Common State Standards and Common State Assessments

Last week Education Secretary Duncan announced that $350 million of the $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funds for states will be dedicated to competitive grants to help states improve assessments of student achievement. This announcement was well timed with a forum held by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers (NGA/CCSSO) to introduce their Common Core State Standards Initiative. Combined, these two efforts could mean a significant change in both the expectations students are held to and the way in which their performance is measured.

The NGA/CCSSO Common Core State Standards Initiative represents a major step towards national standards for college readiness and student achievement in math and English-Language Arts. By signing on to the initiative, states are agreeing to participate in the creation of internationally benchmarked standards that they can then choose to adopt within three years. These standards aim to be clearer and more concise than existing state standards and should guarantee that students across the country are learning the same thing and are held to similar standards.

But measuring student achievement, regardless of how good the standards may be, depends on the quality of the assessment used. While fill-in-the-bubble tests may be a good measure of rote knowledge and basic skills, they are not necessarily appropriate for assessing a student’s ability to apply knowledge to new situations, or reason through a problem. Similarly, they do not measure innovation, team work, or out-of-the-box thinking. New assessments will be required to properly measure achievement against these skills should they appear in the Common Core Standards.

This is where the $350 million in Race to the Top funds come in. While the role NGA/CCSSO will play in these funds in unclear, Secretary Duncan made it clear that the grants will go to support the assessment of the new common standards in adopting states. Similarly, Secretary Duncan mentioned that he hopes states will collaborate in the creation of new assessments, just as they are collaborating in the creation of the standards. If his plan works, public education in America could be on its way to a more coherent and cohesive system of standards and assessment system.

So what does this all mean? First it indicates the administration’s support for student assessments that extend beyond fill-in-the bubble tests. This could be anything from open ended response questions to performance based assessments and portfolios. In turn, this has implications for the future of accountability in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The focus could be placed more on goals (read: standards) and less on process (read: curriculum and instruction).

Second, it underscores the importance of states banding together to build both good standards and good assessments. This does not necessarily sacrifice states’ rights but provides a valuable opportunity to share best practices and collaborate.

Third, and perhaps most saliently, it means that there is only $4 billion remaining in Race to the Top funds for states. These remaining funds can be used to improve the distribution of teachers, build and expand data systems, and support schools in need of improvement. States have already begun to agonize about their eligibility for funds and whether enough money was made available to begin with. Will the Secretary start specifying funding amounts for other priorities?