Highlights from findings of the SREB reportsBenchmarking State Implementation of College- and Career-Readiness Standards, Aligned Assessments and Related Reforms

1. Perspectives from the states
Recommendations
Highlights from findings of the SREB reports
Benchmarking State Implementation of
College- and Career-Readiness
Standards, Aligned Assessments
and Related Reforms January 2015

2. 2|
Contents
Perspectives
Recommendations
What successes, challenges and next steps did
interviewees articulate?
What recommendations does SREB draw from the study?
SREB researchers interviewed leaders from state departments of
education, state boards of education, unions, higher education and
business and community organizations, as well as legislators’ and
governors’ staff, teachers, principals and district superintendents.
page 12
Perspectives from the states
Recommendations
More about the study
page 4
Successes, challenges, next steps
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
page 14
Participating states page 3

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Benchmarking
College- and
Career-Readiness
Standards
Participating states
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
West Virginia
Other regions
Colorado
New York
Pennsylvania
Florida participated in preliminary (March 2014) but not final reports.
This SREB project supports
states in the monumental
task of implementing higher
statewide standards by tracking
progress and bringing states
together to learn from and
collaborate with one another.
SREB region
Alabama
Delaware
Georgia
Kentucky
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards

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Trends across the states
Successes
Comprehensive efforts
All 14 state departments of
education have undertaken
comprehensive efforts to lead and
support implementation of their
state’s new college- and career-
readiness standards, aligned
assessments and related reforms.
Interviewees appreciated how
much their state departments of
education have done to chart the
course and provide local systems,
schools, teachers and leaders the
support and resources they need.
Some state departments of
education have expanded their
roles in response to unprece-
dented requests for support from
the field, providing more kinds of
support and resources than at any
time in the past.
Good reviews
Interviewees gave good reviews
of the standards and of states’
efforts.
Teachers and principals, in
particular, shared that the new
standards are an improvement.
Many noted that students have
access to a more consistently
high-quality education.
Teachers reported that
professional learning and teaching
resources aligned to the standards
have been extremely valuable in
their daily practices and for their
professional growth.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Interviewees in many roles
cited these successes most
commonly.

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Trends across the states
Successes
Unprecedented collaboration
Within states: State departments
of education are collaborating with
other leaders, educators and
stakeholders. Department staff in
many states reported that they
have been working extensively
with regional entities, districts,
schools and teachers — more so
than most could remember.
State board of education
members and governors’ staffs in
some states reported that a key
success has been involvement of
the business sector and the
community in building support.
Among states: Departments
have also partnered across states
to enrich their work. The multi-
state assessment consortia,
particularly PARCC and Smarter
Balanced, are the most visible of
these partnerships.
Among educators: Educators
are also sharing instructional
resources and materials, formally
and informally. The tools
interviewees cited sharing most
often are materials on New York’s
EngageNY website and resources
from Achieve, Student
Achievement Partners, the
Council of Chief State School
Officers, Literacy Design
Collaborative and Mathematics
Design Collaborative. Teachers
expressed great appreciation for
these resources.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Interviewees in many roles
cited these successes most
commonly.

6. 6|
Trends across the states
Successes
Collaboration with higher ed
Interviewees praised partnerships
between leaders in K-12 and
higher education. This
unprecedented collaboration
builds a foundation for continued
work to align policies and foster
shared understandings of the
knowledge and skills needed for
success in K-12 classrooms,
college courses, job training and
careers.
Supplemental funding
Department of education staff
reported that additional funding,
such as grants from Race to the
Top and private foundations, have
been essential in bolstering their
efforts.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Interviewees in many roles
cited these successes most
commonly.

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Trends across the states
Challenges
Size of the effort
Interviewees were realistic about
the sea change in public
education required by the
readiness standards and related
reforms. The work has just begun,
and state departments of
education have undertaken it with
small staffs and tight budgets,
making their efforts impressive —
and fragile.
Sustainability
Large infusions of funding, such
as Race to the Top grants and
other external support, bolstered
early initiatives in many states. As
state departments of education
prepare for the future, they must
determine how to continue or
modify their initiatives when the
temporary funding ends.
Integration of reforms
Teachers, especially, highlighted
the need for better integration of
the new standards and
assessments with other,
concurrent state reforms such as
new accountability systems and
new teacher and leader evaluation
systems.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Interviewees in many roles
cited these challenges most
commonly.

8. 8|
Trends across the states
Challenges
Uneven local implementation
Teachers, principals and district
superintendents reported that the
readiness of teachers and local
leaders to implement the new
standards varies considerably
across districts and even within
schools.
One contributing factor many
interviewees noted is the variation
in amount and quality of
professional learning and
implementation resources that
reaches teachers and leaders.
Educators gave high marks to the
professional learning and other
support their state departments
have provided. But they said that
these supports have not reached
all who need it. Teachers still need
more time, resources and support.
Assessment technology
While many districts and schools
have the technology infrastructure
and capacity to administer new
computer-based assessments,
many still do not. This is especially
acute in small and rural districts.
Communication
Despite outreach and training from
state departments of education,
educators and the public still need
to better understand the new
readiness standards, how they
differ from previous standards,
and how the more rigorous
demands are related to other
changes.
.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Interviewees in many roles
cited these challenges most
commonly.

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Trends across the states
Next steps
Pressing ahead with standards
Some states are launching
initiatives to build on and support
the standards they adopted and
continue to implement.
Delaware Governor Jack Markell
helped launch the Partnership
for Higher Standards. West
Virginia joined the Improving
Student Learning at Scale
Policy Collaborative, a
partnership of states and national
organizations.
Tennessee launched a STEM
Leadership Council to provide
guidance on STEM initiatives.
2013 legislation in West Virginia
and Maryland requires further
alignment of college- and career-
readiness reforms across K-12
and higher education.
Reviewing, changing standards
Some states have taken another
look at their new standards.
Formal reviews of how six states
adopted and implemented
standards and assessments may
bring changes.
In Mississippi and New York, the
reviews strengthened efforts to
implement the standards.
Recommendations from reviews in
Colorado, Georgia, Maryland
and North Carolina are still to
come.
In 2014, South Carolina decided
to replace the Common Core.
Legislation requires the state
department of education to
develop new standards.
.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Interviewees articulated
these next steps for
states.

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Trends across the states
Next steps
Move forward with
assessments aligned to
new standards
Six states plan to use
assessments from one of the two
multistate assessment consortia.
PARCC tests: Colorado,
Louisiana (for grades three
through eight), Maryland and
Mississippi. Smarter Balanced
tests: Delaware and West
Virginia.
Nine states plan to use
assessments developed for them
or acquired from a vendor:
Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana (for high school), New
York, North Carolina and
Pennsylvania.
South Carolina is engaged in a
test procurement process.
Tennessee plans to select new,
fully aligned tests for 2015-16.
States are working with local
school systems to address
technology capacity for testing,
which is a concern in some areas.
Some states plan to offer paper-
based versions of new tests for
the first few years.
.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness
Standards
Interviewees articulated
these next steps.

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Trends across the states
Next steps
Continue professional
development
Four years into the work of
leading implementation of their
new standards, state departments
of education and their key
partners must determine how to
carry their professional learning
initiatives forward  and whether
to develop new approaches to
foster long-term progress.
Several states plan to continue
current initiatives but scale back
the department’s work  by
moving to more online training
and tools, for example, or shifting
responsibility to district and school
leaders.
Some states plan to expand
current initiatives.
Strengthen teaching resources
Many of the state departments of
education posted large quantities
of new resources to their online
archives in 2014 and plan to
continue to build on offerings to
support local curriculum
development and strong
classroom instruction.
Improve public communication
Several states plan to do more to
help the public understand what
their new standards are, what
changes are needed, and how
students — as well as schools,
states and businesses — can
benefit.
.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Interviewees articulated these
next steps.
For more on states’ plans, see the
Professional Development report
in this series.

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Recommendations
Teaching resources
State departments of education
can continue to improve their
offerings to be sure they are:
Comprehensive: Offer sample
instructional plans that model
rigorous instruction for all of the
standards in all grades. Incorpor-
ate strategies for teaching English
learners, students with disabilities,
struggling learners and advanced
learners.
High quality and aligned
to standards: Use rigorous and
systematic methods and explicit
criteria to vet resources.
Widely used: Do more to be sure
educators know about the state’s
offerings.
Professional Learning
Many educators still need training
and support. State departments
should continue professional
learning and ongoing support for
all teachers and leader — and
should bolster local efforts.
Evaluation systems
States should update professional
standards, classroom observation
tools and rubrics for principals that
explicitly articulate the knowledge
and skills needed in a college- and
career-readiness environment.
Accountability measures
To provide a richer picture of local
practices and outcomes, state
accountability systems should
include multiple measures beyond
annual tests in English language
arts and math.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
SREB encourages states
to continue to support
implementation of their
college- and career-
readiness standards and
the assessments aligned
to them.
Recommendations drawn from
SREB examinations of efforts in leading states.

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Recommendations .
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
SREB encourages states
to continue to support
implementation of their
college- and career-readiness
standards and the
assessments aligned
to them.
Recommendations based on what interviewees deemed important
to the long-term success of the reforms.
Commitment to policies, funding
Education leaders should work
with other leaders and with the
public to foster commitment to
policies and funding that support
educators over the long haul.
Data for improvement
States, districts and schools need
to analyze data more effectively to
identify what is working, what’s
not, and what can be improved.
.
State department capacity
State departments of education
can work together and with
external partners and funders to
build capacity to meet local
educators’ increased needs for
support. Interviewees identified
needs for more expertise in areas
such as change management,
psychometrics, statistics, research
and evaluation, teacher evaluation
and talent development.

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Methodology SREB examined efforts of state
departments of education to
support implementation of college-
and career-readiness standards,
assessments and related reforms.
Researchers looked at how states
provided guidance, tools and
support for teachers and for
school and district leaders.
SREB worked with a point person
in each of the 14 state
departments of education.
Timeframe
The SREB reports reflect state
efforts and plans between 2010
and summer 2014.
These January 2015 final reports
replace preliminary ones
published in March 2014.
A team of SREB researchers
and consultants gathered
information from:
Reviews of publicly available
information: Researchers
reviewed state policy documents
and reports, state department of
education websites and other
sources such as U.S. Department
of Education reports.
Interviews: Researchers
interviewed leaders from state
departments of education, state
boards of education, unions,
higher education and business
and community organizations, as
well as legislators’ and governors’
staff, teachers, principals and
district superintendents.
Each state department reviewed
drafts to ensure accuracy.
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards

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Full reports
More information
Six detailed final reports were
published in January 2015. Slide
documents of report highlights,
like this one, are also available for
each report.
Cross-State Findings
Trends across the states, perspectives
from the field and suggestions for
moving forward
Details on each state's efforts in
five areas:
Timeline and Approach to
Standards and Assessments
Aligned Teaching Resources
Professional Development
Evaluation of Teachers
and Leaders
Accountability
Kim Anderson, Director
Benchmarking College- and
Career-Readiness Standards
404-875-9211
Kim.Anderson@SREB.org
Perspectives and recommendations | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Find all reports at SREB.org/1600 >

16. Southern Regional Education Board
592 10th St. N.W.
Atlanta, GA 30318-5776 SREB.org