The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Math
What do they mean for you?
What are the opportunities and challenges facing educational marketers in light of the new Common Core State Standards Initiative?
The goal of the Common Core State Standards, as they are generally known, is to provide a consistent understanding of what students in grades K-12 are expected to learn at each level, as well as promote more sharing of best practices.
To review which states have elected to join the initiative, visit www.corestandards.org. To date, 42 states, including California, Florida, and New York, have formally adopted the new standards.
Benchmarked to international standards, the new standards focus on core conceptual understanding, real-world relevance, and higher-order thinking skills starting in the early grades. The goal is to give teachers enough time to teach core concepts well and give students enough time to master them.
English language arts and math were selected as the first subject areas because they allow students to build skills needed across many curriculum areas and because they are most frequently assessed for accountability purposes. Additional subject areas may follow.
The standards were developed by a diverse group of teachers, parents, and school administrators, led by the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and other organizations.
Companies will need to make sure that textbooks, digital media, professional development, and teacher preparation programs are aligned to the new standards, and marketing and sales programs will need to promote that alignment.
Customer-facing staff members will need to be well versed in the standards, able to help educators understand the implications, and skilled at explaining how their products meet the new requirements. Some companies are offering workshops in how to address the standards using their solutions.
To measure student performance, it is likely that new comprehensive assessment systems will be needed and that one set of standards will make it easier for states to develop a shared set of tests. It will be up to the states to come together to develop new tests, and some states are already planning to do so.
Although the initiative is state-led, educational marketers will be interested in the different ways the federal government may support the states as they begin adopting the standards. These include:
- A range of tiered incentives, such as greater flexibility for states in the use of existing federal funds, a revised state accountability structure, and financial support to implement the standards
- Long-term financial support for common assessments, professional development, and research to continually improve the standards
- Alignment of federal education laws with lessons learned
CCSSO and the NGA Center are continuing to assist state policymakers in various ways that will be of interest to education companies. For example, they plan to convene the publishing community to ensure that high-quality materials aligned with the standards are created.
They are also a developing a State Policymaker Guide to Implementation, facilitating collaboration among organizations, and planning the future governance structure of the initiative. Many of these efforts provide opportunities for education companies to be part of the discussion.
For the latest updates and more information, visit www.corestandards.org.
--By Diane Rapley, Education Marketing Consultant, San Francisco, rapley@pacbell.net