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House Education Committee Holds Hearing on Common Core Standards

Dec. 11, 2009—On December 8, 2009, the full House Education Committee met to learn more about the Common Core Standards Initiative and to determine what key players believe would be the federal role in this initiative. Overall, the witnesses agreed that the role of the federal government is not to insert themselves into the Common Core process but rather to reauthorize an ESEA that addresses the need for states to raise achievement levels. In addition, there were comments pertinent to the development of educational materials.

Highlights from select speakers

• Chairman George Miller (D-CA)
  " One of the problems we have encountered with No Child Left Behind is that the law required every state to set its own academic standards and use assessments aligned with those standards. Without a unified set of strong expectations, many states chose to lower the bar -- creating a race to the bottom…Having 50 different standards in 50 different states undermines America's education system. In this system, a high school diploma doesn't guarantee that a student has mastered the academic tools they will need to compete in today's world. All children should be challenged to develop the complex skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the jobs of the future."
   
• The Honorable Bill Ritter, Jr., Governor of Colorado
  "Our economy is now truly global, and the competitiveness of our education system must reflect this. To maintain America's competitive edge, all of our students need to be well prepared and ready to compete not only with their American peers, but also with students from around the world. The state-led development of common core state standards is a critical first step to bring about real and meaningful transformation of state education systems to benefit all students.
   
  Moving forward, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will be a critical opportunity to rethink and evolve the new federal-state partnership and capitalize on the power of state-led innovations to improve education. Much work remains, and governors stand ready to work with the committee on this important reauthorization."
   
• Doug Kubach, President and CEO Pearson Assessment and Information
  "…to successfully develop and implement higher quality standards, diverse education stakeholders, such as state consortia, the US Department of Education, non-profit and for-profit entities, K-12 and higher education leaders, and assessment developers, to name a few, will be required to collaborate and cooperate in new ways."
   
• Cathy Allen, Vice Chair Board of Education at St. Mary's County Public Schools Leonardtown, MD
  While Allen voiced overall support for the Common Core Initiative, she voiced the Maryland s local school boards' opposition to any efforts that would, "involve the federal government directly or indirectly (e.g. through an entity over which it can exercise control) to develop mandatory or model national content standards or to mandate the development of common content standards among groups of states."

Governor Ritter said that the final draft of the English language arts and math standards will be ready in February 2010. The next step is for each state to decide whether or not to adopt the standards and to ensure that they have systems in place to adhere to their requirements.

View the hearing's webcast and download the testimony.

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