One of the promises of the Common Core State Standards is a uniform way to compare student achievement across the country -- and along with it, a uniform way to measure teacher and school effectiveness from one state to the next, and the educational system of the U.S. vs other countries as well.
So all eyes are on the organizations developing the Next Generation assessments for the Common Core.
But with two consortia (PARCC and Smarter Balanced) building different assessments, and some states indicating they will use assessments developed by other vendors (and several states not adopting Common Core at all), will it really be possible to compare achievement from state to state?
In this fantastic segment about the Common Core on NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook, Andy Rotherham of Bellweather Education, says "the ship has sailed" on the possibility of every state using the same test.
Does it matter? Is this a cause for concern?
Flickr photo by TheBusyBrain
