A Nation at Risk warns of U.S. education's mediocrity, sparking a focus on academic standards.
Related storyPresident George H.W. Bush and the nation's governors agree to set national education goals.
Related storyPresident Bush unveils the America 2000 Act, which proposes voluntary national standards and tests. It fails to win congressional support, but his administration funds development of voluntary national standards.
Related storyPresident Bill Clinton signs the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, which provides grants to help states develop content standards and sets up a standards-certification panel. The voluntary national standards in arts, civics, geography, social studies, English/language arts, history science, and foreign languages are released.
Related storyLynne V. Cheney the former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which had subsidized the history standards, attacks a draft, arguing that it presents an overly negative picture of the United States and Western civilization. The U.S. Department of Education withdraws funding for the English standards.
Related storyPresident George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires annual state testing in math and reading in grades 3-8 and once during high school, and mandates states align their tests with their academic standards.
Related storyThe National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers and Achieve, in consultation with state leaders, release a report advocating U.S. standards to be equivalent to the expectations of academically successful countries.
Related storyCCSSO and NGA launch the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Two months later, all but four states have pledged their support to it.
Related storyDevelopment and feedback groups for "career and college readiness" standards—the skills students should have upon graduation—are announced.
Related storyThe draft college and career readiness standards are made available for public comment.
Related storyThe development and feedback groups for the grade-by-grade K-12 standards are announced.
Related storyRace to the Top rules are unveiled. States can get points on their applications for adopting the standards by Aug. 2, 2010.
Kentucky becomes the first state to adopt the standards conditionally, in draft form.
Related storyThe Department of Education invites applications from groups of states to design tests for the standards. To belong to the consortia, states have to adopt the standards by the end of 2011.
Related storyThe Education Department awards $330 million to two consortia to develop tests for the common standards. Four months later, the department awards $30 million more to the two consortia to develop supplemental resources for the standards.
The department announces guidelines for states wishing to apply for waivers of key requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. To qualify, states must adopt college- and career-ready standards.
Related storyAll but four states have adopted the standards. All but five are participating in one or both assessment consortia.
Related story