K-12 Education

Education and Society Program Focuses on Common Core Standards

September 13, 2013  • Sarai Johnson

As students return to school, education policy is back in the news. The Common Core State Standards Initiative, a set of K-12 mathematic and language art guidelines, will be implemented by public school systems in 45 states within the US by fall 2014. But while Common Core standardizes the curriculum, there are still questions about how teachers should implement it. The Aspen Institute Education and Society program and The Achievement Network;have partnered to release a collection of resources to make it easier to implement these new standards.

On September 19th, Common Core resources will be provided — along with a panel discussion about them — during the Washington, DC event, “From What to How: Leading for Common Core Success at the School Level.” The standards, which are the same for each state, clearly define the depth of knowledge students should have on each topic before they are promoted to the next grade.

The goal of the Common Core initiative is to better prepare the country’s students for university-level work. It will be a way “to move us toward a focus of what it really means to be an educated American,” said former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein at the 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival in the video below.

Click here to register for the September 19th event in Washington, DC. For more information on Common Core and other education policies, visit the Education and Society program’s publications page.