The Brookings Institute was partially right when it released a report in February 2012 concluding the Common Core State Standards will have “little to no impact on student achievement.” Now a new report, also from Brookings, acknowledges the Common Core standards do have a chance of succeeding, but only if they are implemented well.

Even education reformers who normally disagree with the Brookings Institute agree the Brookings researchers have it right this time. Without considering anything else, standards alone will not generate student achievement. But rigorous standards coupled with strong instructional material linked to the standards and effective teachers will strengthen our overall educational system.

In other words, we aren’t done yet. The Common Core State Standards create a unified vision of what students need to learn at each grade level in order to be successful in college. But, creating and adopting the standards are just the first steps towards creating a stronger educational system. Implementing the standards with fidelity also depends on teachers participating in activities that enrich their understanding of how to teach rigorous material to a classroom of students with diverse abilities. And in order to know whether or not the Common Core movement is achieving its goals, we must also measure our progress with carefully designed, quality assessments.

The adoption of CCSS is a step towards creating access to college and career success for all students, but we cannot stop with adoption. Standards alone do not create student achievement. Standards that drive a rich, vertically aligned curriculum that allow teachers to go deeper into topics that really matter to future success are much more likely to succeed.

One of the perks of having friends in the journalism industry is getting to attend private movie screenings. Last night I received the opportunity to see The Raven, which comes out in theaters tomorrow. The film actually turned out to be much better than I anticipated, but I’m not in the business of writing movie reviews, so I will refrain from taking this blog post in that direction.

My LTF tie-in to The Raven was the characters’ mention of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” among several references to Edgar Allan Poe’s other short stories. Upon hearing the name of this particular story, my immediate thought was, ‘LTF Open Lesson alert!’

I have skimmed several different LTF Open Lessons during my year at LTF as the marketing coordinator, but this morning I was motivated to view the “Putting It All Together—Tone Analysis: ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ Foundation Lesson for Middle School” English lesson in detail. As I did so, I couldn’t help but wonder whether a film like The Raven might engender teachers’ revitalized interest in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, which could, in turn, trickle down to the students. The Raven inspired me to get excited about and do more research on the life and works of Poe, but does a film like this have the same impact on English teachers who are already familiar with this author and his literary masterpieces?

I really would like English teachers to weigh in on this one! Leave me a comment, if you will, and let me know if pop culture (music, film, the arts, etc.) has any intrinsic effect on you as an educator, and if so, how that influences you in the classroom.

Laying the Foundation is, as most of you know, now a division of the National Math and Science Initiative. What we continue to emphasize as we navigate this organizational transition, however, is that the mastery of English language arts skills is still as vital as ever to what we do as teachers — and to what our students must do to excel academically and in the workforce.

Understanding Language
To put it plainly, English matters, and an initiative called Understanding Language, by Stanford University, provides support for this mentality. According to the group’s website, “Understanding Language aims to heighten educator awareness of the critical role that language plays in the new Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. The long-term goal of the initiative is to help educators understand that the new Standards cannot be achieved without providing specific attention to the language demands inherent to each content area.”

Just as Understanding Language values an interdisciplinary approach to education – highlighting the power of the English language arts as an essential tool for preparing college- and career-ready students – we at LTF do the same. While we aren’t necessarily fighting for an acronym change from STEM to STEAM (the latter incorporates the arts, designated by the additional “A”), we are behind the push to promote rigor in ALL core academic areas, including, of course, English.

Resources worth checking out
In addition to downloading and using the LTF Open Lessons listed here, take a look at the set of commissioned papers presented at the Understanding Language Conference in January. These papers give more information about English as the groundwork for STEM subjects. If you don’t have time to wade through each paper, this PDF summary is a handy overview of them all.

What other websites or groups supporting English education should be aware of? Leave a comment to let us know.

• Level Playing Field reports little progress has been made closing the achievement gap in California since their last report in 2010.  Particularly interesting is that low-income Asian students score higher than high-income African American and Latino students in fifth grade science.

• Standardized methods of calculating high school and postsecondary graduation rates are gradually being implemented. For some schools, like in D.C., the new method makes schools appear to be doing worse than previously thought.

• Common Core assessment consortia PARCC and SMARTER Balance are making conspicuous efforts to ensure assessments measure college readiness.

• Latino students make up more than half of Texas’ K-12 enrollment, but their college graduation rates lag behind their peers Exelencia in Education reports. There is no way to improve the state’s overall college graduation rate without making progress for Latino students.

• As most states are preparing for computer-based Common Core assessments, researchers at The University of Akron find automated essay-scoring software programs are just as reliable as a human scorer.

• Due to irreconcilable differences, the federal panel evaluating teacher education programs could not reach a consensus on how to handle teacher evaluations and the role they should play in determining financial aid eligibility. The ball is now in the U.S. Department of Education’s court. 

• The Texas State Board of Education meets April 18 through 20 to discuss and potentially approve updates to the state’s math standards. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Texas Association of Business are skeptical of the proposed standards’ quality.

• Complete College America reports thirty percent of students who complete remedial courses do not even attempt credit-bearing entry-level courses.

• While it is common for schools to limit enrollment in AP courses to students who already appear to be headed for success, Mary Ann Rankin* points out that this practice excludes many capable students – particularly those who are underrepresented. Increasing access to AP classes along with appropriate teacher training and mentoring can expand opportunities for all students. *Mary Ann Rankin is the president and CEO of the National Math and Science Imitative, LTF’s parent company.

• Beginning with the 2012-2013 school year, all students in Louisiana public schools will be required to take the ACT and the state will cover the test fee. The state also plans to increase the availability of Advanced Placement courses and increase funding to train AP teachers.

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Raising college completion numbers continues to be a hot topic. Not earning a postsecondary degree is costly not only for the individual lacking the degree, but also for the government and taxpayers. In general, the more advanced degree the more earning power an individual has. Higher earnings translate into more taxes paid to the government and less reliance on taxpayer-funded supports, such as unemployment and other public income support programs.

To increase college completion, we must invest in reforms that boost high school graduation rates and increase college readiness. Jay Mathews recently wrote in his Washington Post column that the Advanced Placement program continues to be one of the most cost-effective ways to prepare students for the rigors of college.

Mathews cites multiple studies which show earning a qualifying score on an AP exam is correlated with future college success. His column builds a case for subsidizing exam fees for low-income students, but what he does not address is that investing in a strong AP program starts well before a student ever registers to take the AP exam.  

The quality of a district’s AP program depends on the quality of its Pre-AP program. Investing in teacher training and the time it takes to implement a linked, rigorous curriculum results in a cohesive AP program. While subsidies to the exam fees may enable more low-income students to take AP exams, if the district has not invested in the infrastructure to create a truly rigorous AP class experience, the ultimate payoff will be diminished.

Read Jay Mathews’ column here.