Common Core

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, also known as Common Core, began in 2010. It was an effort by many U.S. states to make school standards more consistent.

The main goal was to ensure that students in K–12 education across the United States learn similar skills in English language arts and mathematics by the end of each school grade. This helped teachers and parents know what students should be learning at each level.

The initiative was supported by groups like the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. It aimed to give schools clear goals for what students need to know. This prepared them for college or jobs after finishing high school.

By having the same standards, students moving between states would not face big changes in what they are learning. This made transitions smoother. The effort sought to better prepare students for the workforce and higher education.

Background

In the 1990s, the United States started a movement to create national educational standards for students. The goal was to clearly show what students should know and be able to do at each grade level. This helped teachers and schools check if students were meeting these goals.

Development

In 2008, a group worked on new rules for what students should learn in school. They made clear goals for reading and math. The goal was to help teachers and parents know what students need for college and jobs.

Many people helped make these rules, like teachers and college experts. These rules are used by many states to guide what is taught in classrooms. There are also tools to help students who are learning English as a new language.

Adoption

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia chose to use the Common Core State Standards. Some states like Texas, Virginia, Alaska, and Nebraska did not. Later, a few states decided to stop using these standards.

The standards for math and English came out in June 2010. Many states started using them after that. States were encouraged to use these standards to get special federal education grants.

English Language Arts standards

The goal of the English Language Arts standards is to help students get ready for college and jobs after high school. These standards have five main parts: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language, and Media and Technology.

Reading standards help students read more difficult books as they get older. They learn to understand and remember what they read. Schools choose their own books, but some examples are by famous authors like William Shakespeare, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and modern writers like Amy Tan.

Writing standards teach students to write clear arguments with good reasons and facts. Students also learn to do research projects, both small and big, to prepare for future school and work. Speaking and listening standards help students share and talk about ideas clearly, in small groups or big talks. Language standards teach students to use words correctly and learn new vocabulary. Media and technology standards include learning how to use technology, like keyboarding, to make and understand different kinds of media.

Mathematics standards

See also: Mathematics education in the United States

The Common Core mathematics standards help make math lessons clearer and more connected. They fix problems with old math books that tried to cover too many topics. The standards have two main parts: how to do math and what to learn at each grade.

The list shows eight important ways students learn math, like solving problems. The other part shows what math skills kids should know from kindergarten through eighth grade and in high school. High school math includes numbers, algebra, functions, geometry, and statistics. The standards don’t say exactly how to teach these topics. Schools decide that. The big changes are learning fewer topics more deeply, connecting ideas across grades, and balancing understanding, skills, and real-world use.

Assessment

The Common Core standards led to two groups of states working together to create tests. These tests helped schools make sure they were meeting the new standards.

One group, called PARCC, included states like Florida and New York. They made tests to check student progress during the year and at the end.

The other group, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, included states like California and Washington. They made online tests that could adjust to each student’s level.

Some states decided to leave these groups and make their own tests instead.

Reception

The Common Core State Standards have gotten both support and criticism from different groups. Experts who helped create the standards say they will help students get ready for college or jobs by focusing on important skills. But some people worry that the standards might not change how well students learn much.

Some teachers and politicians have concerns about how the standards are used. They say schools need more help and better learning tools to make the standards work. Others worry that the standards might take away local control of schools and could reduce time for subjects like art and music that students enjoy.

Impact

Kentucky was the first state to use the Common Core State Standards in August 2010. By 2013, the state noticed good changes. The high school graduation rate went up from 80 percent to 86 percent. Test scores got better, and more students were ready for college or jobs.

But there were some problems too. Test scores were still not very high, and it took time to change how teachers taught. Experts said it would take more years to get used to the new standards. As of 2023, 41 states still use the Common Core curriculum.

Adoption and implementation by states

As of March 21, 2019, many states in the United States had adopted the Common Core State Standards. Some territories, like the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the American Samoa Islands, also adopted the standards, but Puerto Rico did not. By May 12, 2015, five states had decided to stop using Common Core, and nine more were thinking about doing the same.