American education. This book tells the story of the unfolding political drama around the making of the Common Core State Standards for math and English language arts, which were adopted by 43 states and the District of Columbia over a six-month period in 2010, after decades of similar proposals had gone down in flames. As a senior fellow at the major organization promoting the Common Core standards, education writer Bob Rothman gives the reader a bird’s eye view of this unfolding drama and brings the major players to life with lively anecdotes and behind-the-scenes details. He describes the developments leading up to the historic agreement and compares them to earlier efforts. He also explains the content of the standards in depth, describes steps being taken to implement them, and examines how the assessment consortia plan to measure student performance against the new standards. The book is a must-have reference work for researchers, practitioners, school leaders, policy makers, and others interested in contemporary education policy and reform.

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