The Common Core, adopted by Oregon in 2010, will require students to read challenging works of fiction and nonfiction and write sophisticated analyses, including of science and history. It also will require math teachers to cover fewer topics but more in-depth, and often at earlier ages.
Oregon agreed to raise the bar because leaders believe common national standards "will help ensure that students are receiving a high-quality education consistently, from school to school and state to state," said Crystal Greene, communication director for the Oregon Department of Education.
Oregon and the other states plan to begin giving harder tests geared to the new standards no later than spring 2015. A panel of 18 Oregon educators, parents and others will meet through Friday to recommend which of two tests should replace Oregon's multiple-choice reading and math tests known as the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or OAKS.
Oregon might choose a set of tests known as the Smarter Balanced Assessment; Oregon officials have been closely involved in its development. That and its main competitor require students to write short answers and long essays, and to complete open-ended tasks in math and reading.
But many experts question whether Oregon will be ready to reward or punish schools and teachers based on results of the new tests in 2015 or even 2016 given how different they'll be.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, generated headlines this week when she called for a "moratorium" on using Common Core-style tests for any high-stakes decision until the bugs are worked out. She reiterated that position Friday in releasing the results of AFT's poll of 800 teachers around the nation. The results were released in Palo Alto, Calif., as reporters participated in a national Education Writers Association seminar at Stanford University.
For more than two years, the Oregon Department of Education has offered training on how teachers and schools should transition to the higher standards. It also offers online toolkits and model lessons.
So far, most Oregon schools have only partly begun teaching Core-level lessons, and some won't start until next year. A few districts, including Corvallis, Lincoln County and Umatilla, already have aligned most of their teaching to the Common Core, Greene said.
Weingarten fervently supports the move to raise expectations to the Common Core level. Three-fourths of teachers polled said they do too, results showed.
But Weingarten said making important decisions based on scores during the beta phase could turn people against the Common Core. "The last thing we need is for teachers and the public to lose confidence in what would actually transform teaching and learning in this country," she said.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told reporters at the EWA seminar that he does not support a blanket ban but indicated some states might be allowed to delay using the tests to judge schools or teachers.
"Where states are maybe thinking about walking away from this, I would encourage you to be very, very vigilant," he told reporters. "Are their proposed standards higher or lower?"
Still, he acknowledged that quickly and dramatically changing the nation's entire teaching and testing system is no cinch. "How we sequence this is hugely important and complex and complicated," he said. "The concerns (Weingarten) is addressing are very real, and we are addressing them very seriously."
Leading test experts and Weingarten said states should go ahead and switch to the new, harder tests because that will raise the bar for students and help improve teaching and learning. And, they said, states should tell the public how schools and districts perform.
But experts including Joan Herman, senior scientist at the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at the University of California at Los Angeles, said the first year of results would be too soon to punish or reward schools or teachers based on those results. "The technical issues argue to wait on some of the high stakes issues," she said.
The tests, Herman continued, "will be a tremendous step forward. But they will not meet everyone's expectations for perfection."
-- Betsy Hammond