State Common Core Standards Validation Panel Announced

WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) today released the names of the members of the Validation Committee for the Common Core State Standards Initiative. This committee will immediately be tasked with reviewing and verifying the standards development process and the resulting evidence-based college- and career-readiness standards. The standards are intended to be research and evidence-based, aligned with college and workforce training program expectations, reflective of rigorous content and skills, and internationally benchmarked.

For the college- and career-readiness standards, the Validation Committee will:

• Review the process used to develop the college- and career-readiness standards and recommend improvements in that process. These recommendations will be used to inform the K-12 development process.
• Validate the sufficiency of the evidence supporting each college- and career-readiness standard. Each member is asked to determine whether each standard has sufficient evidence to warrant its inclusion.
• Add any standard that is not now included in the common core state standards that they feel should be included and provide the following evidence to support its inclusion: 1) evidence that the standard is essential to college and career success; and 2) evidence that the standard is internationally comparable.

Members of the validation committee were nominated by states and national organizations, with a group of six governors and six chief state school officers in the participating states selecting the final committee membership. The six governors were Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter; Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell; Delaware Gov. Jack Markell; Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue; Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas; and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. The chief state school officers were: Maine Chief and CCSSO Board President Susan Gendron; Michigan Chief Michael Flanagan; Pennsylvania Chief Gerald Zahorchak; South Carolina Chief Jim Rex; and West Virginia Chief Steve Paine. After the college- and career-readiness standards and process have been validated by the committee, the NGA Center and CCSSO will begin the process of developing the K-12 standards.

The 25 members of the Validation Committee are:

• Bryan Albrecht, President, Gateway Technical College, Kenosha, Wisconsin
• Arthur Applebee, Distinguished Professor, Center on English Learning & Achievement, School of Education, University at Albany, SUNY
• Sarah Baird, 2009 Arizona Teacher of the Year, K-5 Math Coach, Kyrene School District
• Jere Confrey, Joseph D. Moore Distinguished University Professor, William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, College of Education, North Carolina State University
• David T. Conley, Professor, College of Education, University of Oregon CEO, Educational Policy Improvement Center
• Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University
• Alfinio Flores, Hollowell Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Delaware
• Brian Gong, Executive Director, Center for Assessment
• Kenji Hakuta, Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Stanford University
• Feng-Jui Hsieh, Associate Professor of the Mathematics Department, National Taiwan Normal University
• Jeremy Kilpatrick, Regents Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Georgia
• Barry McGaw, Professor and Director of Melbourne Education Research Institute, University of Melbourne; Director for Education, OECD
• James Milgram, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
• David Pearson, Professor and Dean, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley
• Stanley Rabinowitz, Senior Program Director, Assessment and Standards Development Services, WestEd
• Lauren Resnick, Distinguished University Professor, Psychology and Cognitive Science, Learning Sciences and Education Policy, University of Pittsburgh
• Andreas Schleicher, Head, Indicators and Analysis Division of the OECD Directorate for Education
• William Schmidt, University Distinguished Professor, Michigan State University
• Catherine Snow, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
• Christopher Steinhauser, Superintendent of Schools, Long Beach Unified School District
• Sandra Stotsky, Professor of Education Reform, 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality, University of Arkansas
• Dorothy Strickland, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Professor of Ed., Emerita, Distinguished Research Fellow, National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers, The State University of NJ
• Martha Thurlow, Director, National Center on Educational Outcomes, University of Minnesota
• Norman Webb, Senior Research Scientist, Emeritus, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin
• Dylan William, Deputy Director, Institute of Education, University of London

Please click here for biographical information on each of the Validation Committee members. Also, for more information on the Common Core State Standards Initiative and to comment on the draft college- and career-readiness standards, please visit www.corestandards.org.

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Founded in 1908, the National Governors Association (NGA) is the collective voice of the nation’s governors and one of Washington, D.C.’s most respected public policy organizations. Its members are the governors of the 50 states, three territories and two commonwealths. NGA provides governors and their senior staff members with services that range from representing states on Capitol Hill and before the Administration on key federal issues to developing and implementing innovative solutions to public policy challenges through the NGA Center for Best Practices. For more information, visit www.nga.org.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nonpartisan, nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in the states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity, and five U.S. extra-state jurisdictions. CCSSO provides leadership, advocacy, and technical assistance on major educational issues. The Council seeks member consensus on major educational issues and expresses their views to civic and professional organizations, federal agencies, Congress, and the public. www.ccsso.org.