Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspectives on Common Core Implementation

Now that the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has resolved the struggle over the federal role in education, leaders in the remaining Common Core states can refocus attention on the standards, the assessments, and the supports teachers and students need to succeed on them. To inform those efforts, the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University surveyed a representative sample of teachers in five states (Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Nevada) as they prepared their students to take the new Common Core-aligned assessments in the spring of 2015.

Location: Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, & New Mexico

Timeline: 2014–16
Principal Investigator: Thomas J. Kane
Reports: Full Report, Report Abstract

Partners

Education Agencies

Delaware Department of Education
Maryland State Department of Education
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
New Mexico Public Education Department
Nevada Department of Education

Organizational Partners

America Achieves

Funders

Bloomberg Philanthropies
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust

People

Thomas J. Kane

Faculty Director

Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and Economics, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Member, Yidan Prize Foundation Council of Luminaries

Kate Larned

Partnering in Education Research (PIER) Fellowship Alumna

Senior Research Associate, Annenberg Institute at Brown University

Publications

2016

Kane, T. J., Owens, A. M., Marinell, W. H., Thal, D. R. C., & Staiger, D. O. (2016). Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspectives on Common Core Implementation.

Presentations

2016

Kane, T. J. (2016). Askwith Forum – Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspectives on Common Core Implementation.

News

For State Leadership, the Common Core Is a Boon

March 22, 2016

CEPR Faculty Director Thomas Kane shares findings from a recent report, Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspectives on Common Core Implementation, in the following article by Education Week. Over the past few years, the Common Core State Standards have been...

Never judge a book by its cover—use student achievement instead

March 03, 2016

CEPR Faculty Director Thomas J. Kane proposes an evaluation of textbooks and other instructional materials in the following Brookings Institution report. They say never judge a book by its cover. We need to start judging textbooks and other instructional...

The Surprising Impact That Common Core Is Already Making On Schools

February 29, 2016

CEPR's recent report, Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspectives on Common Core Implementation, is highlighted in the following article from Forbes. To keep up with the demands of the new Common Core curriculum standards, teachers have made major changes to...

Study Tracks Instructional Shifts Under Common Core

February 16, 2016

Findings from the Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspectives on Common Core Implementation Report are featured in the following Education Week article. A new study of educators in five states finds that the Common Core State Standards have fostered...

Where Are Teachers Getting Their Common-Core Instructional Materials?

February 11, 2016

Findings from the Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspectives on Common Core Implementation Report are used to examine instructional materials in the classroom in the following Education Week blog post. A new study found that teachers are mainly relying on...

Harvard Center Releases Report on First Full Year of Common Core Implementation

February 09, 2016

Research Shows Teachers Embraced New Standards and Adjusted Instruction to Meet Higher Bar; Provides New Evidence on Strategies Related to Improved Student Performance. Cambridge, MA (February 9, 2016) – Today, researchers at the Center for Education...

Did the Common Core assessments cause the decline in NAEP scores?

November 05, 2015

CEPR Faculty Director Thomas Kane discusses the discrepancy between NAEP test scores in states that participate in Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) against those with...

Featured Resource

Download the Report

Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspectives on Common Core Implementation