Education Organizations and Common Core State Standards at a Glance

By Fatima Lemus-Gupta

Since I have never been in charge of a classroom, I thought I would focus this blog on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  I have heard about the Common Core from friends who have school aged children in the U.S.  However, my children have been in international schools throughout their schooling.   I often wonder what they would be learning back home. 

I have tried to find as much information as I can about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  In addition, many of the organizations described in this blog were new to me.

The history of the National Education Association (NEA) goes back to 1857.  Prior to that year there were different teaching associations in different states.  However, they were not coordinated.  Several teachers answered the call made by Thomas Valentine to become unified, and the National Teachers Association (NTA), which later became the NEA, was formed [1].   The NEA has a long history as a teachers’ union of advocating for education issues concerning minorities, women’s rights, teachers’ salary, children’s rights, segregation issues and education equality.   

Despite the NEA’s long history of advocating for progress on many social issues affecting education, the NEA has been widely criticized for opposing what is seen by some as positive changes to education, accountability of teachers with regards to misconduct, some curricular changes, gay issues at school and political involvement [2].

The NEA states that the development of CCSS is a good starting point.  However, the organization has been vocal about the need to develop appropriate resources and teaching tools for teachers to implement the standards.  In this effort, they created the document ‘Common Core State Standard Tool Kit’.  This is a comprehensive document that tries to bridge the gap between the CCSS and the implementation at the classroom level.  In addition, the NEA questions the assessment tools to record results and improvement [3].

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) was ranked the second largest education related union behind the NEA by July 2010 [4].  Even though the AFT initially supported teachers, they expanded in their area of work.  Currently, AFT represents teachers, school support staff, higher education employees, public employees, nurses and health professionals, and professionals working on early childhood education [5]. 

AFT’s key issues are divided into different categories: economy, Public Schools, Health and Safety, Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Federal Policy, Health Care, Standards and Assessments, Higher Education, Teaching Profession, Safe and Orderly Schools and Early Childhood related issues. [6].

The AFT is a supporter of the CCSS. However, they also propose several recommendations to improve the implementation of the CCSS.  In these recommendations they include the following categories: standards design, curriculum development, professional development, shift in culture, and instructional tools and resources and assessment [7].

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization working throughout the United States.  Their mission states that “through leadership and collective state action, they aim to create a public education system that prepares every child for lifelong learning, career, and citizenship” [8].   One of the CCSSO’s main foci is the creation of the Common Core State Standards, in partnership with the National Governors Association.

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is an educational initiative within CCSSO created to provide consistency across the states in what students should learn by the end of each year in English language arts and with the ultimate goal of preparing students to have the necessary skills and knowledge to enter college and career, as well as to compete with international standards [9].

Two key organizations for the development and implementation of CCSS are the CCSSO and the National Governors Association (NGA).  The process of creating CCSS was initiated by recognizing that each state had different standards and benchmarks.  Setting readiness standards for college and careers followed this process. By June of 2010 the final Common Core State Standards were released [10].  

National Governors Association Center Education Division (NGA) is a bipartisan governors organization that aims to share best practices to governors around the nation.  The Center Education Division focuses on providing information, research, analysis and technical support to governors and key policy makers to develop appropriate policies in the area of education from pre-K to post secondary education.  NGA in partnership with CCSS established the Common Core State Standards in the United States [11]. 

Another relevant NGA area of work is the push for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education agenda to decrease the lack of skills, knowledge and preparation in each of those areas prior to post-secondary studies [12].

There are several organizations that aim to achieve better parents’ understanding of the CCSS at the classroom level.  The Council of the Great City Schools is one of them.  They have developed several informational materials for parents to have a better understanding of CCSS for English and Spanish native speakers [13].

Achieve is an organization that partners with CCSSO and NGA and provides support to parents, teachers and the community to bridge the gap for better implementation of CCSS [14].

Their advocacy includes support for state leaders to promote policy changes and reforms.

Other international education organizations play key roles in the global educational system, but their work is not directly focused on CCSS, as CCSS is a United States based initiative.

The Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE) is based in Florida and was founded in 1966.  AAIE aims to provide opportunities for professional development, networking and sharing of ideas and skills in the area of international school leadership.  Within this organization is the AAIE Institute, which provides different mentoring opportunities, as well as a master program in International School Leadership [15].

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was formed in 1945 as a specialized agency of the United Nations.  The United States has been a UNESCO member since 2003.  UNESCO’s mission is “to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information” [16]. 

Besides the work that UNESCO is doing in advocating and working for gender issues, peace, culture, education and other global issues, UNESCO has several ongoing projects on education, communication and information utilizing non-conventional media tools.  Some examples of these new platforms include the Global and Open Access Portal, the Open Training Platform, the Women in African History and the World Summit on the Information Society community site [17].  It is hard to completely describe the extensive work of UNESCO in this blog.  I would encourage you to go to their webpage and see for yourself all the amazing work UNESCO is doing.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with the motto of Better Policies for Better Life, promotes policies and reforms that improve the economic and social well being of citizens around the world. The United States was one of the founding countries of OECD. 

In the area of education OECD has done extensive research, data analysis and publication.  This is with the objective of achieving a better understanding and dissemination of the state of education around the world, as well as its impact on the future of higher education and employment opportunities for young professionals, and economic equality around the world [18].

Part of the OECD is the Center for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI).  This organization is based in France, and has done extensive educational research across all ages and beyond the formal education system.  Their current projects include Education and Social Progress, Governing Complex Education Systems and Innovative Teaching and Effective Learning.   Their vision is that education promotes social, economical and environmental progress (19).  

While many organizations focus on developing benchmarks, standards and assessments, CERI focuses on understanding better ways to teach and learn and their effects on the individual an ultimately the society as a whole.  I have also been particularly struck by their work on art in education. 

The Global Partner for Education (GPE) is an international organization based in Washington, D.C.  It was launched in 2002 to tackle efforts to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal for Universal Primary Education by 2015.  Besides focusing their work on children with disabilities, early childhood, literacy and numeracy, and out-of-school children, GPE see teachers as the key to quality education.  With that in mind, GPE aims to improve teachers’ employment conditions and to improve teachers’ effectiveness by providing training and promoting teacher development programs [20].

It is interesting to me to review the work that all these different organizations are doing.  It seems to me that the U.S. based organizations are focusing their efforts on developing and implementing benchmarks, resources, tools and assessments that contribute to a better student knowledge in literacy and numeracy, and in some cases in science. 

In contrast, international organizations appear to be focusing their efforts on developing a more innovative approach to teaching and developing students skills that may be more appropriate for the future.  In addition, organizations such as UNICEF and UNESCO are advocating for universal access to primary schools for regions that are in conflict or in extreme poverty. 

The CCSS were developed in response to the lack of standardized teaching goals across the United States, as well as to students’ deficiency in readiness for postsecondary education.  Even though the CCSS are needed for those two reasons, more efforts are needed to develop innovative ways of teaching and learning, and connect CCSS with both implementation in the classroom and utility for students’ future careers.  Teacher resources, professional development and creating a culture of collaboration and innovation in the learning process are key to promote not just student readiness for post secondary education, but to promote life skills for the future.

Reference Material:

[1] Sabrina Holcomb (2006, January 21) Answering the Call: The History of NEA, Part 1.  Retrieve from http://www.nea.org/home/11608.htm

http://commoncoreworks.org/Page/239 [2] Wikipedia (2014, August 12) National Education Association.  Retrieve from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Education_Association

[3] National Education Association (2014) NEA . Retrieve from http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/Common-Core-State-Standards-Toolkit.pdf  

[4] Wikipedia (2014, August 21) American Federation of Teachers.  Retrieve from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_of_Teachers

[5] American Federation of Teachers.  AFT Hystory.  Retrieve from http://www.aft.org/about/history/

[6] American Federation of Teachers.  Key Issues. Retrieve on 2014, September 16.  Retrieve from http://www.aft.org/issues/

[7] American Federation of Teachers. Common Core Standards.  Retrieve on 2014, September 16.  Retrieve from http://www.aft.org/issues/standards/nationalstandards//

[8]Council of Chief State School Officers (2014) Our Promise.  Retrieve from http://www.ccsso.org/Who_We_Are/Our_Promise.html

[9] Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2014) About the Core Standards.  Retrieve from http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/

[10] Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2014) Development Process.  Retrieve from http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/development-process/

[11] National Governors Association (2014) NGA Center Education Division. Retrieve from

http://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/OnePagerEducation.pdf

[12] National Governors Association (Retrieve on 2014, September 16) Building a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education Agenda.  Retrieve from http://www.ncscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/National-Gov-Assoc-Building-a-STEM-Education-Agenda-1-2012.pdf

[13] Council of the Great City Schools (2012) Parents Road Map. Retrieve from http://commoncoreworks.org/domain/114

[14] Achieve (2014) Achieving the Common Core. Retrieve from http://achieve.org/achieving-common-core

[15] Association for the Advancement of International Education (Retrieve 2014, September 16) Who we are.  Retrieve from http://www.aaie.org/page.cfm?p=374  

[16] UNESCO (Retrieve 2014, September 17) Education for the 21^st Century.  Retrieve from http://en.unesco.org/themes/education-21st-century

[17] UNESCO (Retrieve 2014, September 17) Communication and Information. Retrieve from

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/themes/

[18] Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2014) Education at a Glace 2014: OECD Indicators. Retrieve from http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag.htm

[19] Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Retrieve 2014, September 17) Retrieve from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/

[20] Global Partners for Education (Retrieve 2014, September 17) Retrieve from http://www.globalpartnership.org/focus-areas/teachers

CCSS VIDEO: