Newscap June 2011

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Initiative – a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers, launched in 2009 – is widely understood to be a game-changer for primary and secondary education. The standards, which define the English language arts and math knowledge and skills K-12 students need in order to succeed in college and careers, were finalized last year and have been adopted by 44 states and the District of Columbia. Multiple initiatives are currently being launched to assist states in their efforts to implement the CCSS, with most adopting states expecting full implementation by 2014. In addition, two consortia – the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) – are well on their way to developing common assessments aligned to the CCSS.

What’s less well understood: The impact of Common Core State Standards on higher education. There are at least three areas where higher education can expect to see some changes.
 

• Teacher Training and Professional Development. Higher ed educates our K-12 teachers – those who’ll be implementing the CCSS in our classrooms through curriculum, instruction, and assessments. If we expect our students to master the CCSS, we must ensure that our teachers are prepared. We must be ready to fully support the standards by making them a key part of our teacher preparation curriculum. With full implementation only three years away, the time to start thinking about this is now. Revision of our teacher preparation programs to address the CCSS must include a full awareness of the standards, how they translate to instruction, and the most effective ways to use the assessments to enhance student learning and for accountability purposes. In addition, we must find cost-effective ways of providing this new level of preparation not only for newly minted teachers but also for those teachers already in the field, through professional development programs.
   
• Remediation. If students are successfully assessed in high school on their skills and knowledge with one of the CCSS common assessments, there’ll be no need for colleges and universities to reassess them for placement purposes – and they shouldn’t. Reassessment would imply a profound lack of faith in the standards, which have been developed by educators at the primary, secondary, and postsecondary level. And that lack of faith could too easily translate into the initiative’s failure. In addition, higher ed should be prepared to radically change its current deficit culture of remediation, as students enter our institutions much better prepared.
   
• Accountability and Student Learning at the Collegiate Level. One of the nifty outcomes of the Common Core effort will be that higher education can return to its primary mission of providing college education, rather than doing so much precollegiate work with its students. The improvements in students’ English language arts and math skills will redound positively throughout the entire college curriculum. However, ready or not, higher education will also likely see a new postsecondary focus on accountability. As the Common Core State Standards prove successful for improving elementary and secondary education, our postsecondary institutions can expect that this new focus on measuring student learning outcomes will seep over into higher education in a much more significant way.
   

Until the full implementation of the standards happens, no one can know the myriad ways our colleges and universities will be affected. But one thing’s certain: a change is going to come.

—David Longanecker

June 2011  | Share this on Twitter | Post this on Facebook