Overview: Common academic standards vs. state

Education Week - 7/20/10

States' plans to adopt common academic-content standards are generating vigorous opposition among some officials in Massachusetts and other states.

The common standards were organized and developed by two Washington-based groups with the unofficial blessing of federal education officials. Adopting the standards by Aug 2 means additional points for securing grants through the federal Race to the Top competition.

But abandoning state standards, such as those on which Massachusetts MCAS exams are based, is controversial.

This article in Education Week provides an analysis by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute of state standards as set against the new common standards. Only three states' standards are rated clearly superior to the common core in English Language Arts and none are rated clearly superior in Mathematics.