Alabama College and Career Ready Standards (Alabama Common Core State Standards)

ALERT: Several bills under consideration in the Alabama Legislature would repeal Alabama's rigorous College and Career Ready standards, in addition to hindering academic instruction in other detrimental ways. This has led to an outpouring of support from parents, educators, business leaders, and others opposed to repealing Alabama's College and Career Ready Standards. Below are several documents related to these bills and the standards. For more information on SB403, SB404, HB565, or other bills, please subscribe to A+'s email list.

Update, April 17, 2013: The Senate Education Committee —through a controversial voice vote—voted to repeal Alabama’s College and Career Ready Standards. This vote took place despite the wishes of business and military leaders, and parents and educators who are united in their support for holding students to rigorous academic standards. The vote also ignores the exhaustive process the State Board of Education used in 2010—and always uses—to adopt new standards. This bill, SB403, will now move to the full Senate. If it passes, the bill would then have to be given favorable report in a House committee and passed by the full House.

Update, April 12, 2013: On Wednesday April 17, the Senate Education Committee will consider SB403, a bill nearly identical to SB190 that would repeal Alabama's College and Career Ready Standards, prevent systems from spending money implementing them, and forbiding schools from using data to improve their instruction.

Update, April 5, 2013: Three new bills have been introduced that would repeal Alabama's College and Career Ready Standards, SB403, SB404, and HB565. All three contain language similar to SB190 and HB254 (see below for more information on these two bills).

Update, March 20, 2013: Today the K-12 Education subcommittee of the House Education Policy Committee voted to give "unfavorable report" to HB254, the second of two identical bills that would repeal Alabama's College and Career Ready Standards. 

Update, March 13, 2013: The Senate Education Committee has carried over indefinitely SB190, one of the two identical bills under consideration in the Legislature discussed below that would repeal Alabama's College and Career Ready Standards.

Click on these links for: 

November 2011 Joint letter of support from the A+ Education Partnership, Business Council of Alabama, Alabama Association of School Boards, and School Superintendents of Alabama

February 2013 Joint letter of support from the "Big 4" chambers of commerce in Alabama from Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile 

February 2013 op-ed from State Board of Education members Mary Scott Hunter and Tracy Roberts explaining how the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards were adopted

February 2013 Myths vs. Facts sheet on Alabama College and Career Ready Standards

Two-page brief from A+ on Alabama's College and Career Ready Standards based on the Common Core.

Brief Videos Explaining the Common Core State Standards


From the Council of Great City Schools:




From the Military Child Education Coalition, which supports the standards:

 

From the Teaching Channel, on how the Common Core standards are an improvement in math:
 
 
Background on the Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards are a set of educational standards developed by the National Governors' Association Center for Best Practices, the Council of Chief State School Officers, 48 states and D.C., and thousands of educators and experts.

The standards ensure high school graduates are college and career ready and are based on evidence and research conducted on the most successful school systems world-wide. They also create consistent goals and expectations for students across the nation.

To date, 46 states have adopted the standards and are implementing them by developing curricula based on the standards. 

Adoption of the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards

In 2010 Alabama developed the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards based on the Common Core State Standards. The State Board of Education voted to adopt its new standards with its November 18, 2010 resolution that notes the SBOE "will continue to be the sole and exclusive entity vested with the authority, without restriction, to adopt or revoke all academic standards in all subjects for students in the public schools in the state of Alabama." (This followed a May 14, 2009 resolution regarding development of the Common Core, which noted that "any state that participates in development of the common core of standards is not bound to adopt or implement the standards.")

The SBOE affirmed its adoption of the new standards a year later with its November 10, 2011 resolution. In addition to reaffirming the language of the previous resolution, the 2011 resolution notes that, "any federal government action, through administrative fiat or congressional act, to dictate or prescribe a particular set of academic content standards or to dictate how such standards are to be implemented is an intrusion into the states’ long-standing established rights and responsibilities to deliver K-12 education that violates fundamental principles of federalism."

Implementation of the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards

During the 2012-13 school year, Schools across Alabama and their teachers are transitioning to the new math standards and developing their own curricula based on the standards. During the 2013-14 school year, schools will similarly implement the new English/Language Arts standards.

The standards do not tell anyone how to teach. Systems and schools are still responsible for this. The standards only state what students at each level in math and English should be able to accomplish. 

Browse below to learn more about the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards. 


The Alabama College and Career Ready Standards

Common Core State Standards
 - Free iPhone/iPad app that serves as a reference to help easily read and understand the Common Core State Standards. [Note:This is for the Common Core. It does not have the Alabama-specific standards included in the College and Career Ready Standards.]


News, Editorials and Testimonies on the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards and Common Core State Standards


Briefs on the Common Core State Standards

Further Research on the Common Core State Standards