College & Workforce Readiness

How Common-Standards States Fared in Race to Top

By Catherine Gewertz — July 27, 2010 1 min read
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You’ve probably already heard about the 19 finalists in Round 2 of the Race to the Top competition. And if you read this blog frequently, you already know that adoption of the common standards is one of the things that gave states points—or cost them points—in that competition.

So what do we see if we compare our list of Round 2 finalists with our list of states that have adopted the common standards? Nothing all that shocking, really, given the incentives that are hanging out there for adoption (federal money, great educational improvements, or both, depending on who’s doing the talking).

Here’s what I get: Of the 19 Round 2 finalists, all but two have already adopted the common standards. And those two, California and Colorado, are expected to decide at Aug. 2 meetings. Of the 17 Round 2 contenders that didn’t get tapped as finalists, 11 have adopted the standards, and six have not.

Thirteen states decided not compete in Round 2, and only two of those (Wyoming and West Virginia) have adopted the common standards.

We’ll be able to get a better sense of what role common standards adoptions (or lack thereof) might have played in RTT decisions when the competition scores are released. But the scores won’t be out until the winners are announced later this summer.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.