Lining up: The Relationship Between the Common Core State Standards and Five Sets of Comparison Standards

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The Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC), designed and conducted this study to determine the extent of correspondence (alignment) between the exit level Common Core standards and each of five sets of existing standards. The sets of standards were selected because they were either identified as exemplary state standards, were explicitly written at the college readiness level, or represented a rigorous instructional program focused on college readiness. The purpose was to see if the Common Core standards cover similar content, how broadly they cover the comparison standards, and how the cognitive challenge level of aligned content matches up.

The comparison standards selected for the study come from two states that have been regarded as having high quality educational standards: California and Massachusetts. The Texas College and Career Readiness Standards are included because they represent one of the only sets of competencies and skill statements developed by a postsecondary education agency in collaboration with K-12 educators The other set of college readiness standards, the Knowledge and Skills for University Success (KSUS), were developed by university faculty in the early 2000s and represent the first set of such standards. Finally, to capture a more international perspective, the standards from the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme are also examined. The IB Diploma Programme is offered in 141 countries and is becoming increasingly popular in the US.

The specific comparison standards are as follows:
. California: The Content Standards for California Public Schools, for the 11th–12th grade band in English language arts and for 8th–12th grade band in mathematics (released in 1997)
. Massachusetts: The Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, for the 11th–12th grade band in English language arts (released in 2001) and mathematics (released in 2000)
. Texas: The Texas College and Career Readiness Standards in English/language arts, mathematics, and cross-disciplinary standards (released in 2008)
. KSUS: The Knowledge and Skills for University Success (KSUS) standards in English and mathematics,2 developed as college-preparatory standards by Standards for Success (released in 2003)
. IB: The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme English language arts and mathematics standards, developed by EPIC, for IB’s Programs of Study for 10th–12th grades3 (released in 2009)

The overall results of the study suggest substantial concurrence between the Common Core standards and the comparison standards, with somewhat greater alignment in mathematics than in ELA and literacy. For ELA and literacy, 36 of 40 analyses at the strand level meet the Categorical Concurrence criterion. For mathematics, all 25 analyses at the conceptual category level meet the Categorical Concurrence criterion.

The findings suggest general consistency between the cognitive challenge level of the Common Core standards and the five comparison standard sets. Mathematics shows somewhat more consistency of cognitive challenge than do the ELA and literacy standards. In ELA and literacy, 17 of 36 strand-level analyses indicate that the comparison standard sets are at or above the level of the Common Core standards. For mathematics, 19 of 25 conceptual category-level analyses indicate that the comparison standard sets are at or above the level of the Common Core standards.

Overall, the standards from the comparison sets tend to cover the breadth of topics contained in the Common Core standards. For ELA and literacy, 37 of 40 strand analyses show strong coverage. For mathematics, findings suggest that comparison sets show strong coverage of all 25 conceptual category analyses. While every standard in the Common Core standards may not have a match with each and every set of comparison standards, the topics around which the Common Core standards are organized are reflected in the comparison standards with a high degree of frequency.