What will happen to the Standards of Learning (SOLs) in Virginia when the CCSSI issues the Common Core standards?
The Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) is a voluntary, state-run effort, backed by the US Department of Education, to draft and implement a common core of grade level specific academic standards for Math and English in every public school in the nation. The effort is heralded as a bi-partisan initiative of the National Governor’s Association, with 48 states, two US territories, and the District of Columbia participating. Only Texas and Alaska have chosen not to participate.
The initiative requires that each participating state adopt and implement at least 85% of the “Common Core” grade level specific Math and English standards for use in public schools in their states. The US Department of Education, in establishing the rules by which the $4 billion in Race to the Top funds will be awarded, has given priority to states which agree to adopt the national Common Core standards. Several months ago Secretary Duncan released $350 million in Race to the Top funds to assist the initiative in developing a common national assessment to gauge how well states are teaching the Common Core standards to their students.
There’s one problem with this. The Common Core standards haven’t been written yet.
Let me repeat that, because it’s a very important point. Forty-eight states, 2 territories, and DC have agreed to adopt and implement in every public school in their state / territory / district academic standards for math and English which have not been written and they have not seen. Governor Kaine “signed” Virginia public schools up as full participants.
The CCSSI recently released its College and Career Readiness standards which, according to the group, ”define the knowledge and skills students should have to be ready to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing, academic college courses and in workforce training programs.” Yet, the “College and Career Ready” English standards don’t meet the requirements for high school graduation in many Virginia school districts, and, the “College and Career Ready” Math standards fail to meet the minimum admission requirements for many 4-year colleges and Universities in the state.
For English, the “College and Career Ready” standards appear to be little more than a list of skills and reading strategies with no relation to content. For Math, the “College and Career Ready” standards describe the skills necessary to complete Algebra I and a few concepts associated with Geometry and Algebra II without regard to the minimum general entrance requirements for many state 4-year colleges and Universities and no mention of the additional skills and coursework necessary to enter Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs.
Admission to Virginia Tech, one of Virginia’s largest state Universities, requires all applicants to have completed Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II to be considered for general enrollment in any degree program. Some programs, like Engineering and Architecture, require additional math and science course work. Were Virginia to implement the “College and Career Ready” standards advocated by the CCSSI, no students educated in Virginia public schools would be eligible for admission to Virginia Tech.
The Common Core “grade level specific” standards are supposed to describe the knowledge and skills students must master at each grade level to achieve the “College and Career Ready” standards. In essence, the bar the Common Core standards will achieve is one set by the “College and Career Ready” standards. Yet the “College and Career Ready” standards are inadequate.
Virginia, under the rules set forth by the US Department of Education, must adopt and implement at least 85% of Common Core standards to receive priority in obtaining Race to the Top funds. If the Common Core standards meet the bar set by the “College and Career Ready” standards, and Virginia implements them, then students who graduate from Virginia public schools will be ineligible for admission to many 4-year colleges and Universities in the country.
The Common Core standards haven’t been issued, yet. They’re due out in January.
As it stands now, it appears that a national Common Core of grade level specific academic standards will be issued and implemented in almost every public school in the nation with a common national assessment along for the ride. Those standards may be inadequate to meet the current minimum entrance requirements at many colleges and Universities in this country, which means fewer public school kids will be going to college or colleges will be forced to drop their admission requirements. With budgets tight in states across the nation and $4 billion in federal incentives, there is a low probability that individual states will choose not to participate. Efforts to slow, or allow more room for feedback and concerns at the national level have been met with silence.
Two different sets of standards with two different assessments would be unmanageable. Unless Virginia chooses to withdraw from the CCSSI and forgo being given priority in receiving Race to the Top funds, the Common Core standards will serve as the foundation upon which our state standards are based.
Comments
This is alarming. However, I saw no reference to any provision that would bar Virginia or other states from demanding HIGHER standards than the Common Core minimums, as Virginia apparently already does. Is there any such prohibition? If not, then the writer's complaint about the Common Core standards is merely alarmist in this respect, and inaccurate.
That's a very good question, Doug. One for which an answer should be readily available. Unfortunately, the answer to that question hasn't been provided.
Your question, whether individual states could adopt more rigorous standards and still be eligible to receive priority in obtaining federal Race to the Top funds, has not been directly answered at either the state or federal level.
I do understand that a validation committee of nationally appointed individuals will be reviewing the standards selected by each state to determine whether they are in compliance with the 85% adoption requirement. Whether a more rigorous standard – like requiring 1st grade students to know their addition and subtraction facts through 20 as opposed to 10 – would constitute full or partial adoption is unknown.
Experience has taught me that stakeholders need to be on top of these events as they occur, because waiting until the standards are issued, determining that they are inadequate, and then asking whether we can adopt more rigorous standards is too late.
I have more questions, beyond whether we can adopt more rigorous standards and still be in compliance.
I'd like to know what process Virginia has developed for reviewing, selecting, and adapting the Common Core standards for our children. Other states have developed a transparent process whereby state education officials and other stakeholders will review the Common Core standards, select those they choose to implement, and identify any changes to them in full public hearings with transcripts of deliberations and opportunities for citizens feedback.
I'd like to know Virginia's timeframe for implementing the Common Core standards. The 2009 math SOLs are supposed to begin being integrated into lessons beginning in the Fall of 2010. How will the Common Core standards affect that?
What about textbook adoption and selection of instructional materials? Will that be done at the state or national level, or both? The Virginia DOE is supposed to begin reviewing textbook against the 2009 SOLs this summer. If the Common Core standards will replace the SOLs, then what standard is the DOE supposed to assess textbooks against?
I'd like to know what Virginia officials plan to do should the Common Core standards, even with our 15% allowed adjustment, be inadequate.
I've asked these questions, and more, but haven't gotten any answers.
You ask a very good question, Doug. I wish I could answer it. I hope someone at the state level can, and will.
I agree with Kim & the author. VA lacks transparency (especially my school district here in PWC) and it's hard for me, as a stakeholder, to trust this national initiative. I think it'll be more damaging than the NCLB ~ am I an alarmist or a realist? We're all creatures of habit and public education thus far in this fine State has let me down. We should be asking questions and getting answers. Let's hope the governor elect is willing to step up, resist weak standards and strengthen our current ones – for starters eliminating calculator use in grades 3-8 for the SOLs).
Actually, the 85 percent adoption requirement mandates that states adopt the national standards in total and that the must make up 85 percent of each state's curriculum standards. So, yes, adoption does place serious limits on a state's ability to set additional and higher standards.
James, your comment makes me even more concerned, and answers the question Doug asked. Thanks for clarifying!
It sounds to me like this is something we should all be concerned with because the Common Core standards, if they're as low as we expect, could result in a national lowering of the bar.
Was the article alarmist? Maybe.
Did it poke the previous Governor in the eye? Yes; he's the one who signed us up for this effort without have laid eyes on the Common Core standards.
Did it poke Governor-elect McDonnell as well? Absolutely, because if he fails to act to prevent the degradation of our standards then it will be his fault.
Right now Virginia appears to be sailing along in clueless indifference. Articles like this are what it is going to take to shake of the apathy in Virginia and improve eduction rather than just appearing to do something.