What is Common Core's role in Alabama?

Several community members have shown some reservations about Common Core State Standards in education. 

Because of fear of federal overreach in local education and because the new standards are more rigorous, many parents are confused and concerned.

However, a large majority of the concern could be blamed on misinformation and bad communication.

Thomas Rains, policy director for the A+ Education Partnership (a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works for great schools for every child), said Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are not part of the federal government.

“Development of the CCSS started in 2008, with the nation’s governors and state superintendents realized their states needed to raise standards to make sure students were ready for the real world,” Rains said. “They saw an added benefit of states sharing standards, because then students who move frequently — like those in military families — can stay on track from one school to another.”  

Among others, governors Sonny Perdue of Georgia, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Bob Riley of Alabama pushed their states helped develop the standards.

The original intent of CCSS was to create one national standard of learning for all high school students.

Several states, including Alabama, have already adopted the new standards in both English and mathematics.

Another big misconception is that CCSS are not yet implemented, which had led some residents to ask local school boards to opt out of using the standards for their individual school districts.

According to Rains, the Alabama State Board of Education sets the academic standards local districts have to follow, not individual school districts.

“I don’t believe it’s possible for a district to opt out of Alabama’s College and Career Ready Standards, which include the CCSS,” Rains said. “I think districts are required by statute to adhere to state standards.”

It is important to note standards and what is actually taught in the classroom are two different things.

“Standards are benchmarks that outline what a student needs to know, and the curriculum is how that information is taught,” Rains said. “Teachers and schools still develop curricula, write lesson plans and decide how to teach students with the College and Career Ready Standards, just like they always have. It’s important that local schools to have this control, because the people who are a part of a child’s life — parents, teachers, etc. — know better than anyone else how that child learns.”

The controversy over CCSS arose in 2009, when President Barrack Obama recognized a good thing was happening and decided to hop on board.

He and Education Secretary Arne Duncan encouraged states to adopt academic standards that would make sure graduating seniors were prepared for college or for a career suited to their interests.

They did so through federally sponsored Race to the Top (RTTT) grants, and those grants required states to adopt some form of College and Career Ready standards.

“Since the CCSS were already in development, most states adopted them instead of recreating the wheel,” Rains said. “This inclusion of standards in RTTT was a terrible decision, because it has muddied the waters and raised fears of federal overreach.”

Alabama outlined these College and Career Ready standards through Plan 2020, which the state has used to opt out of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The new standards haven’t changed the subject matter of what students are supposed to learn, but it has changed the grade level at which some subjects might be introduced.

“When you’re talking about academic standards, you can look at both content as well as rigor,” Rains said. “While Alabama’s College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) contain generally the same content as Alabama’s old standards, the rigor is higher.”

Rains said the old standards often didn’t require students to really understand concepts on a deep level.

“So, in practice you might have a student who could solve a problem with fractions on a classroom test, but if you presented that same child with a real-world situation where an understanding of fractions would help, the student might struggle to apply what he or she had learned in school,” Rains said. “The new standards include the same content, but they encourage deeper learning.”

In other words, the new standards require students to have a deeper understanding instead of passing a standardized test through rote memorization of facts.

“This requirement that students understand concepts on deeper levels can sometimes cause to students struggle before they grasp a concept, but that’s OK,” Rains said. “Struggling to understand a topic means you’re really thinking.”