Is Common Core “Working”? And Where Does Common Core Research Go From Here?

Abstract

Five years into the Common Core "experiment," what do we know about the implementation and effects of the standards? Answering this question was the primary goal of this special topic. The answer, it turns out, is not as satisfying as we might like. In this article, I review both the articles that were published under the topic and my broader sense of where the literature is and where it needs to go. This introduction is organized under these two key questions. However, I start with the impact question because I think it is of more interest to policy makers. What Is the Effect of Common Core Standards on Student Outcomes?

Teacher Implementation of College- and Career-Readiness Standards: Links Among Policy, Instruction, Challenges, and Resources

“…differences in written policy, as judged by studies of state policy during this same time period (Alexander, Jang, & Kankane, 2017;Polikoff, 2017). We find suggestive evidence in three states of a federalizing effect, where teachers are less sensitive and cognizant of changes in local policy and more attuned to national policy, mirroring trends toward the nationalization of education policy opinion (Levendusky, 2013;Polikoff, Hardaway, Marsh, & Plank, 2016;Supovitz, 2017).…”

“…It is important also to note the inherent difficulty in studying standards, which may often be loosely coupled from classroom instruction (Weick, 1976). Polikoff (2017) notes the lack of causal evidence concerning the CCSS and their effectiveness; the most compelling causal studies address earlier eras of standards-based reform centered on No Child Left Behind (e.g., Dee & Jacob, 2011). To address these empirical concerns, we employ a well-tested theoretical framework, described in the following.…”

Learning From Standards Deviations: Three Dimensions for Building Education Policies That Last

“…Certainly, partisan divides widened as President Obama and his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, became the public face of the CCSS (Supovitz, 2017). Thus, what is often described as a “misconception” of the CCSS (Polikoff, 2017, p. 3) may be a product of families’ experiences with testing comingled with partisan political calculations. Rather than turn a blind eye to political problems with implementation, I make them the focus of this work.…”

“…States continue to drop out of CCSS-related organizations, such as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, which once boasted 24 member states but now has only 6 (Jochim & McGuinn, 2016; Sawchuk, 2018). The reasons for the declining support for national standards, from unaligned curricular resources to rushed implementation timelines, to the difficulty of new tests, are well established (Cohen, Spillane, & Peurach, 2018; Polikoff, 2017). In addition to implementation challenges, political conflict expanded in the midst of a coordinated social media campaign, and former Education Secretary Arne Duncan became a polarizing proponent of the CCSS.…”

Arabic Language Arts Standards: Revolution or Disruption?

“…Although research in other countries (e.g. United States of America, British Columbia, New Zealand, Singapore) has focused on implementation of standards-based research and its results (Polikoff, 2017; Polikoff et al, 2016; Sahlberg, 2014), studies in Arabic-speaking countries are very limited (Faour, 2012; Taha, 2008). Recently, there have been unprecedented initiatives focused on improving and modernizing the teaching of Arabic language teaching in the Arab world.…”