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Connecticut has joined 47 other states in adopting national standards in teaching language arts and mathematics. "This won't be massive revision for us," says Tony Daddona, Norwalk's assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, noting that the state meets many of the standards now. "It will be good to have the same standards across the board and push the rigor."
Connecticut signed onto standards known as Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiated by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School. Until now, each state decided independently what to teach their students. The national standards were created "to raise achievement levels and provide uniformity in school curricula," said a statement by state Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan. In addition, they are designed "to be aligned with college and work expectations" and make American students more competitive globally. Participation is voluntary. Only Alaska and Texas did not participate in creating the standards.
In Connecticut, adoption of the new standards would increase the requirements of the state's current curriculum. A review by the state found that 80 percent of the CCSS in English language arts are the same as the current state standards and 92 percent of the CCSS in mathematics are the same. The new standards mostly affect the high school level.
McQuillan acknowledges that Connecticut has a long history of local control of schools by boards of education. However, he assures the public that the purpose of the new standards is to "provide direction to local curriculum committees," not to set the curricula.
The adoption of CCSS comes after the passage of several major education reform laws which included increasing high school graduation requirements and tying teacher evaluations to student progress The legislation and the common standards were passed, in part, to put the state in good standing to compete for federal grants in the Obama administration's Race to the Top school reform initiative.
