"We don’t want the zip code that you’re born in to dictate the quality of education you get”
-Carrie Heath Phillips, Senior Program Associate for the Common Core State Standards
With over 40 states pledging official commitment to this nation-wide experiment in education policy, the Common Core State Standards will likely play a pivotal role in shaping academic characteristics of future classes of college freshmen. Secondary school counselors should be familiar with this movement to help students maintain the appropriate trajectories, and college admission offices should pay close attention to these standards in order to adjust expectations for applicants.
This edition of the Briefing Room provides:
- A look at the steps leading to this milestone in education policy
- Components of the standards and the Race to the Top competition responsible for new testing instruments
- A status update on the implementation of the Common Core.
The podcasts in this edition feature representatives from each of the major players in the development of the Common Core: Achieve, the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). There is also a podcast with a researcher from the Center on Education Policy that discusses state high school exit exams, an integral part of the standards initiative.
