Holliday Named to CCSSO Board

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) announced today the 2010-2011 CCSSO Board of Directors and Deputies Leadership Commission members. All board members and officers are chief state school officers and continue their tenures in their respective states while serving on CCSSO’s board.

“Our new leadership has a deep commitment to advancing the education reform agenda outlined by states,” said Executive Director Gene Wilhoit. “During a time of incredible transition across the country chief state school officers are dedicated to providing the leadership necessary to reshape American public education.”

CCSSO Board of Directors
President: Christopher Koch, Superintendent of Education, Illinois
President-Elect: Thomas Luna, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Idaho
President Pro-Tempore: Michael Flanagan, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Michigan
Larry Shumway, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Utah
Terry Holliday, Commissioner of Education, Kentucky
Deborah Delisle, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ohio
David Steiner, Commissioner of Education, New York
Mitchell Chester, Commissioner of Education, Massachusetts
June Atkinson, Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Carolina

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nonpartisan, nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in the states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity, and five U.S. extra-state jurisdictions. CCSSO provides leadership, advocacy, and technical assistance on major educational issues. The Council seeks member consensus on major educational issues and expresses their views to civic and professional organizations, federal agencies, Congress, and the public.

President Obama Makes a Surprise Visit to Chiefs

This from Politics K-12:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan got upstaged by his boss this morning.

Politics K-12's Michele, who is over at the Council of Chief State School Officers legislative conference, just called in to tell me President Barack Obama made a surprise stop-over at their conference here in Washington. He gave a quick pep-talk on the importance of higher standards and also said something about "less paperwork."

After he "hitched a ride with Arne Duncan" the president said,

"I figured I'd stop by and see what all the folks are up to in the states," he said. "My main message to you is to see us as resource."

New Report Shows States Taking Lead on Developing Rigorous, Common Core Standards

WASHINGTON – July 31, 2008 – A new report released today by Achieve shows that individual state efforts to set college- and career-ready standards for high school graduates have actually led to a remarkable degree of consistency in English and mathematics requirements. This “common core” is detailed in "Out of Many, One: Toward Rigorous Common Core Standards from the Ground Up."

The report tracks the voluntary standard-setting efforts in 16 early-adopter states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas. Together, these states educate 38 percent of U.S. public school students. All of the states discussed in the report are members of Achieve's American Diploma Project (ADP) Network.

“States are leading the way in identifying and setting real-world standards for student success,” said Mike Cohen, president of Achieve. “A common core of college- and career-ready expectations in 16 states is a positive development. Rigorous state standards, anchored in real-world demands, are important because they can—and should—drive the rest of the education reform agenda.” Cohen went on to add, “This is not about national standards or the federal government, it’s about state leadership.”

Specifically, the report found that across the board:

• States increased the rigor of their English and mathematics standards;
• State standards have a clear, well-defined common core in English and mathematics; and
• The common core was a byproduct of aligning standards to real-world demands.

“The common core that emerged from this work is no surprise. All graduates must have core knowledge and that core is not bound by state lines,” said Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who is vice chair of the Achieve Board. “Setting standards is not a one-time-only exercise, and we need to make sure our state standards are not only the best in the nation, but the best in the world.”

Governor Phil Bredesen of one of the early-adopter states discussed in the report, Tennessee, explained the importance of adopting college- and career-ready standards to his state. “Not only did this effort help us to raise the bar and increase the rigor of our English and math coursework in Tennessee, it spurred other key education reforms that will help guarantee our students better lives and ultimately enhance the future competitiveness of our state and nation.”

The leadership role that the report shows states have displayed in setting common English and math standards has implications for the role of the federal government in education policymaking and has the potential to change the way education issues are viewed at the state and national levels.

Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, stated, “As this report shows, a state-led effort is the fastest, most effective way to ensure that more students graduate from high school ready for college and career, a universally accepted goal.”

Achieve has been helping states align graduation requirements with real-world demands since its founding. In 2005, it launched its ADP Network, which helps state policymakers collaborate with K-12 public education, postsecondary education, the business community and other state partners to identify the skills and knowledge required for their graduates to succeed after high school.

For a copy of the report, click here.
To learn more about Achieve, visit http://www.achieve.org/.

Thanks Jon & Dorie.

Assessment Standards Deja Vu ....All Over Again

Early in 2001 when NCLB was beginning to unleash its "new and improved" assessment requirements on our nation's schools, I expressed my fears to the Herald-Leader this way:

Richard Day, principal of Cassidy Elementary School in Fayette County, fears another test will create a "crazy quilt of assessment.""I would like to see a seamless, comprehensive testing system that flows from local to state [to] federal levels; that doesn't interfere with each other," Day said. "I'm afraid that what we're going to get instead is just another test layered on top of what we already have."

So please forgive me for reacting to this lead from an Education Week (subscription) story this week.

Is it possible that Kentucky's assessment problems might be improved, in part, by international standards?

Benchmarks Momentum on Increase
Governors’ group, state chiefs eyeing international yardsticks.

No longer content with the patchwork quilt of assessments used to measure states’ K-12 performance, top policy groups are pushing states toward international benchmarking as a way to better prepare students for a competitive global economy.

The National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and
the standards-advocacy group Achieve are working both independently and together to examine how well states are doing compared with other countries and to weigh which yardsticks would prove most useful. It remains to be decided whether states would participate in well-established international tests such as the Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, or would measure their academic standards against those of other countries...

The PISA covers math, science, and reading literacy, is given to 15-year-olds in 69 countries, and focuses on problem-solving and work- & college-ready skills. In 2006, American students ranked lower 17th out of 30 in science and fifth from the bottom in math.

• NGA wants to present the case for international benchmarking to the governors this summer.
• NGA & CCSSO are recruiting states for participation in PISA.
• 32 states presently work with Achieve to align with international standards.
• Some fear that comparisons based on international standards would be overly sensitive to poverty in a state rather than the quality of its teachers.
• International workforce competitiveness is a concern for governors who see big jumps in the number of post-secondary degrees in other countries.
• Former Kentucky Education Commissioner Gene Wilhoit is now the executive director of the CCSSO.

But with many parents, teachers and legislators suffering from assessment fatigue already, as demonstrated by passage of Senate Bill 1, the idea of international standards might cause a political meltdown.