The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

The “not milk” generation: How Gen Z prompted milk’s rebrand
A piece of our history: A look into the Montgomery Farm Women’s Co-operative Market
LIVE: Baseball takes on Richard Montgomery in home opener
Coach Manon achieves 200 wins and state championship in a thrilling wrestling season
Overtime Elite: A new wave of professional basketball
Proposed bill will guarantee top 10% of Maryland students to 12 Maryland universities

Proposed bill will guarantee top 10% of Maryland students to 12 Maryland universities

March 21, 2024

New education plan to replace NCLB

Ever since the U.S. placed 24 internationally in math achievement, behind countries such as Australia and Ireland, legislators have been looking for a program to replace the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Educators and critics widely consider it a failed attempt to raise the country’s math achievement to an internationally competitive level.

Cue the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which state officials hope will put the U.S. back in the running.

The CCSSI develops universal standards in English and math instruction for kindergarten through grade 12.

“As state school chiefs, we have been discussing and building momentum for state-led, voluntary common standards that are both rigorous and internationally benchmarked for the past two years,” said the Council of Chief State School Officers president Ken James in a press release.

Story continues below advertisement

The initiative started when international results showed that, despite national acts such as NCLB, American teenagers lagged behind teenagers in other industrialized countries.

“States came to us and said they were ready [for a change],” CCSSO communications directors Kara Schlosser said.

Maryland was one of the first states to join CCSSI, said Bill Reinhard, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Education.

“None of the national legislation has ever worked,” he explained.

The first draft outlines the career and college readiness standards, and can be found at www.corestandards.org.

“This is phase one of the project,” Schlosser said. “We are using them as goalposts. When you graduate from high school, these are the standards that you have to be able to have reached to be able to get a job or get into college.”

The English standards cover reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. Math standards cover precision, logic, solving complex problems, organization, consistency and using technology. Standards will be grade-specific.

“Starting out in kindergarten, you’re ultimately developing and moving towards the college and career readiness goalposts,” Schlosser explained.

Reinhard said it’s too early to say how Maryland will implement the standards.

“Everything is still up in the air,” he said.

A validation committee of national and international education experts is currently editing the standards, which will be ready for adoption by 2010.

More to Discover