Education Next – Robert Pondiscio
“Education Next began grading individual states’ standards in 1995, comparing the extent to which their state tests’ definition of proficiency aligned with the gold-standard National Assessment of Educational Progress assessment (often referred to as “the nation’s report card”). That year, six states received an A grade. As recently as four years ago, only Massachusetts earned that distinction. Today, nearly half of all states, including the District of Columbia, have earned A ratings. More tellingly, only one state (Texas) was given a D. Things look very different today. Unfortunately, many states have chosen to go their own way on annual tests, robbing Common Core of one of its main selling points: the ability to compare test results across state lines. Yet over half are still part of the two main Common Core testing consortia, PARCC and Smarter Balanced. A new report from my colleagues at the Fordham Institute suggests that the tests our children now sit for are considerably more challenging than those taken by their older siblings a few short years ago. “They tend to reflect the content deemed essential in the Common Core standards and demand much from students cognitively. They are, in fact, the kind of tests that many teachers have asked state officials to build for years,” note authors Nancy Doorey and Morgan Polikoff. “Now they have them.” In short, and in short order, academic standards are much richer in content and intellectual rigor than they were two or three years ago.”(more)