How the Common Core Boosts Quality and Equality
Item
Title
How the Common Core Boosts Quality and Equality
Abstract/Description
The adoption of the Common Core State Standards by 46 states and the District of Columbia represents a dramatic departure in U.S. education. In the past, national efforts to improve education have been directed by the federal government and have emphasized resources or organizational structure. In contrast, the Common Core State Standards in math and language arts were developed under the leadership of state governments to improve the "content" of instruction. A tremendous commitment of time, money, and human resources has gone into creating the new standards--and even more will go into implementing them. If the ambitions of the Common Core initiative are realized, for the first time almost every public school student in the United States will be exposed to roughly the same content, especially in grades 1-8. All of which raises the question, Is all this effort worth it? In the case of mathematics, the authors think the answer is yes because the new math standards will address two long-standing problems in U.S. education: the mediocre quality of mathematics learning and unequal opportunity in U.S. schools. In short, the Common Core State Standards have the potential to improve both quality and equality in mathematics education. (Contains 1 endnote.)
Author/creator
Date
In publication
Volume
70
Issue
4
Pages
54-58
Resource type
Background/Context
Medium
Print
Background/context type
Conceptual
Open access/free-text available
No
Peer reviewed
Yes
ISSN
0013-1784
Alternate version
Citation
Schmidt, W. H., & Burroughs, N. A. (2013). How the Common Core Boosts Quality and Equality. Educational Leadership, 70(4), 54–58.
Resource status/form
Published Text
Scholarship genre
Commentary/Editorial
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