(4 of 5)
The following spring, the students took the first set of tests synched to the new standards. Everyone knew it would be a humbling exercise: if you raise the bar, fewer will reach it--at least for a while. So state officials warned parents, teachers, students and the media to expect lower scores and interpret them as a sign of progress rather than failure. Every teacher had flyers to give out at parent-teacher conferences explaining that the new test was different from the old one. The Jefferson County PTA held briefings to explain the Common Core to some 8,000 people across Louisville.
When the new results came out, only half of Kentucky elementary students were found to be proficient or better in reading--compared with three-quarters of kids the year before under the old standards. But citing the public outreach, Holliday says, "We had zero complaints from parents."
This school year, their third with the new targets, some Kentucky teachers seem to be thriving with the infusion of clarity, focus and autonomy they attribute to the Common Core standards. Many post specific targets on the classroom wall for all the students to see, rotating each one out every few weeks. De'Vonta Moffitt, a student at Doss High School in Louisville, explains the difference between his freshman and senior year this way: "Before, we read and then worked, read and then worked. It was easy. Basically they gave us tests from the book," he says. "Now, every three weeks we have to know a different standard. I have to actually take notes. I have to think sometimes, take my time."
Even standardized tests can be less grueling when tied to more intelligent goals. Each spring, Sydnea Johnson, a student at Fern Creek Traditional High School in Louisville, used to get migraines from all the cramming teachers asked her to do before the test--trying to cover more standards less deeply. "Now it's a lot less stressful," Johnson says, "because I can take in the information all year long, and it's just a review before the test."
This past spring, Kentucky achieved an 86% high school graduation rate--up from 80% in 2010 and above that of most other states. Test scores for the last school year, only the second with the new Common Core test, show a slight uptick of 2 percentage points. The portion of students considered college- or career-ready is up 20 percentage points to 54% since 2010, according to a battery of assessments given to seniors.
The Backlash
It's only in the past couple of months that Holliday has started to hear local opposition to the Common Core. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, gearing up for a presidential run, has come out against the new standards, citing a "loss of local control of curriculum and instruction." One Kentucky education leader said he has stopped using the words common core altogether. "We call them Kentucky Core Standards or something," he said, searching for the proper euphemism. "We are even trying not to use 'rigorous.' We are trying to say, 'college- and career-ready standards.'"
If the word rigorous is politically incorrect in America, the Common Core is way ahead of its time. The destiny of the new standards may depend on competing bogeymen. Which is scarier, international competition for skilled workers or the loss of some local authority?