'Common Core' Standards Earn a B From Think Tank

A high-profile effort to establish common academic standards across states is far from complete, but an early blueprint has won a favorable review from a Washington think tank that has long supported standards-based accountability.

A draft of the multistate, “Common Core” standards earned a B grade in both language arts and math from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a higher mark than those given to some prominent national and international standards documents.

The Fordham Institute, in a report issued today , judged various standards on two point scales, for “content and rigor” and “clarity and specificity.” Fordham’s review, like some of its other, previous evaluations of state standards, was based on analyses by a handful of reviewers the organization considers to be experts in English/language arts and mathematics. Fordham’s past reviews have found many states’...