The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), adopted by 43 states and the District of Columbia in an effort to establish a set of common educational objectives and standards for assessing student proficiency in reading and math, are accomplishing one of their key goals. That is the finding of a research team writing the latest in a series of studies of state standards for Education Next.
In their study, Harvard University Professor Paul E. Peterson and co-authors Samuel Barrows and Thomas Gift found that 36 states strengthened their proficiency standards between 2013 and 2015, while just five states weakened them. A total of 45 states have raised their standards since 2011.
