The Missing Ink on the Common Core

Why isn't state adoption of the Common Core getting more press? asks Linda Perlstein, public editor of the Education Writers Association.

"Standards are boring," is her conclusion, though she also surmises that the standards are "too removed" or won't really effect change.

Let me throw out another possibility: state departments of education aren't communicating adoption of the standards to reporters, much less the public.

ASCD has just posted a map to keep track of the states that have adopted the Common Core with a link to the official standards adoption announcement or decision. Compiling the links to official state education action on an issue of such national prominence as the Common Core has been an eye-opening experience. It has not been as easy as might have been expected.

Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Utah all issued press releases or provided some easily found statement confirming the state had adopted the common core.

But for other states, such information is hard to come by.

On June 16, the New Jersey State Board of Education adopted the Common Core according to this news account, but the only press release issued from the department on that date touted the receipt of $45 million in federal school turnaround grants.

The Hawaii State Board of Education has posted no announcement or press release of its adoption of the Common Core. One has to review the minutes of the board's May 20th meeting to discover that the board did vote to "adopt" (though there was significant debate about the possible use of the word "approve") the Common Core (section VII. Recommendations for Action, A. Discussion/Action on Proposed Common Core Standards of the minutes, for those who are interested).

On June 24, the Oklahoma State Board of Education adopted the common core. And although the state department has an entire webpage devoted to information about the Common Core standards, nothing on the Department's website makes any reference to the state board's action. Indeed, the most recent press release listed is from May 20.

And even when a state issues a press release about the Common Core, sometimes the message is so convoluted it gets lost in translation. For instance, the Kentucky Department of Education press release heralding the adoption of the Common Core reads (emphasis is ours):

"At its regular meeting on Wednesday and Thursday . . . the board gave final approval to revisions to 704 KAR 3:303, the state regulation that outlines the requirements for the Program of Studies for Grades Primary–12. The regulation has been modified to change the name of the document to Kentucky's Core Academic Standards. The board's action also replaces the mathematics and reading/language arts standards in the current Program of Studies with new Common Core Standards being developed in collaboration with other states in order to implement the changes required by 2009's Senate Bill 1 (KRS 158.6453)."

Talk about burying the lede!

And then there are Arizona, Nevada, and Wyoming—three states that an EdWeek blog reports adopted the standards but whose respective state departments of education make no reference to adopting the standards (Wyoming and Nevada don't even reference the Common Core) and for which a Google search of newspapers in each state turn up not a single hit of a news story about adoption.

Even more bizarre is this latest post about a mystery state that "has adopted the standards but is not willing to make that information public yet." Huh?

The Common Core Standards may be a bit abstract for the public, but they are the biggest development in national education policy since, well, the No Child Left Behind Act. The standards are being led by a coalition of the nation's governors and state superintendents with the support of the U.S. secretary of education. The standards have been developed over the past year and the unveiling of the final version and state adoption of such have been major topics of national interest.

All of which is to say maybe the question reporters should be asking is not why their colleagues aren't writing about state adoption of the Common Core but why states adopting the Common Core aren't publicizing this fact themselves.