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Linking E-Courses to 'Common Core' Academic Standards

The Widespread Pledge by States to Adopt Common Academic Standards Opens Doors for More State Collaboration in Designing Online Curriculum

The widespread pledge by states to adopt “common core” academic standards could allow online education to truly break down state boundaries for teachers and students for the first time, and reduce the cost of online-course creation, experts in virtual education say.

“Now, for the first time ever, online-learning programs in different states and different programs have a common framework,” said Susan D. Patrick, the president and chief executive officer of the Vienna, Va.-based International Association for K-12 Online Learning, or iNACOL. “Now we can start sharing, collaborating, and really refining what we’re doing.”

Typically, online courses have had to be written separately for each state, said Ms. Patrick. “The [state] standards are written so differently that [each state] has to create their own classes from scratch,” she said. With common-core standards, “states can work together ... because they’re all dealing...