Recently an event was held at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, DC, to discuss the impact of the Common Core State Standards on America’s innovation economy and to present cutting-edge examples of innovation in education. The CCSS “are a clear, concise, and uniform set of standards designed to help American students keep up with an increasingly dynamic and innovative global economy.” 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the CCSS, while states such as Virginia and Texas have not.
In attendance at the event was Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League. Joining him on the panel were Dr. Belinda Pustka, a superintendent of a school district in Texas for students displaced by disasters, Brad Miller, a congressman from North Carolina, and Dale Fulton, the chief academic officer from Discovery.
Morial said that the main goal now is to demystify what the CCSS really mean. The CCSS are a departure from the love affair of every state having their own standards for school. This movement towards a national standard is an essential step in preparing students for the global marketplace. He stated that technology was a missing aspect in American children’s education, recommending that children must get an earlier exposure to technology in a formal education setting. This must be a national policy, so that some children aren’t left behind.
To get this jump on education, Morial suggested starting children in school earlier, possibly at age 3 instead of age 5 and exposing them to technology. He applauded the Project Ready STEM Act, introduced by congresswoman Marsha Fudge of Ohio, which seeks to authorize funding to expand science, technology, math, and engineering through after-school programs. There is a gap between children, African-American children in particular, and their peers, in math and science. The focus should be to elevate the idea that technology should be in the formal curriculum of our children’s education.
The CCSS shouldn’t just apply to students, however, said Morial. We must also find a set of inputs to help students, teachers, states, and school systems in implementing the CCSS. Newer teachers must be taught in their graduate programs on how to teach the CCSS while older teachers must be retrained how to teach them to be truly effective. The CCSS are the difference between preparing the United States workforce of the 21st century to compete in a global economy.
To sum it up, Morial gave a poignant example: Imagine if some kids were playing on a 9-foot goal, while others were playing on a 10-foot goal. Some sort of gradual standards must be implemented to help prepare the 9-foot kids to play on that 10-foot goal. This is the crisis that we are facing in our country, where some children are better prepared for the future than others. We must have everyone playing on the 10-foot goal in this global economy.