Moving Forward with Common Core State Standards Implementation: Possibilities and Potential Problems

Abstract

The standards-based education reform has reshaped curriculum in the United States. This reform came about in large part as a result of the 1983 report A Nation at Risk (U.S. Department of Education, 1983), which urgently warned that something needed to be done to fix failing schools across the nation. This report undoubtedly transformed teaching and learning in schools, despite the fact that almost three decades later our nation still faces the problem of poor student achievement (Dee & Jacob, 2010; Toch, 2012). The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was an attempt to use recommendations from the earlier report to reform education practices, but it had questionable success. The current attempt to address student achievement concerns written by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA) is the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative (NGA & CCSSO, 2010). Although not fully implemented yet, there are already foreseeable advantages and disadvantages to the new standards. This perspective piece examines the possibilities and potential problems of this newest reform effort as it relates to social justice and the skills required for current and future educators to implement it.