Think Tank Issues Report on Common Core Education Standards
Georgia schools began rolling out a new set of education standards last year called the Common Core. Wednesday, The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released a report on how teachers are implementing the English/Language Arts standards.
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The report found most teachers focus on skills, such as finding the main idea, rather than the text itself. It also said teachers tend to assign easier texts, according to Kathleen Porter-Magee, a Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
“Text selection is essential,” Porter-Magee says. “So, really being thoughtful about which text you choose to assign in class and how you sequence them, that is really critically important.”
In Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal has asked the state board of education to review the standards, including an appendix of suggested texts. Porter-Magee says that could be a good opportunity for the state.
“100% I think coming up with a state-specific reading list and using Georgia authors, I think that is absolutely something that Georgia should do,” she says. “That’s actually a really rich place where Georgia can make the Common Core their own.”
The Fordham Institute plans to release a follow-up study in 2015.
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