State Board adopts common core standards
Special meeting Aug. 2; algebra an issue
Published: August 3, 2010
In a unanimous vote, California’s State Board of Education adopted new academic standards for English-language arts and mathematics study in grades K-12, just in time to meet the federal deadline for Race to the Top consideration.
The Board was guided by the work of the state’s Academic Content Standards Commission, which wrapped up its review of standards developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative late on July 15, the deadline for the commission to act. In four grueling sessions at the Sacramento County Office of Education, spread over a period of two weeks, commissioners unanimously endorsed CCSSI’s English-language arts standards, with some supplementation, and forwarded the CCSSI math standards on to the State Board by a 19-2 vote after considerable dispute over algebra.
CCSSI was spearheaded by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State Schools Officers to persuade all 50 states to voluntarily adopt the same academic benchmarks. The Obama administration gave the effort a huge boost when it made the adoption of common standards a prime consideration for states competing for grants from the Race to the Top Fund.
Mathematics
The Academic Content Standards Commission’s consideration of CCSSI’s math benchmarks bogged down in debate over how to accommodate Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s strong interest in requiring Algebra I in eighth grade. In the end, the commission voted to move some of CCSSI’s algebra-readiness standards down into the sixth and seventh grades so most eighth-graders would be prepared to take a full Algebra I course.
Framers of the common core anticipated that, claiming that “The K-7 standards contain the prerequisites to prepare students for Algebra I by 8th grade, and the standards are designed to permit states to continue existing policies concerning Algebra I in 8th grade.”
At the same time, the commission approved the common core’s eighth-grade standards—which focus on some key algebra and geometry concepts, though not comprehensively—as an alternative pathway for students not quite ready for Algebra I.
The move could finesse a simmering issue in California. At the governor’s urging, the State Board had voted in the summer of 2008 to make eighth-grade testing in Algebra I a requirement; however, a lawsuit by CSBA, motivated by concerns over adequate preparation of all students for the rigorous requirement and the costs involved, enjoined the state from enforcing the policy.
Kathy Gaither, Schwarzenegger’s undersecretary of education, made it clear to the commission that the governor would not support adopting the standards unless they were enhanced to make them at least as tough as California’s current standards.
English-language arts
The standards commission’s deliberations on math were preceded by considerations of CCSSI’s English-language arts standards that were less contentious but still exhaustive. The commissioners came to unanimous accord to accept CCSSI’s standards with the addition of existing California standards in penmanship, oral presentation and other skills. CCSSI allows for states to adopt the common core and add 15 percent of their own standards to the mix.
The common core is seen as offering a greater focus on text complexity throughout the grades and an emphasis on comprehending various types of informational texts encountered in everyday life. However, it is not as encyclopedic as California’s existing standards, which have the reputation of being “a mile wide and an inch deep.”
CCSSI’s English and math standards encompass fewer concepts that are purportedly presented in a more logical fashion, and with greater depth, in alignment with the latest in educational research and the standards of leading global competitors such as Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore. The K-12 common core standards derive from—and thus build toward—the college and career readiness standards previously released by CCSSI.
Common core, California and other states
The legislation establishing California’s standards commission charged it with ensuring that the standards it recommends to the State Board “meet or exceed” the rigor of California’s current standards.
Other states that have already adopted the common core standards are taking their time to consider incorporating any additional standards under the initiative’s provision to add as much as 15 percent to the common core’s content. Those states often see the common core as a vast improvement over their existing standards.
Some educators object to adopting the common core on such short notice. The standards were only released June 2, and the Race to the Top competition rewards states for adopting common standards by Aug. 2. States that don’t base their standards on the common core, though, could end up poorly equipped for the national tests and textbooks that can be expected to come from them.
California educators say they’ve learned a lot from their 13 years of experience with standards-based reform, so many feel it’s a good time to refresh the state’s benchmarks. California’s standards have been criticized for including so many concepts that many are glossed over, and because in practice every standard does not actually get taught to every student.
“CSBA supports a revision to California standards if they are fewer in number and more focused and aligned across grade levels. I think the [common core] accomplishes these three things,” said Holly Jacobson, assistant executive director for policy analysis and leadership development.
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