Education First and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center have released a joint study on the progress of implementation planning for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Forty-seven states have adopted the standards so far. Not only did the study look at curriculum realignment to fit the new standards, but also at how teacher professional development (PD) and teacher evaluation standards are being aligned with the CCSS. Overall, the study concludes that implementation has been “sluggish at best.”
–Only 7 states (GA, KY, MD, MA, NY, NC, and WV) have fully-developed implementation plans for PD, curriculum materials, and teacher evaluations that support and reinforce the CCSS. Eighteen states are still in the planning stages or have no plans at all in any of these three areas.
–Twenty states have fully-developed PD plans, but 25 states are still developing their plans to support classroom teachers.
–Seventeen states have fully-developed plans for providing CCSS-aligned instructional materials to educators, 18 are developing a plan and 11 have not yet started the process.
–Thirty-eight states have either developed or begun to develop a plan to create or revise teacher evaluation systems to hold teachers accountable for students’ mastery of the new standards. Of this group, only 15 states say their plans are complete.
Next month, Education First plans to release a detailed rubric for states to use to evaluate the quality and comprehensiveness of their plans. They also plan to release a third report that will highlight some state plans they believe are good models for approaching the process of aligning PD, instructional materials and teacher evaluation systems with the CCSS.
To read the full study, please visit http://www.edweek.org/media/preparingforchange-17standards.pdf
