A Brookings Institution report argues that the Common Core State Standards may not improve student achievement because there is not much of a connection between standards—even rigorous ones—and student achievement.
Author Tom Loveless writes that, if there was such a connection, states would have seen signs of improvement from their own individual standards—which all states have had in place since 2003. But scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress given between 2003 and 2009 don’t bear that out.
The Washington-based think tank also looks at performance standards, or the “cut points” set for proficiency on states’ exams, to test the argument that the presumed higher cutoff scores on the future tests for the common standards will help drive better student achievement. Again, Mr. Loveless finds that the cutoffs are unrelated to NAEP performance.
