Getting real About the Common Core

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

States today have sharply divergent views of what stakes, if any, to attach to test results for kids. Several have test-based 3rd-grade reading "gates" that you must pass to advance to 4th grade (Jeb Bush said the other day that "Seven states have started on this journey"). A few have "kindergarten-readiness" assessments (though those are more often teacher "checklists" than tests). And the last time I checked, about half the states have statewide exit tests that are prerequisite to graduating from high school, though it's true that most peg such exams to what are today deemed 9th- or 10th-grade standards. (Under Common Core, I'd wager, a bunch of current state exit tests would correlate more with 7th- or 8th-grade standards!)

Some states also have end-of-course exams in high school, the passing of which is related to getting a diploma, and there's a widening belief in educator-land that this is a better course of action than a single statewide exit test.

But a lot of states do none of those things because they don't really believe in high stakes for kids (or can't get away with it politically, or are totally into "local control"), and they tend to trust teacher judgment when it comes to passing students from grade to grade or awarding the course credits that, when accumulated, yield a diploma.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 7, 2012 5:10 AM
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