Standards & Accountability
Read more about the skills students are expected to acquire and policies designed to hold schools accountable for learning
What’s the Purpose of Standards in Education? An Explainer
What are standards? Why are they important? What's the Common Core? Do standards improve student achievement? Our explainer has the answers.
- Standards & Accountability Wyoming Churches Endorse the Common Science StandardsA group of churches in Wyoming released a statement saying it endorses the Next Generation Science Standards, including the stance that evolution should be taught as scientific fact.Standards & Accountability What Should New Accountability Systems Emphasize and Measure?A high-powered panel discussion in Washington focused on school and student accountability, but revealed disparate attitudes about the importance of testing.
Standards & Accountability Opinion While Other States Fold the Common Core, California Doubles DownIn a week where two states dumped the Common Core, more than 300 California organizations signed on to support it.Standards & Accountability South Carolina Chief's Primaries Head to Run-Offs; Zais-Backed Candidate OutThe primary races in the South Carolina superintendent's election are headed to June 24 run-offs, with two Republicans and two Democrats set to face each other.Standards & Accountability South Carolina Dumps Common Core But 'Doesn't Have Time' to Do Major RewriteThe Palmetto State is fast-tracking its new standards so they're ready for legislative approval in January.Standards & Accountability Teacher, School Accountability Systems Shaken UpMany states are moving to delay or alter test-based accountability for schools and teachers, as tests associated with the Common Core State Standards head for debut nationwide.Standards & Accountability Gates Foundation: Wait Two Years Before Attaching Consequences to Common CoreA top official from the biggest common-core funder in the country says districts and schools should wait before basing teacher evaluations and student promotion decisions on tests based on the new standards.Standards & Accountability Gates Foundation Backs Two-Year Accountability Delay Under Common CoreIn a June 10 letter, a senior Gates Foundation official says the philanthropy supports a two-year moratorium on using assessments aligned with the common core to evaluate teachers or promote students.Standards & Accountability North Carolina's Common-Core 'Repeal' Bills, Through the State Chief's EyesWill North Carolina be the next state to step back from the common core, and how does its state superintendent feel about the recent activity?Standards & Accountability Opinion My Cabbie and Oklahoma's Quest for the un-Common CoreIt's been a tough stretch for the Common Core. South Carolina and Oklahoma have followed Indiana in abandoning the enterprise. North Carolina may be about to join them. Education Week's Catherine Gewertz reports that, as things stand, just 42% of K-12 students will be assessed using PARCC or Smarter Balanced next year. On Sunday, the Washington Post's Lyndsey Layton penned the kind of measured but skeptical big media dive into the hows and whys of the Common Core that Mike McShane and I have urged but which has been hard to find. Now, if you're a regular RHSU reader, you know that none of this should be terribly surprising.Standards & Accountability Common Core Raises Questions on Future of Ed-Tech SpendingMarket analysts generally predict ed-tech purchases linked to the standards will be directed toward digital tools that show the greatest performance in the classroom.
Standards & Accountability Days Apart, Two States Opt to Replace Common CoreThe Republican governors of Oklahoma and South Carolina signed legislation in recent days that requires their states to develop new standards to replace the common core.
Standards & Accountability Less Than Half of U.S. Students Slated to Take PARCC, Smarter Balanced TestsStates where students are scheduled to take tests from two federally funded consortia account for 42 percent of national K-12 enrollment.Standards & Accountability Oklahoma Decides To Replace Common Core With New StandardsDespite her previous support for the Common Core State Standards, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signs a bill that requires the state to replace them with its own academic standards.Standards & Accountability ELLs Test-Drive New English-Language Proficiency AssessmentsEnglish-language learners in states belonging to the WIDA consortium have been field-testing new, common-core aligned English-language proficiency assessments in speaking, reading, and writing this spring.
