Many States Adopt National Standards for Their Schools

[grasshopper]

Many States Adopt National Standards for Their Schools

By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: July 21, 2010

Less than two months after the nation’s governors and state school chiefs released their final recommendations for national education standards, 27 states have adopted them and about a dozen more are expected to do so in the next two weeks.

Their support has surprised many in education circles, given states’ long tradition of insisting on retaining local control over curriculum.

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.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Arne Duncan, the secretary of education. “This has been the third rail of education, and the fact that you’re now seeing half the nation decide that it’s the right thing to do is a game-changer.”


Even Massachusetts, which many regard as having the nation’s best education system — and where the proposed standards have been a subject of bitter debate — is expected to adopt the standards on Wednesday morning. New York signed up on Monday, joining Connecticut, New Jersey and other states that have adopted the standards, though the timetable for actual implementation is uncertain.

Some supporters of the standards, like Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, worry that the rush of states to sign up — what Ms. Weingarten calls the “Race to Adopt” — could backfire if states do not have the money to put the standards in effect.

“I’m already watching the ravages of the recession cutting the muscle out of efforts to implement standards,” she said. “If states adopt these thoughtful new standards and don’t implement them, teachers won’t know how to meet them, yet they will be the basis on which kids are judged.”

The effort has been helped by financial backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to most of the organizations involved in drafting, evaluating and winning support for the standards. The common core standards, two years in the making and first released in draft form in March, are an effort to replace the current hodgepodge of state policies.

They lay out detailed expectations of skills that students should have at each grade level. Second graders, for example, should be able to read two-syllable words with long vowels, while fifth graders should be able to add and subtract fractions with different denominators.

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.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/ed...ds.html?ref=us

[ckoster]

Opponents Gear Up For Race To The Top Funding

STEVEN K. PAULSON, Associated Press Writer
DENVER (AP) ―

Colorado lawmakers and educators say they plan to fight a proposal by the state Board of Education to adopt new teaching standards on Monday to compete for "Race to the Top" education funding, complaining that the state is gambling millions of dollars with no guarantee it will get its money back.

More than 500 people have sent letters to the board urging them to vote against adoption of the Common Core standards in math and language arts. Monday is the deadline for Colorado's application to compete for up to $175 million over four years.

If approved, opponents say local school boards could be forced to buy new textbooks and retrain teachers for new tests. Half of the money would go to the state Department of Education for administration and accountability.

Educators say Colorado is already in the process of adopting its own standards that meet most of the criteria for the federal grants and there is no reason to start over.

"This is sugar to make the medicine go down, but we don't need it because we're not sick," said state Board of Education member Peggy Littleton.

State Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, said the state's pursuit of more federal funding is misguided.

"State education leaders should not allow the carrot of new federal funds to propel the state into a bad policy decision. Colorado should lead the nation in setting high standards for our public schools, not jump on the bandwagon of as-yet undefined national standards," King said.

Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien rejected suggestions Common Core Standards amount to nationalizing public education. She said states created a coalition to come up with the standards and 29 states have already adopted them. She said the federal government had no role.

O'Brien said the compact only sets standards and local school districts can decide what text books to use and how to teach, but some of the standards say otherwise.

For kindergarten through fifth grade, for instance, teachers would be required to have English arts students "analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take."

Children learning math in kindergarten will have to be taught how to "count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence, instead of having to begin at 1."

O'Brien said new state standards were put on hold when she found out about Race to the Top funding in December, so no new tests or textbooks have been required. She said local school districts would still have to buy new books and train teachers no matter what content standards are adopted.

Colorado lost in the first round of "Race to the Top" funding, placing 14th out a field of 16 finalists. Just two states were named winners — Tennessee and Delaware.

On Tuesday, Colorado was among 17 other states and the District of Columbia to be named finalists in the second round, competing for a share of $3 billion.

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On the Web:

Common Core Standards: http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards


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