Maine's 'Common Core' Offers a Lesson in Standards

By Debra Viadero

AUGUSTA, ME.--More than a year before a national panel of educators and business and political leaders called on the nation to define and set high standards for what every child should know and be able to do, the state of Maine had already set down a similar path

Educators and citizens here came up with "Maine's Common Core of Learning,'' a wide-ranging, 55-page plan that establishes 151 goals for student learning. Neither as specific as a curriculum framework nor as sweeping as a vision statement, the document spells out what students should know when they leave school and the skills and attitudes they should take with them.

Maine's effort resembles in some ways, but not in others, what the members of the National Council on Education Standards and Testing had in mind when they issued their final report in January. A few other states, such as California, have gone farther in setting down specifics for student learning in important subject areas. The national-standards panel cited those efforts frequently and...