence of a dip in teacher support for the Common Core, both nationally and within Tennessee. But rather than view the dip as another reason to skirt the standards, state leaders should ask why the dip exists and how they can spur change in teachers’ perspectives.

The answer lies partly in listening to what teachers need to succeed in transitioning to more rigorous standards—an intellectually demanding and time-intensive endeavor. Recent surveys and reports provide insight into this question, so they’re a good place to start. The data suggest that Tennessee should consider scaling the reach of its effective Common Core training program. Other strategies include additional planning time, opportunities to collaborate with colleagues, more quality age-appropriate curricular materials, and ongoing professional development provided by states or local agencies.

With full implementation in Tennessee occurring last year, a complete undoing at this point would likely lead to confusion among teachers and students alike. Indeed, the Scholastic data suggest that staying the course on Common Core could lead teachers to feel better about the process over time, whereas reversing the course could make teachers doubt the staying power of new state standards—or any new initiative—and disinvest in their implementation.

Carrying out the Common Core is a learning process for states and localities—one by no means federal. But, like growing pains, its challenges will wane with time.