The window to comment on the Common Core Initiative draft has recently closed, but discussions over the proposal are far from over. While a designated committee has just begun to mull over input provided by leading education stakeholders, the rest of the education community is wrestling with how it will orchestrate all the necessary support systems for such an initiative to be successfully adopted, implemented and utilized to improve student outcomes.

Most recently, at a Fordham Institute forum — National Education Standards circa 2009: Where do we go from here? — on Wednesday, experts’ talks about standards and implementation underscored the vast scope of reform efforts that the common core undertaking will demand from the entire education community – educators, policymakers, administrators, postsecondary institutions, industry and more.

“None of this is serious unless we have radical rethinking,” said Sandy Kress, former senior education advisor to President George W. Bush.

Other panelists – Sheila Byrd Carmichael, an education policy consultant; Dane Linn, director of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices director; and W. Stephen Wilson, Johns Hopkins University professor of mathematics – echoed Kress’s notions of some form adjustment in the nation’s education beyond adopting standards.

For example, the adoption of new, rigorous math standards would impose a ripple effect on the education community from elementary to postsecondary, the experts noted. New standards in K-12 classrooms would then lead to new standards for teacher training programs at the postsecondary level. That would require teacher preparation departments to collaborate intensely with mathematics departments — a partnership that has been difficult for schools and institutions across the nation to build.

In the policy arena, the impact of raised standards on student achievement, particularly in the beginning when students are least likely to perform well, would also shake the political community, they noted. How will the education community convince politicians to support the Common Core Initiative through policy and funding, despite the inevitable backlash that will occur when students do not meet these new, high standards?

Clearly, setting new expectations is just the beginning of this process.

Today, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers held the second in a series of informational sessions to share progress and get feedback regarding their work on the Core State Standards Initiative.  The Initiative will develop two sets of common state standards in mathematics and language arts – one that ensures college and career readiness, the other that sets grade-by-grade benchmarks for grades K-12 – that states can voluntarily adopt.  Standards in science and social studies are expected in the future.  To date, 46 states and 3 territories have joined the Initiative.  By doing so, they agree that their governor and state commissioner of education will help to develop a common core of state standards.  These standards will be research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations and include rigorous content and skills.

Currently, each state has its own set of standards which makes it difficult for students to transition between states.  Inconsistency also means that students may be learning at different levels.  In order for the next generation of American workers to compete globally, they must all be learning the skills they need to succeed in college and the workplace at the same level.   CCSSO President-Elect and Maine Education Commissioner Sue Gendron said, “Common standards will provide educators clarity and direction about what all children need to succeed in college and the workplace and allow states to more readily share best practices that dramatically improve teaching and learning.  Our graduates and frankly, the future of our economy, cannot wait any longer for our educational practices to give equal opportunity for success to every student.”

A draft of the college and career ready standards are expected to be completed in July 2009, while a draft of the grade-by-grade standards work is expected to be completed in December 2009.  These drafts will be assessed by an expert validation committee which will provide an independent review of the common standards.  After validation, the states will have three years to adopt the standards, if they so choose.