ACT Lends Research, Expertise to Common Core State Standards Initiative

ACT has played a key role in the development of the common core standards for college and career readiness in English language arts and mathematics, which were released for public review in September 2009. ACT’s research and staff will also play key roles in the next step, which is the development of the K–12 common core standards.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) are jointly leading the Common Core State Standards Initiative in partnership with ACT, Achieve, Inc., and the College Board. They are asking states to adopt a set of common core standards and to participate in the development of a common assessment system aligned to the core.

Governors and chief state school officers in 51 states and U.S. territories have committed to the state-led process. If all adopt the common core state standards, approximately 43.5 million students—or 87 percent of the U.S. student population—will be affected.

The initiative builds directly on recent efforts of leading organizations and states that have focused on developing college and career readiness standards. It helps ensure that state standards are research-based and evidence-based, are internationally benchmarked to top-performing countries around the world, are aligned with college and career expectations, and include rigorous content and skills.

A Standards Development Work Group, which included content experts from ACT, Achieve, Inc., and the College Board, helped determine and write the common core standards. A Validation Committee of national and international experts on standards reviewed the process and substance of the common core standards to ensure that they are research and evidence-based and will validate state adoption on the common core standards.

“ACT has been measuring the mathematics, reading, and writing skills included in the Common Core State Standards for many years. Through our work with the College Readiness Standards™, College Readiness Benchmarks, and the National Curriculum Survey, we know what skills are needed to be college ready. The Common Core standards are very much aligned with our data,” said Sherri Miller, assistant vice president, Educational Planning and Assessment Systems, ACT Education Division.