Odds and Ends Before The SBE Meeting

So tomorrow Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will announce the finalists for the second round of Race to the Top. The timing is a bit delicate as it comes just days before the August 2 deadline for states to declare their adoption of the Common Core standards. While policymakers in California have signaled an intent to adopt the Common Core, it will be interesting to watch the reactions if the state is not identified as an RTTT finalist. . . .

I've been following the concerns raised by Academic Standards Commissioners Bill Evers and Ze'ev Wurman over the recommended math standards. They posted an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee over the weekend ( http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/24/2911462/proposed-math-standards-unteachable.html) raises a concern similar to that which I identified during the closing days of the commission's deliberations. Namely, the commission recommends that 8th grade students enrolled in Algebra 1 take the additional standards identified for Algebra 1 while also mastering the 8th grade standards for the rest of the Common Core. Is that too much? Should the State Board consider adopting the 8th grade standards as an entire range and worry about how they are organized later?

I'll have more to say later this week as we get closer to the State Board of Education meeting, including reactions to the RTTT announcement and a forecast of the SBE meeting.