Transparency of Common-Standards Process at Issue

As the most concerted effort to create common academic standards in more than a decade rolls forward, the process has drawn criticism from those who say that too much of the nitty-gritty work is taking place behind closed doors.

The organizations leading the effort—the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, both headquartered in Washington—have assigned a pair of working groups to oversee the initial writing of the documents.

Those two panels have produced draft standards for college and career readiness in mathematics and English language arts. More-detailed guidelines for grades K-12 are expected to come later. Yet those groups’ deliberations have so far been deemed “confidential” and closed to the public by the NGA and CCSSO, which say there will be several opportunities for public input in the...