You already kinda-sorta knew it, right? It鈥檚 taking states a really long time to put college- and career-ready standards into practice in their schools. And it鈥檚 taking a while for them to make their tests reflect those standards. But there鈥檚 nothing like seeing maps to make the points hit home in all their multicolored glory.
Take a look at this. It鈥檚 a map of the year states said that their standards would be fully implemented. The red states are old hands by now; the bluest states newer to the game. (An .)
It鈥檚 true, of course, that deep blue could mean the state wrote new standards, not that it took a really really really long time to implement older ones. But, with that in mind, the map makes it clear that states are very much in the early phases of teaching their college- and career-ready standards in tens of thousands of classrooms all over the country. Many states adopted the common core in 2010, but didn鈥檛 report full implementation until five years later.
This new map comes from a relatively new organization that鈥檚 tracking states鈥� standards and assessments. Launched in 2015, the , or C-SAIL, is a collaborative of researchers, led by the University of Pennsylvania鈥檚 Andy Porter. It鈥檚 supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 Institute of Education Sciences.
In addition to mapping standards, for your perusal this week. One reports on what tests states are using in grades 3-8 this year. (Another resource: EdWeek produced an interactive report in March showing what tests states are using in grades 3-11, which states require the SAT or ACT, which use those college-admissions tests for accountability, and which have exit exams.)
Another C-SAIL map shows when states anticipate that their tests will be fully aligned to their academic standards. (.) Fewer states show disconnections here (though many would argue that even a 鈥渇ully aligned鈥� test doesn鈥檛 begin to capture what students are learning).
