(2010-07-22) Common Core Rapid Adoption

Less than two months after the nation’s governors and state school chiefs released their final recommendations for national education standards (Common Core), 27 states have adopted them and about a dozen more are expected to do so in the next two weeks... The quick adoption of common standards for what students should learn in English and math each year from kindergarten through high school is attributable in part to the Obama administration’s Race To The Top competition. States that adopt the standards by Aug. 2 win points in the competition for a share of the $3.4 billion to be awarded in September... Adoption of the standards does not bring immediate change in the classroom. Implementation will be a long-term process, as states rethink their teacher training, textbooks and testing. Those states that are not winners in the Race To The Top competition may also have less incentive to follow through in carrying out the standards... he problem of wide variations in state standards has become more serious in recent years, as some states weakened their standards to avoid being penalized under the federal No Child Left Behind law... “We’ll have states working together for the first time on curriculum, textbooks, assessment,” said Arne Duncan. “This will save the country billions of dollars.”