Posts published on July 31, 2014

Linking Colleges To Common Core: Positive Developments

Common Core and Higher Education: A View from the Trenches

 

Higher education engagement has been a major priority for the two Common Core assessment consortia. We asked Jacqueline King, director of higher education collaboration for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, to reflect on their efforts to engage higher education and the work that still needs to be done, in context of our recent report: “Common Core Goes to College: Building Better Connections Between High School and Higher Education.” King’s unabridged response is included below. We, here at New America, appreciate the willingness to engage in this important policy conversation.

By Jacqueline King

Most attention to the Common Core State Standards has focused understandably on the continued political backlash against the standards and the status of implementation in schools.  As we look ahead to next spring when students will take assessments that indicate whether they are on track to college and career readiness, we have seen some attention begin to focus on the role of higher education in the development and implementation of the standards (see New America’s report, “Common Core Goes to College,” and a recent story from Hechinger Report).  Unfortunately, the takeaway from these sources and others is that higher education has mostly been watching from the sidelines and that it has been difficult in many places for K-12 and higher education to overcome decades of entrenched habits and work productively together.

New America Ed Central