FATTAH INTRODUCES RESOLUTION SUPPORTING COMMON CORE EDUCATION STANDARDS
Washington, DC – Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives today championing the state-led development of common standards in core subjects for students in grades K-12.
The initiative is being coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The initiative presents a significant opportunity for states to collectively develop and adopt a core set of academic standards in mathematics and English/ language arts. Forty-eight states and three territories have joined the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
At present, each state operates under its own set of academic standards, with no uniform guidelines. Consequently, students in each state are held to widely varying standards.
Fattah introduced H.Res. 979, which supports the common core standards because he firmly believes all students should be prepared at the same ambitious academic level. “From a child’s first day in Kindergarten to his or her last day in high school, instruction must be in alignment with peers not just across town, but across the nation and around the world,” said Congressman Fattah. “Our goal is college readiness for every child, and this will help us measure our progress to that goal.
“Algebra in Philadelphia, Mississippi, should look like algebra in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” Fattah stated. “It’s important to educators, policy-makers and the business community that we can look across schools, districts and states to see who is learning what.”
States, each of which have historically been responsible for developing their own academic standards, have come together to develop standards that are comparable, useful and rigorous. Experts believe consistent standards will help students better understand what is expected of them and allow for more self-directed learning.
Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, past president of the National Governors Association and a nationally recognized advocate for education praised the Congressman and Congress for their support of this governors-led initiative saying, “Congressman Fattah and the entire United State Congress have effectively persuaded governors to take a more hands-on approach to improving public education. We are doing just that and we are doing it in a way that will ensure students in the Keystone State are afforded as rigorous an education as students in any other state – or nation, for that matter. This effort is long overdue and key to our national competitiveness.”
