common core standards that are internationally benchmarked at our first year in april we learned about the effort to improve academic standards in our schools witnesses told us about the momentum in the support from not only the education but business leaders and  stakeholders from across the political spectrum i'm glad to see the bipartisan support come from members of congress today we will hear from our panel about the significant progress has been made since that forty days have now signed on to this initiative  led effort is critical to regain our role as a world leader in education they know that we must ensure that all students are prepared for success in college or a career i couldn't agree more and we need to do everything we can to support this effort one of the problems we have encountered with no child left behind is that the law requires every state to set its own academic standards and assessments aligned to those without a unified set of strong expectations unfortunately chose to lower the bar creat and fifty different states undermines americans education system and this just in the high school diploma doesn't master the academic tools that they will need to compete in today's world all students should be challenged to develop the complex skills and knowledge but we're still lacking academically compared to other high performing countries american students about a year behind students in top performing countries in math even our best perform worse in math than their peers in twenty two other countries only one point three world performing countries such as norway and sweden and so we had this wide range of performance is very troubling when you're trying to maintain and build and world class economy and competitive the top ten countries up to step up to seven times as many students are performing at the highest level it's clear that we have a lot of work cut out for us an important step in this led effort is a common core of internationally benchmark standards that can prepare having spent a dollar this gives us a reason to be optimistic that we will see a seismic shift on education that this country needs a recent survey from the center on education policy show the states are confident they can meet required by the recovery act the common core state standards initiative and how coordinated efforts to strengthen academic standards can enhance american competitiveness the common core initiative is being developed the joint leadership the national governors association center for best practices and the don't believe that anyone involved in the initiative intended for to become the one and only set of academic standards in the united states for that reason i'd like to focus my remarks this morning not on the quality of the standards and sells but on what the federal government is doing with those standards department is even going one step further offering to provide funding to help states develop assessments based on those common standards the only common multi state academic standards that i'm aware of are those being developed through the common core initiative and therefore stands to reason that any state wishing to receive funding is a race to the top program will be mandated to adopt the common core and to test students based on those standards in other words a common course being transformed from a voluntary state based initiative a set of federal academic standards with a corresponding federal test and i know that i can speak for the committee when i say that we applaud the secretary's enthusiasm when it comes to education reform yet we have been particularly troubled by this aspect of the race to the top guidelines and a ramp occasions of federal involvement in academic standards we know academic standards vary widely from state to state and some states have set the bar too low level their students are prepared to compete on the world stage yet other states have risen to the challenge and setting extremely rigorous standards and holding their students accountable to these high expectations the common core has the potential to support those states standards are falling short but mandatory adoption could have the unintended consequence of lowering the bar for state and local communities voluntarily establish standards even more rigorous than those developed with a common core i also have questions about what role parents and local education officials w play if the common core becomes a defacto national curriculum as a former school board member i can attest that school boards have been active in the development of academic standards and assessments we care about the kids we serve those this allows parents teachers and communities to have a voice and what our children are taught a voluntary common core could serve as a baseline to be modified to enhance based on local needs by mandating adoption the common co the department of education could undermine the ability of local educators shaping customize what gets taught in individual classrooms the common core initiative is an important tool in the effort to strengthen academic standards but is only one element of what should be a much broader strategy on the part of state and local communities working in partnership with the public and private sectors to enhance american competitiveness i applaud the efforts to develop a voluntary set of rigorous academic standards however they must not degree from the university of colorado he serves on the denver public schools commission on secondary school reform and recently was named the chair of the national governors association education early childhood and workforce committee most importantly married to a former schoolteacher and their eldest child goes to college in my congressional district of the university of colorado in boulder and their youngest child is a junior at denver high school it's my honor to introduce our governor in the great state of colorado governor bill can but when you have to leave we understand that and so let us know welcome thank you mr chairman chairman miller ranking member thompson members of the committee thank you for inviting me to testify to the common core state education system absolutely must reflect this to maintain america's competitive edge all of our students need to be well prepared ready to compete not only with their american peers but also with students from around the world state  development the common core standards is a critical first step to bring about real and meaningful transformation of state education systems to benefit all students i appreciate firsthand how important this effort is to the competitiveness of state workforces and similarly how important it is to ensure that it remains in the hands of the state in two thousand and eight i pushed for the development of state level policy that was aligned twelve and higher education standards with the goal of ensuring that all students are ready for entry into post secondary education for the workforce upon exit from high school we call this effort the colorado achievement plan for kids were kept and it represented the first time colorado education systems work together in earnest on common student oriented policy game changing education policy in my state for the first time we shifted our collective attention from manual assessments and simple punitive accountability policies to a focus on relevancy student growth and an expectation that all students regardless of their station in life should be prepared for college and career by the time they exit from high school but from my firsthand experience i'd question that this work takes time to implement well after nearly two years of concentrated effort and deliberate outreach we are just now at the point of state level adoption next we will turn to developing a new system of assessment and into supporting local school districts adoption and classroom implementation we've been moving at near light speed to develop adopt and implement these new standards and assessment tools will not be ready for use until two thousand and twelve though there are forty eight states and territories involved in the effort to develop common standards it is important to respect that is in a different place regarding its readiness to adopt and implement the common core standards confident that this process has a great chance for success but adoption of new standards is simply a step toward meaningful education reform i turn to the critic a return to the critical point the common core standards an issue that is and must be a state led effort adoption of the common core is and must be voluntary for state decision to adopt will be made in every state by state and local leaders working with teachers parents businesses and citizens to develop the standards in ga in the c c s s o have been using the best available evidence both nationally and internationally the first round of stated options should be considered version one point zero future and ongoing revisions are inevitable and necessary moreover future research will inform improvements and expand the body of evidence states are already planning for the sustainability of this work and the possible development of standards in additional subjects congress can support participating states by setting high expectations for results and allowing governors give us the clear authority to experiment innovate and define how to get the work done governors need your leadership and assist the federal government has a critical supporting role to unleash the power of states that actually common core standard have just the tip of the iceberg in the power of states that actually the next few months we expect to begin working on the reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education act ideally this effort would replicate the state federal partnership  just described work must remain on assessment accountability human capital research and development so much more governors are committed in eager to work with the committee on this reauthorization so again chairman miller and members of the common standard we do end up with an internationally benchmarked so we know how our students are doing compared to our competitors in a very competitive economy so one of the things that should be as a real ambition on the part of the education benchmarking among states as a way for us to measure as well so i think that it does do away with some of the complaints that our state might be different and therefore we're being punished development what we penalize for not adopting common standards if they choose to compete for the for the race to the top the department is in effect encouraging some states to lower their state standards which i think really bad idea  i'm not sure what you that you talk to the department about their involvement with in this initiative and why would why they decided to put this requirement the race to the top what has been the response to these we've had these conversations first of all i think the ambition here is that they look at content standards as an important part of reform and that if they have standards that they've that higher than what m t become the common core standards or when we're ready to stay look at them to adopt them that i think that's a good problem to have we did talk with the secretary about this notion that there must be some kind of you know compliance with the standards in order to raise the top and  was clear to me you don't have to have identical standards but you do have to have some level of compliance in order for you i think you're going to have as a state can have some level of compliance because of this ambition of developing content standards i think we're the first state in the and one of the ways for four states to really be able to compete is to understand that important role if you leave it out altogether doesn't necessarily get done and i think that is what the department of education they're trying to focus on i'm not child's potential as opposed to a cookie cutter approach which is kind of what the federal government has imposed i think on our states our local school boards up to this point so the first part of the common core standards has been about  math and english language arts and we've developed a common standards with those two things and have not gone to the other parts of the education system because we had to start somewhere and i think there's not  kids if we put them in a quality preschool that's one thing that's going to have a payoff in fourteen years but not for fourteen years when kids who are now three years old graduating from high school full day kindergarten is something that is also i think important challenges in many respects and try to put additional counselors into those middle schools to help them with what's necessary to get them to a place where they're more successful in high school and then we've done a variety of things as a really high school and we aligned our standards with higher ed  all of that is is really just a quick summary of things we've been working on because we really do believe that there's not just one thing and i think as a country we have to view it that way i would say that as it relates to  special needs kids i think in this country think the right way about special needs kids and i believe that the right amount of dollars are being invested in some more things that could be helpful but you know there's some flexibility with respect to on this for three legislative sessions and it is clear to me how many different things you need to bring together in order at the end the day to make it about student learning teacher effectiveness you mentioned that as well and we're working with our another could be good but i'm a little bit concerned about the you mentioned the assessments but you didn't go into any details on it would there be common assessments that are being developed at the same time or would be allowed to have its own assessment course they're going to do that and you think they would be common so that their body would be having more or less the same assessment i think so i mean i shouldn't speak for the national governors association because i know that we've had i haven't been a part of that conversation with the national governors association but my sense is that yes it should happen and this is not as i want to make it sound like it but at the same time like i said when we had developed our standards we saw the basis but absolutely we have the ability to develop common assessment states going to drop or not adopt that help them measure against the progress of the standard well i'm concerned about how the states will react if there are common standards as well as the states that are doing well to do more but i'm not sure how happy the governors and legislatures are going to be in the well i think we have to improve this i mean i think we all agree the education system in america public education system in america we have to  the hard realities that some states are going to do better than others and then put in front of them aspiration about how to get to a better place i think this notion of allowing mark among themselves is also very valuable because you doesn't but that is a part that concerns me a great deal and my other concern is what if anything do you think congress should be doing to react to this i've been following this in following what governors have been saying it and you're developing yourselves and right now you develop standards and assessments anyhow whatever we do with no child left behind which will be involved in fundamental changes next year probably do we just leave it up to the states as we pretty much do now to difficulties they continue to have with no child left behind and part of it is just the punitive nature of that some of the goals that we're going to be a part of not impossible to achieve and they look at being punished by that if nothing were to change  committee your appointment recognizes colorado's major education reforms that you and lieutenant governor o'brien have initiated since taking office in two thousand and seven in this position with the energy and can help shape the national dialogue over education reform that president obama and this congress have watched with a bold vision and a strong commitment to excellence and opportunity for all i want to thank you for providing this update on the state lead of element of common core state standards which is an essential component in our nation's the agenda of all of our governors particularly as our nation faces a recession promoting green energy jobs and strengthening colorado's competitiveness both in the u s and internationally has been a major focus of your administration can you please discuss with us the importance of a high quality education system and a highly skilled workforce in your economic development efforts in conversations with domestic and global businesses how do you think the common core standards initiative will help improve our innovation and economic growth both as a nation and for the states to adopt question how do we do better job how do we get more kids were proficient in math or who perform at the highest levels in math that's the kind of benchmark that we're talking about and that data is there that is available we already job of adopting standards than what we're doing at the national governors association that's a really good problem to have it sounds to me like you have a substantial role in upgrading standards in colorado what was that greatest challenge in doing districts one hundred seventy eight school districts and ensuring that you take into consideration special sort of needs of those schools they're very different characteristics in those and to adopt a common set of content standards that really can be something implemented in each of those districts is going to require a great deal of work and it takes some time to do that but i think that's been our greatest challenge is to ensure that it is something that question quick word about how competitive the united states could be internationally in business if we continue to languish in the bottom in math and science and education well i think you know the lumina foundation maybe has done the best work on more importantly with respect to how we are working with the fundamentals in our inability to really compete because of our math and english and because when the corporations make that decision they look at that and if we're not we don't show good numbers have gone somewhere else absolutely they very much care about that you mention the study of the waiting list in preschool and the fact on graduation rates they also show the cost effectiveness of preschool compared to cost of remedial education crime and welfare started with math and english language arts and that's the starting point for what else can be i guess what else is amenable to the development of a common core standards of an open question but we appreciate that this is the about the cognitive capacities that are going to need to be successful in this new world economy and finally we are building on the idea that we put as much evidence on the table as possible in terms of coming up role that you as a parent in that educational process this will be the first time we put in them in front of them a set of very clear statements about their roles and responsibility and broken down in a way that an individual teacher would be thank you chairman miller congressman thompson and all the members of the committee for the invitation to be here today the global leader in educational assessment and education technology drawing on our expertise in large scale assessments longitudinal data systems and instructional support systems we are actively working to inform the public dialogue about high quality standards we share the administrations and the committees goals of improving student learning college readiness in our global competitiveness in my testimony today i will focus on three key points the first point is that to successfully develop and implement higher quality standards diverse education stakeholders will be wired to collaborate  the race to the top assessment program the second point i'd like to make is about the role of manual assessments as the foundation for quality management system for public education we are proud of the role that we play in helping  implement valid reliable assessment systems we believe that transparency and student performance is essential to achieving lasting education for nothing is more fundamental to ensuring parents and accountability systems based upon annual assessments of individual student achievement providing parents in the public with the results it is only through annual assessments that we know what progress we are making in providing access to quality public s to know whether schools are effectively serving students holding accountable for making progress in improving student here i'd like to make a special point about assessment systems developed in connection with no child left behind both the federal government and the states have invested significant amounts of time and money in these systems which rely primarily on paper based multiple choice assessment with all of the resources provided through the american recovery and reinvestment act and race to the top we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to go paperless and that is my final point this morning the president an opportunity we have for us to go online to improve learning now is time to build out the infrastructure and capacity for online assessments on line management systems online content instructional delivery system on line assessments will allow us to do some truly competitive twenty first century workforce i share this pride to demonstrate that our school district remains committed to improved academic achievement for all my colleagues throughout the nation recognize the importance of rigorous academic standards to ensure that students enrolled in our public schools are competitive in the global society with the passage of the american recovery and reinvestment act and the accompanying race to the top fund and the proposed innovation grants we will be able to further intensif our efforts with respect to common core standards believe that such standards should be developed by state individually or collectively by groups of states to achieve this goal local school boards also recognize that the federal government must  play a role however the federal role must be one of partnership and support the state not only in terms of funding for those students with the greatest needs but also in serving as a clearinghouse to share and promote best practices regarding actions to overcome shortfalls in student achievement consistent with the language of the formal resolution adopted this year by the national association delegate assembly we believe the federal government should support state and local effort to provide students with an education that is focused on the skills and knowledge needed in the global world of the twenty first century by finding multiple education including regional education and to develop models for voluntary adoption for those purposes to support funding for research and developing their own standards for high stakes accountability purposes more specifically across the nation oppose making any of these activities mandatory on state or local school districts or as a condition of othe r federal and we oppose efforts to involve the federal government directly or indirectly to develop mandatory or model national content standards or to mandate the development of common content standards among groups  of local school boards are well aware of the ongoing effort by the national governors association and the council of officers on common core standards and we will continue to support common core standards that includes as an example the department of education the top program will award competitive grants to states that have the school reform plan this race to the top component affectively would favor state standards the proposed requirements for innovation grant recently released by the department of education suggest support for similar approaches to developing the proposed expansion of this approach raises some serious questions that will have to be sorted out again we that is filled to capacity with very highly talented highly qualified engineers and research scientists we have three schools and elementary middle and high school that have implemented a very comprehensive program technology engineering and math that is in conjunction with the engineers on that they spend time in our classrooms working directly with our student students are spending time on the base working on current projects that the base is undertaking and while not every community may have a naval air station in it there are certainly various industries that are in many of our communities that would have equal value in providing hands on application and a collaborative approach to the teaching of such subjects and make it much more a portable and understanding to the student years developing very very high standards and implementing those at a cost of over two billion dollars over the last six years we have spent a great deal of time and  florida we all expect to educate our children to the highest standard we all understand the necessary of our children being able to effectively compete in differently with respect to education it is an ongoing dialogue and it's been a matter of great concern to local boards of education through all of our advocacy groups for a very long time and it is the discussions continue and i think that whatever happens with the common core standards whatever they ultimately look like that may have an impact on teacher education but when you talk to the experts in teacher education and they talk about the basics of understanding and how to deliver that model more so than they talk about the specifics of what the standards are colleges of congressman the higher ed center and we came together to discuss what we're going to take in order to make sure we were growing our own and developed into a very comprehensive program begins in fourth grade process we were invited to give our input whether it was acted upon is a matter of debate when i'm sure that you can understand having i'd like to make in response to something that mr talked about and that would be the online assessment coming from an emerging rural area that has limited broadband access i would say to  not just to st mary's county but across thank you thank you noted early on when you said that the emphasis in this will be what students should know i believe that's what i heard you development process it was simply a call on our part to take the two areas that were being emphasized in terms of performance at this time there was no attempt to eliminate science in the long run it was merely a matter of how many of these can we move forward at a single time and i think in retrospect two of them at this point was about all we could have handled and because there was such a strong voice out there in terms of mathematics development  let me just finish with the footnote is again i think the most effective way for students to learn i think it's been demonstrated over and over is through science education i would say that the general conversation in the science community to this point is really about how do we merge the scientific inquiry methodology with the essential knowledge and how do those two come together in a important conclusion that leads to a set of standards that we can all be proud of and promote that conversation going on in science that a similar conversation is going on in mathematics and in english language arts  but this one student may not only recites the facts and understand it they got the facts about about that subject at that moment they may also be able to demonstrate that they understand how those facts would be applied to a series of today but i also think it's very very promising but the blast against no child left behind i think quite correctly and i say that as a proud author of it was that we ended up putting very high stakes outcome on a single assessment and i think what you're suggesting to us is that we need not do that we can be much better informed about what's taking place in the school or the school district because of these other ways of measuring what students are to where where they need to be to truly be ready for college ready for work based on these international benchmarks that being said if we can move to a technology platform and get out of paper and they're really just implementing the least expensive kind of assessment they can deliver which is a multiple choice paper based machine if we can if we can move beyond that then we'll be changing the focus away from preparation on those kinds of assessments to the kinds of rich experiences that you've been talking about where children are demonstrating what many of the criticisms and concerns and very legitimate concerns we've had about accountability on the no child left behind are really addressed in this in terms of where we could go in the future which i think would be very exciting for teachers