With all of the debate, noise, and passion surrounding the Common Core State Standards, how are state legislatures actually treating them? For the second year, I’ve put together an interactive graphic tracking the course of state legislation to pause, delay, or repeal the common core. Last year, my common-core “bill tracker” only included legislation to repeal the common core. However, this year, I’ve included legislation that is less direct than “repeal” bills, but still seeks to hedge or delay the impact of the common core in states, or the standards themselves.
In addition, the 2014 version of the tracker includes executive orders signed by governors to nominally assert more state control over the standards, rename them, or take other actions. The actual impact of these orders is debatable, but they’re worth considering when discussing the state-level environment for common core.
A few bills don’t even delay the implementation of the standards themselves, but because they delay crucial impacts of the standards, they seemed to be worth including. For example, a Democratic Florida senator introduced a bill to stop the state’s A-F accountability system for schools for three years as the state transitions to new assessments aligned to the common core, in order to help ensure that the common core is “thoroughly incorporated” in schools.
As of this writing, just one “repeal” bill has been signed in 2014, and even that legislation—in Indiana—only voids the state’s 2010 adoption of the standards. If you think that definitely means the end of the common core in Indiana, think again.
Please let me know in the comments or elsewhere if I am missing a relevant bill.