Are Common Core Standards just for K-12? Apparently not.
The National Center for Post-Secondary Research (NCPR) published an abstract in February 2013, The Common Core State Standards Implications for Community Colleges and Student Preparedness for College. The NCPR authors recommended,
that community colleges use the CCSS 11th grade assessment as one in a set of multiple measures used in placement decisions for students entering college directly after high school. They also encourage colleges to align developmental education and introductory college-level courses in math and English composition to the CCSS to smooth the transition for recent high school graduates entering college, and to work directly with local K–12 partners to help more graduating high school students enter college without needing remediation.
Say what? “Align intro college level courses in math and English comp to the CCSS? But these are K-12 standards that are supposed to prepare students for college without need for remediation. The Common Core website says,
These standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs…
We need college and career ready standards because even in high‐performing states – students are graduating and passing all the required tests and still require remediation in their postsecondary work.
If Common Core are K-12 “college and career ready standards” that every student must meet before they graduate from high school then why is it necessary to align introductory college level courses to math and English to the CCSS? And if community colleges align their intro courses to K-12 Common Core standards, are they really college level courses?
And why recommend colleges use an 11th grade assessment rather than an objective assessment after graduation that more objectively determines whether the student is college and career ready?
Does Common Core get kids ready for college or not?