ADE Response to Issues Raised about Arizona's Common Core Standards

ADE Response to Issues Raised about Arizona’s Common Core Standards

Issue 1: The Common Core Standards (CCS) are national standards.
Response: The Common Core Standards are not “national” standards; instead they are a common set of learning
expectations developed by the participating states to address common problems all states were facing:
       States adopted varying standards, assessments and definitions for proficiency;
       National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results demonstrated wide discrepancies between the
        number students deemed proficient on NAEP and on individual state assessments;
       Growing evidence high school graduates needed remediation in college or additional workplace training; and
       Concern over US students’ ability to compete in the global marketplace, as performance on international
        assessments (TIMSS & PISA) and graduation rates in comparison to other industrialized nation lagged for the
        first time in decades.
These concerns were recognized as early as 2006 when two Governors, North Carolina Governor Hunt and West
Virginia Governor Wise, assembled representatives from interested states, including Arizona, to discuss developing
common standards. In both meetings, the states rejected the involvement of the federal government in the creation of
common standards and charged the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of State School Officers
(CCSSO) with leading the discussion and development of common standards.
Additional evidence of the need for a set of common standards designed to prepare students for college and career
grew, culminating in over 47 states and other jurisdictions entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (January,
2009) with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA)
committing to a state-led process - the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI). The MOU required states to
contribute staff, time and resources to the development of the standards – no federal money was received to support
the effort. Arizona Department of Education (ADE) staff, Arizona educators and Arizona-based content experts
significantly contributed to the creation of the Math and ELA standards.
Adoption of the standards was, and still is, a state-level decision. There is no “national” entity controlling the
standards or approving body. States may make changes to them at any time. Arizona, in fact, was one of a few states
who added additional items to the standards.
Issue 2: Arizona’s Common Core Standards (ACCS) are federally mandated.
Response: There is no federal law or regulation requiring the adoption of the ACCS.
The federal government cannot require states to take specific actions in regards to education. Education is a Reserved
Power, meaning the federal government is not given specific authority over education in the Constitution, reserving
that power for the states. The federal government can, however, provide funding on a conditional basis. Just as with
any grant funding, the funder sets out requirements the grantee must meet in order to receive and retain the funds.
This is common practice across all federal agencies, for example, the US Department of Transportation could
withhold up to 5% of federal highway funding available to a state failing to set its minimum drinking age at twenty-
one. The US Supreme Court has upheld such conditions on the receipt of federal funds to further broad policy
objectives (South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987)).
The adoption of state academic standards and related assessments has been a condition of receiving federal
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) funding since the 1990s and the requirements were actually
strengthened when ESEA was reauthorized in 2002 by No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
In 2009, the discretionary grant Race To The Top (RTTT) required states to commit to adopting college and career ready
standards and related assessments. The CCS qualify as college and career ready standards, but at no time did funding

ADE Response to Issues Raised about Arizona’s Common Core Standards

hinge on adopting the CCS. This was also a condition in applying for a waiver from certain aspects of NCLB. States
who have not adopted the CCS but adopted college and career ready standards have been granted waivers.

Issue 3: The ACCS shift control of education from local school boards to the federal government.
Response: Local school boards retain their same level of authority as they had prior to the adoption of the standards.
As previously stated, states have the sole authority to adopt academic standards. Nothing in federal law gives the
federal government authority to mandate standards within a state. As with previous standards, the federal government
did not review or adopt these standards. States adopt standards in accordance with their individual governance
structures and statutory requirements. Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) clearly establishes the authority to adopt
academic standards and minimum competency requirements for grades K-12 with the State Board of Education (ARS
§15-701 & §15-701.01) The Arizona State Board of Education voted, at a public hearing, to adopt the standards on
June 28, 2010.
Although some states retain authority over curriculum and materials in public schools, Arizona has long valued local
control to allow communities the discretion of what textbooks, curriculum and other materials are used in their
schools. Governing boards, both district and charter, have the authority to adopt instructional materials (ARS §15-721
& §15-722). In fact, statute requires these materials to be adopted in a public meeting, which allows for community
involvement and input on what is used in the classroom.
The difference between academic standards and curriculum is important to note here. Standards are learning
expectations, basically WHAT a student needs to know; while curriculum is HOW the student is taught and includes
teaching materials such as textbooks, reading lists and other instructional materials.

Issue 4: Common Core will impede the work of charter schools.
Response: Nothing about the ACCS will impede the ability of charter schools to accomplish their chosen missions.
The ACCS actually provide more flexibility and opportunities to innovate.
It has been said that Arizona’s previous academic standards were a “mile wide and an inch deep,” meaning they were
very numerous but lacked the depth needed to provide students with foundational concepts and deep understanding.
Teachers widely complained of having to abide by a tight schedule in order to cover all the grade level standards; and
if students failed to grasp a concept, they tended to fall further and further behind. As the states worked together to
find common ground during the standards development process, one of the overarching goals was to produce fewer,
clearer and higher standards. The ACCS cover a smaller number of topics in greater depth, enabling teachers to spend
more time on each topic so students have ample time to learn before moving onto more difficult concepts. The
standards are meant to be building blocks to provide solid foundations instead of a laundry list of topics to cover.
Because of this approach, charter schools have more time and flexibility to focus on their respective mission or focus
(such as the arts or STEM) rather than being bound by a tight schedule to cover all the standards. The ACCS are
especially suitable for developing project-based learning components and interdisciplinary lessons, thereby freeing
schools and teachers to truly design their own curriculum.

Issue 5: Arizona is locked into the common core and cannot make changes to the standards.

ADE Response to Issues Raised about Arizona’s Common Core Standards

Response: Arizona is committed to staying the course and supporting the implementation of ACCS. However, the
State Board of Education can make changes to academic standards at any time. Good standards shouldn’t change very
often, but over time should evolve based on what is learned from research, from educators in the field and from
student assessments.
The ACCS belong to Arizona, were adopted by the Arizona State Board of Education and, as such, can and will be
updated on a timeline based solely on Arizona’s needs. Arizona’s K-12 public education system is standards based and
historically, content standards are updated and revised every five to seven years to ensure a close alignment to
evidence-based, best-practices along with addressing the evolving needs of the community and the workforce.
While any given set of adopted standards are being implemented, it is critically important for the teaching and learning
of these standards be supported by an aligned assessment system. Summative outcome data from end-of-year or end-
of-course assessments provides important information to parents, students, educators and the community about the
level of learning students have mastered. It is fair and reasonable to assess students on what they were taught. Arizona
is currently engaged in developing our next generation of assessments and is committed to the ACCS during this
process.

Issue 6: The Common Core Standards are not rigorous and won’t prepare students for college and career.
Response: Higher education and business leaders across Arizona, and nationwide, are very supportive of the ACCS.
They recognize students who master the expectations found in the ACCS will be college and career ready.
The demand for these higher, more rigorous standards really originated from the business and higher-education
leaders in the first place. The high remediation rates at post-secondary institutions and the lack of qualified applicants
to meet workforce needs really drove this conversation. These sectors have actively participated in and supported the
development of the standards, which have been thoroughly validated.
Arizona’s higher-education leaders are actively involved in the design of our aligned assessments, have signed onto
support the assessments’ designations of college and career ready and will be an integral part of defining the
performance level descriptors.
For additional information regarding the development considerations and validation of the standards, please see:
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Considerations.pdf
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CommonCoreReport_6.10.pdf

Issue 7: The Common Core Standards are not internationally benchmarked.
Response: International benchmarking was a priority during the development process as research continued to show
that academic standards in the United States were not internationally benchmarked and differed from the highest
performing, industrialized nations in several ways. In September 2008, CCSSO, NGA & Achieve established the
International Benchmarking Advisory Group to make recommendations to ensure American students nation-wide
receive a world-class education. The resulting report (Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S, Students Receive a World-Class
Education ) found the United States ranked significantly lower than the other leading nations on all three internationally
administered assessments (TIMMS, PISA & PIRLS) and that our academic standards differed in several ways from
high-performing nations:
       World-class content standards cover a smaller number of topics and go into greater depth;

ADE Response to Issues Raised about Arizona’s Common Core Standards

        More rigorous content is taught earlier – American eighth grade content is approximately two full years
         behind eighth grade content in higher performing countries; and
        Top-performing countries lay out an orderly progression of topics to follow the logic of the content area
         while American standards tend to be arbitrary lists of topics.
Read the full report: Because addressing these deficiencies was a priority during development, the developers ensured
the Standards drew from the best existing standards in the country and were benchmarked to the top performing
nations around the world, ensuring our students are well prepared to compete with their peers abroad for the jobs of
the future. During the development of the standards, materials and expectations of the following countries were
reviewed: Canada, Belgium, China, Denmark, England, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, New
Zealand, and Singapore.
The Common Core State Standards Validation Committee were required to review the standards to ensure they were
comparable with other leading countries expectations and the standards were found to meet those expectations.
Links to Benchmarking report and additional research:
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/0812BENCHMARKING.pdf
http://www.air.org/files/AIR_Int_Benchmarking_State_Ed__Perf_Standards.pdf
See also: Dr. William Schmidt, Common Core State Standards Math: The Relationship Between High Standards, Systemic Implementation and
Student Achievement (Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, 2012).

Issue 8: The Common Core Standards are a curriculum that tells teachers what to teach.
Response: As stated before, ACCS are not a curriculum. Rather, they are a set of goals that outline what students
should know and be able to do in each grade in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. Decisions about how to
teach the standards (e.g. curriculum, tools, materials, and textbooks) are left to local decision-makers who know their
students best.
Academic standards establish WHAT students must master in a particular content area, in a specific grade level or span
and determine the level of rigor students must achieve across grade levels. The ACCS in both ELA and Math are
articulated by grade level in elementary school and by grade span in high school and essentially outline what students
must learn by the end of each grade level or grade span. The ACCS do not provide any information or direction
regarding instruction, beyond listing what students must learn by the end of each grade level in English language arts
and mathematics. Decisions regarding expectations within the standards are set at the state level nationwide. It is
important that academic standards, including the ACCS, are set at the state level to ensure fair and equal access for all
students in the state, to rigorous, coherent academic standards that will prepare students to be college and workplace
ready.
Curriculum, as a whole, is the organized preparation and plan (including materials) of HOW the academic state
standards will be taught. In Arizona decisions regarding curriculum are the purview of local school boards and local
education agencies. Curriculum is a carefully constructed program or blueprint of learning that builds a plan for
effective teaching and learning from the expectations set in the academic standards. Governing boards are required to
adopt at a public meeting the course of study, the basic textbook, supplementary materials and teaching aids for each
course before it is implemented (ARS §15-721 & §15-722). This also includes any printed instructional materials and
digital content. Statute also requires all meetings of any committees convened for the purposes of textbook review
and selection be open to the public and make potential textbooks available for public review for at least sixty days
prior to formal selection.

ADE Response to Issues Raised about Arizona’s Common Core Standards

Issue 9: Arizona’s old standards are better than the Common Core State Standards.
Response: The ACCS have been well-received and are regarded by most commentators – across the political
spectrum – as an improvement on the state standards they replace. For example, in a recent analysis, the Thomas B.
Fordham Institute, a leading non-profit educational institution providing quality research, analysis, and commentary,
found the ACCS to be an improvement over Arizona’s past standards.
The Institute recently released the results of a study comparing previous state standards to the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS). Overall, the Common Core State Standards were determined to be clearer and more rigorous than
most states’ previous standards and received an impressive A- rating. In 37 states the ELA standards provided
stronger, more focused standards and in 33 states, the Math standards were more rigorous, cohesive and focused. In
33 of these states the CCSS in both ELA and Math were stronger. Arizona is among these 33 states.
To read the full report: www.edexcellence.net/publications/the-state-of-state-of-standards

Issue 10: The Common Core does not have enough emphasis on fiction and literature.
Response: While there is a shift towards including informational text in the standards, literature is included and
emphasized. The ELA standards focus on building a foundation for college and career readiness and stress the need
for students to read widely and deeply from a broad range of high-quality and increasingly challenging literary and
informational texts.
The standards for Reading Literature and Reading Informational text demand students undertake close, attentive
reading to enable their understanding and enjoyment of complex works of literature. The students need to develop
the particular ability to READ CLOSELY as is indicated by the ACCS. This has ALWAYS been and remains the
English teacher’s job. The background and historical importance of the literary canon the local school district
chooses to implement through their curriculum will be taught along with the standards, allowing students to read and
understand these works for themselves.
The ACCS does NOT require English teachers in 6-12 to teach informational text 50% of the time. This percentage
refers to the K-5 classroom where teachers should be using complex text to build content knowledge. In addition to
reading narrative fiction about an historical event in 4th grade, the teacher should also be including non-
fiction/informational text about the same event so students can build their content-area knowledge. Building
knowledge through content rich non-fiction plays an essential role in literacy and in the Standards. While English
teachers in 6-12 must address the skills necessary to read non-fiction text closely, the main focus of reading in high
school remains literature based.

Issue 11: The Arizona Common Core Standards in Math do not address algebra until high school.
Response: There is a great deal of algebra in the 8th grade Math standards and a strong focus on the prerequisites for
algebra in the elementary grades. Foundational standards for success in Algebraic concepts begin in 7th grade. If a
student is ready to move on to algebra in 8th grade or before, the decision will be made with the student’s parents,
teacher and school district as it has always been. As previously stated, the ACCS represent the expectation students
should meet at certain points in their educational journey, one can see it as a floor NOT a ceiling. Students must
master Algebra by high school or they are at great risk for not being college and career ready.