A look at the cost of health care and the role of Accountable Care organisations. Seized mans he coverage of the kansas governor debate. On wednesday a panel of educational experts will agree that one challenge to the common store in issues to right now is a lack of material available to educators. The panellists analyse the cons of the initiative. This is 90 minutes. Afternoon everybody, thank you, welcome to the American Enterprise institute. As we talk about back water issue that no one is really talking about, today we are about the common core, an issue that has an incredible amount of salience in the media and in politics and we have three outstanding panellists to discuss. Introduce them to you that is a veteran education reporter Education Week, she coauthors the curricular matters and if you want to get up to speed on the common core and how it has been playing out in classrooms the country, catherine and her reporting has some of the best. That would be ricks director of policy, he actually participated in the intelligence debate on the topic embraced the common core and he has a new piece leading National Issue of affairs in title how the common core went wrong. In 2009 he was the Strategic Initiative director of standards investment and he led the ity where development of the common core in the 45 states in the District Of Columbia. We are going to forego the usual speechmaking talking points that begin these con slabs. We are going to conflabs. I want to start with the laying of the land and catherine i think you will be the best to give us an overview. We are hearing across the country that schools are implementing the common core what does that mean . Well i wish there was a uniform answer for the whole country but, you know, things they are, there arent. Having done me that a lot and is still gaining a sense of what they are meant to do that is different, at the other end youve got people plunging in and making a lot of deep changes. As you know i spent eight months hanging around the District Of Columbia sing what they are doing. Have a lot ies, you coming ects that are from grassroot levels like nevada, it has they are ed that making efforts. They are going to create resources themselves, it is all place and it shows from the cep report that a lot of districts are behind on a lot of the pieces are going to make this work. Two thirds of them are putting things into practice. I do want to add to those of you that a following on home on the live stream or for those of you joining us on cspan the conversation is also taking place on twitter with whatnowcc. I will do my best to follow along while we are talking. To get in line for these new are being rolled out, using the great mass that Education Week other large d, the consortium has doing their own thing. Where do you see this going . Thanks for inviting me to be here and catherine your great on this een topic and obviously you are in the details. If we had said in 2010 that we states participating working together, no one would have predicted that, we had 50 riding their own tasks so, i think 26 is a real progress. There are many that have stepped away and there are a number of reasons why, the federal involvement in this has not been helpful in every scenario that we have been following. You see any sort of push back around testing has been rooted in the fact that the government involved in the funding, and for folks to adopt the common core standards. A group of states taking part. Going to if theyre i think we er, need Higher Standards for kids in this country. Had we make sure that the assessments are at a level that are actually different than what we were doing before. Your i would love to hear response on this . Is a positive development or risk further longterm core . Is a great question, catherines work on this has been invaluable, one of the reasons we are where we are is because the common core felt like a surprise to a huge number of americans. Remember catherine called late 2009 probably early 2010 and i had just blogged about the poor jobs and education spaces. Catherine said you dont really care about this do you . I think most americans knew little about what it meant. I think catherine has done a remarkable job but obviously they are speaking to folks in education. I agree wholeheartedly with chris that i am form Higher Standards and i dont know anyone who is against high standards. I think the big part of the question is how confident we should be that the common core standards are higher. For me i dont have a problem the common core standards, i wanted to be higher and better especially in practice and i am concerned that some of the stuff that goes along with common core, like the infinity for closed reading. Like to see y would time to see how it shakes out before i would see this as a train we are all jumping on. Thats the reason i think a number of states edging away from the common core is a good thing. I think 15 states, may be 20 or maybe 15 states would have gone ahead and on the common core on their own. They would have figured out how to do a common assessment like in new england. A hat we would have seen is truly and genuinely statewide effort and if it was working in other implemented well states would it have wanted it. Unfortunately that is not what we are looking at and it has exposed washington so it has been fun to argue how we have got here but also what were talking about today is what of the moving ies forward constructively. You and rape, agree that the government has caused a lot of the problems do you see an appetite on the half of common core supporters to push back more vigourously against the common government. To take a more proactive stance . I think it is pretty clear, that most of us, i cannot say all of us f us but believe that declaring our independence is critical. How as governors we step into this place, the hardest part do not have its fundraising issue. Have passion folks and money. The biggest thing is figuring how we land this. I think the shift in the common core are based on research and they are also based on what teachers tell us they want to do with their kids. This sort of i can the t you there wasnt as it is in ere is 2014. There is something about the standards that are really Worth Holding onto. I am happy to keep talking about it but i think the biggest thing is how do we land this thing in five years so that teachers are able to teach a higher standard and kids are graduating from high school at a higher rate. We are making progress with kids, we can debate all we want in washington whether or not this is a good thing. More kids are ready to go on to college. This is important. This is the stuff i dont want to lose, i can lose the other staff. Be interested id about the we talk common core, take a couple of minutes and drill down to some of the sticking points, and understanding what is happening. The first issue that United People in the political right with data privacy. I was wondering, catherine, in your time in school, how big of a concern was it . I am not the p person to ask about that because we have had other reporters focused on it is a n i have, but concern. This whole debate sometimes reminds me of when you go hear the and you noise above and it goes quiet. This is not the stuff that people are talking about. Out what that re means surveyed in ent sue the district, there is a much higher response rates. They feel the backlash but in terms of doing the work thats what i hear people talking about, i dont know about data and school so much. I think there is a dynamic here which is, i think catherines takeaway would apply the much across the board will meet about special education, when we talk about we eral grant requirements, talk to educators. You generally dont hear a lot of grumbling about this. You generally hear people trying to make this stuff work. When it comes to federal grant requirements and when it comes idea, we about often provide unreasonable solutions. Me this is a r good difference where reasonable people should be able to argue about it in a way that we havent had much. At common core standards, across standards, they are not different from what a lot of states had on paper but there are a lot of stuff that go along with the common core. Some common core advocates common core is smuggling because there is a 57 word little appendage there. Those who like the common core celebrate the closed reading. It is something that teachers are encouraging to do 70 informational text by the time are in high school, not in english class where you are supposed to be doing a lot of reading. I am personally unpersuaded that epa manuals is better chemistry instruction then doing labs. I am not opposed to these things but i do know how its going to shake out or be good fit kids. To me therefore, how do we not do this as a 40 odd state let riment but had we states like kentucky, where you actually have deep commitment to doing this and doing it well, let them try and let others of us stand on the sidelines and see whether this works out. Chris, is there a way to do that . We are going statebystate right now so theres nothing forcing the state to stay in the common core. There are incentives, but there is nothing preventing from doing review processes, doing what they want do with it so, i think the narrative about what the standards are, it is silly. Of course we want kids to be doing labs. I think it is a false distinction, we want kids to be reading more complex texts, a high level of understanding by they leave high school. I also know there has been a process like this in a country with a massive amount of him and is that weve had. They are fundamentally different from the state so i disagree with that to. Another issue with catherine, who touched on this. One very attractive feature of common core was the idea of a nationwide marketplace for material, so rather than just having your alabama textbook market them maybe folks all over the place. Catherine i was wondering if talk about these challenges. Everything that we hear with a few exceptions would suggest that the publishing as we known it, hasnt done a very stellar job of changes in its materials. There are some things emerging that look promising but it is not, it is sort of few and far between. Had been deep inputs, i mean, future organisations to get inputs now, that speaks for itself but i think materials are being at the grassroots level, but thats one of the most universal and consistent complaints that shows up in research and that we do in our reporting. The stuff is junk. There seems to be a strong incentive for folks to take the same product that they have always had an slap common core line on it. Are their efforts at work to try and do something about that . To help schools sort through that are out ns there . One organisation out there, it is brandnew and they begin to look at the alignment for materials. I dont think we should do anything but acknowledge the fact that we have been slow to provide teachers what they need to teach the standards. I think we have to then, start move that point and quite frankly catherines reporting is very clear. You cannot say that standards at that much different and also say we need way different materials. Was an eve there significant changes, and we need better materials. That is something we need to acknowledge. Were going to have to get better materials for teachers. I think this takes us in a good direction because at some point in the near future at the rubber is going to hit the road, and the parser are aligned to this standards consequences will be attached to them. Looking forward, where is this headed . There are concerns that have the do not necessary materials. Had used that planning out . Simple truth e from me, if my employer tells that they want to do more to hold me accountable for my performance, that is reasonable, i dont have a complaint about that. They want to tell me they to change the way they me do my job that is going to look as if there is something on my back. You see this in a lot of places and frankly this takes us back to something chris said a couple of minutes ago which is these federal induced timelines. What we wound up with were federal political timelines for the rate at which they ought to be making the transition of common core and transitioning to teach abased evaluation. I think the way forward again is not necessary talk of blanket, you know, holdup periods everywhere but accountable rePublic Officials in the states ought to be making decisions. There are some states that seem to be covering common core very well. There are other states that are being dragged kicking and screaming and i dont understand why we imagine this is good fit kids and children try and force this from washington so, to me, a real simple place to start is by when you are hat doing, when youre trying to you are he way evaluating performance, there are timelines are based on pragmatic considerations and there are timelines based on Political Considerations and i think we spend too much time working on political timelines. One response has been through waiver processes, it is push back the consequences in which states have to start using these tests. Are we expecting to see more of that in the future . Is that productive strategy . Are nodding ike you in agreeing. How do you set these timelines . We are here to talk about the common core and is very tough to separate these issues evaluation cher issues, i think state chiefs and state governors need to decide where they need to go. It needs to be in the hand of the states, quite frankly the scenarios are so different. I think a single federal timeline was always hard. I do think so that we have seen real commitment from states about stepping into this and we hear the most from the having the are hardest time, they are moving forward in a positive way. I dont really care that much about the evaluation but i do care about teachers Getting Better feedback. I was hopeful that that initiative will stand on that spot not the spot that we can use the examples recused. I dont see evaluation being taken off the table but i do think that states and districts are going to have to decide how to do this. Catherine, your experience in schools and districts, as sort of landscape changes the teachers, how do they see themselves. Being ing the goalpost moved on them . Are they being part of the process . How are they responding to all of these changes taking place at once . I think they are just trying to figure out how to do a good job and seem very frustrated lot of my time has been spent hanging around the district. Some of them are prig cited and some of them are feeling overwhelmed. There was a sticking timeclock, they always think there is a time on the wall. They feel there is not enough time to do something they need time to do. They have very little support. That is the piece i keep running across when i talk about the schools and teachers. Maybe we had the standards that we dont have good instructions on the materials worse very little strategy for understanding how to deal with kids who have the greater needs, who have the greater way to go. Absolutely. There was an interesting story today in my google alert for the common core which fills my inbox every morning with interesting things. It caught my eye because the first common core year louisianas publicschool grades improved slightly. When we increase the standards we should expect to see larger and larger students failed to make the provisionsy. As i read into the standards, how could this be. Grading of the tests of the new e impact standards, acknowledge though the questions were tougher this year the grading was easier get few items o right to pass the basic than they had to do in 2013. Guard ant to be on against this back standing,these lower standards. We would have a repeat of what happened essentially stay s are allowed to there in standards. We have to guard against that and there are number of ways to do that, first of all, as states are thinking of setting a common performance, that is a really important piece of this. In a he stateside to go different direction they have to be thinking about what that means for their kids. Their kids are not able to achieve at the same level as the other 16 states in that group. I dont see that part being a huge problem. It is the individual states that are given their own assessment to writing their own assessments to the standards and we are going to have to continue to work with them. I see different attitudes about the assessments and i did five years ago, for five years ago states were simply tried to do as cheap as possible. States are recognising that they need a Higher Quality in grade against those standards. Last thing i mention, i think it needs to be looked at the state individually. One year ouldnt be a in consequences like in kentucky. There are other states that need another year and need these test to roll out free year before there are consequences. This should not be a single conversation in this country. Earlier this week there was a bloomberg headline. That put out an ad out a quote. I wonder about changing this. When these sort of laggard states dont live up to their standards, in a way are you cutting the needs from the folks who have had to make the tough decisions to toe the line . Kentuckys superintendent the more outspoken leaders, Terry Holliday said, wait a minute all of this is making it harder for them to do what they are doing. If you try and drag everyone on the common core train instead of letting the states want to do it, do it. Youve got those riding up in first class and youve got another state riding along in coach and they are kicking and screaming and the noises affecting everybody and making this more controversial for the states want to do it. Let us also be clear, that part of this problem that making it clear that it is something that everybody should be doing you have wound up with all sorts of design complications. One of the reasons we needed the common core was because we had all this gameplaying. States would funny go without cuts scores and take lousy and easy test so nobody was getting good accurate readings on how kids were doing. To that of course that people can analyse. They recommend a 60 day testing window between schools and states that started different times. There is also a tradition when it comes to testing of School Districts pushing back test because it means kids get a lot of extra days of instruction and the schools look good. You would make it a condition of joining a testing consortium. They are going to look at the master schedules and work with the folks. That was part of it because they are trying to get as many the st