National Science Foundation
Horizon Research led the development of a research agenda for studying the influence of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics on the mathematics education system nationally. The starting point for this work was the research framework developed by the National Research Council’s Committee on Investigating the Influence of National Standards (Weiss, Knapp, Hollweg, & Burrill, 2002), which describes three major “channels” through which standards might influence teaching and learning—the curriculum channel, the teacher channel, and the assessment/accountability channel. Interviews with developers and supporters of the Common Core State Standards helped identify the theories of action for how these standards might influence the system. Project staff and consultants with expertise in mathematics education and policy research identified indicators of the hypothesized influences, and sketched out alternative pathways for studying if/how the Common Core Standards influence the mathematics education system in the United States, and the impact of that permeation on student learning. The various options for research were considered by a broader group of mathematics education and policy researchers to develop a priority research agenda.