Common Core Standards – Engaging Higher Education

One of the purposes of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, undertaken by that National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to create national standards for and assessments of student learning, is to strengthen the P-16 continuum and engage higher education more fully in school improvement. An important step in that direction came on December 16 with the announcement of a new alliance between the CCSSO, the State Higher Education Executive Officers, and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

The involvement of higher education in the initiative is immensely important, for two reasons. First, alignment of its standards with college admissions/placement standards will help validate them for schools and students – and add an additional assurance of academic rigor. Second, the higher education institutions, which are largely responsible for pre-service and in-service teacher training (the member institutions of the AASCU train many if not most of the nation’s teachers) will have a new impetus to upgrade and update their programs, in consultation with the schools where their graduates will teach.

This is an example of a reform effort that can be conducted much more effectively on a national basis than state by state. Higher education’s teacher preparation programs must of course be designed in accordance with state certification and hiring practices, but on the whole the institutions are more affected by national standards and trends – and of course any conflict between state and national pressures can be an excuse for inaction.

Massachusetts is one of 40 states, plus the District of Columbia, currently participating in the Common Core State Standards Initiative. (Most of the holdouts are small states west of the Mississippi.) Those of us who supported the decision to participate should pay close attention to this new aspect of the initiative, with its great potential for accelerating the improvement of our schools.