BoardWise: Governance team members write in
Fall 2012
Dear BoardWise,
Common Core seems expensive. Is this another unfunded mandate?
Signed,
Broke
Dear Broke,
It’s important to understand that, technically, LEAs are not required to adopt Common Core State Standards. According to Education Code Section 60605(a)(2)(A): “The standards adopted pursuant to this section shall be for the purpose of guiding state decisions regarding the development, adoption, and approval of assessment instruments pursuant to this chapter and does not mandate any actions or activities by school districts.” (More references to the non-mandatory nature of standards are in Sections 60605.1 (b), 60605.2 (b), and 60605.3 (c).)
There are obvious consequences for not adopting CCSS. As is implied by the Education Code cited above, the California Department of Education will use the standards and the forthcoming frameworks to design state assessments, and the CCSS are the basis for the forthcoming assessments from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Students will be assessed on their mastery of CCSS through the Smarter Balanced assessments, so there is an obvious logic for adopting the CCSS. Doing so will require changes to instruction and instructional materials, and district assessments.
You are right when you point out there are significant costs for implementing CCSS, and boards will have to make decisions about how to prioritize spending. A report, “National Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the Common Core Standards,” by the Pioneer Institute noted the following predicted costs in California:
- An estimate developed by the CDE provided a “total aggregate cost of $483 million across all California local school systems.” When divided by the most recent enrollment data, this results in an estimated materials cost of $77.19 per student for language arts and mathematics.
- In November 2011, the CDE estimated an expense of $2,000 per teacher “as initial costs to districts for professional learning to transition teachers to the CCSS.”
- Implementing the Smarter Balanced assessments aligned to the Common Core will increase California state testing costs by approximately $10 per student annually, a total statewide cost of $35 million each year.
- To have sufficient computers for online testing, districts would need to have a 4:1 ratio of students to computers.
Additional technology cost would include:
- Increasing bandwidth and proxy servers to accommodate the increased online activity for assessments
- Additional technical support on an ongoing basis
- Boards, working with superintendents, will need to develop reasonable implementation plans that are achievable given district resources.
If timelines will be extended beyond the planned CDE implementation timeline, boards will need to ensure that staff, students, parents and the community understand the local timeline for implementing CCSS and the implications and consequences of those decisions.
For more information on the implementation timeline, go to: www.cde.ca.gov/re/cc/.
Best of luck to you.
BoardWise is written by Christopher Maricle in CSBA’s Policy and Programs Department. He has worked with school district and county office of education boards on school governance matters since 2006.