Some states forge ahead on common core, CA not alone in struggle to implement
As California labors to bring the new common core English language arts and mathematics curriculum standards in its classrooms, other states are dealing with similar issues – some further along in the process and some rethinking the whole idea.
Take New York, for instance. Students in the Empire State will today begin taking new assessments aligned to the common core despite the fact that many schools have yet to begin teaching content based on the new standards.
In Missouri, Arizona and Tennessee, conservative lawmakers and some educators are fighting implementation of common core standards even as schools move forward with plans in the works since 2010.
“We can’t wait,” Merryl H. Tisch, chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, told the New York Times. “We have to just jump into the deep end.”
All but five states – Alaska, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota and North Carolina – have adopted the common core state standards, a uniform set of academic guidelines that define what it means to be a literate person in the 21st Century.The standards, developed at the prodding of the Obama administration by a coalition of governors and state school chiefs, provide for the first time national curriculum goals aimed at better preparing students for the global economic marketplace.
California’s State Board of Education adopted the English and math standards in 2010 but the work behind implementation has been slowed by a lack of financial resources for instructional materials and professional teacher