Common Core Could Suffer During Implementation

Education Week (4/24, Gewertz) reports that though most states have pledged to adopt the Common Core State Standards, they now "face what experts say is their biggest challenge yet: faithful translation from expectations on paper to instruction in classrooms. The implementation stage brims with possibilities both promising and threatening, depending on one's perspective." The article describes some common criticisms of the Common Core, and quotes Thomas B. Fordham Institute President Chester E. Finn Jr. calling poor implementation "the biggest potential pothole" facing the standards. Deep in the article, Education Week discusses concerns about states' loss of curricular control, but notes that "officials who favor them, including US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, have repeatedly said that states are free to choose whether to embrace or reject common standards and tests."