The workshop will focus on the democratic purposes of public education, and the opportunity afforded by ambitious, new academic standards to reinvigorate these democratic purposes. The Common Core standards aim explicitly at “college-and-career readiness,” but also include an unstated yet important emphasis on preparing students for active citizenship. Given that 46 states and Washington, DC, are currently developing plans for implementing and measuring success against Common Core standards, there is a significant opportunity to put democratic purposes at the heart of planning, instruction and accountability.