Research & Commentary: Common Core Draft Science Standards A
consortium of consultants and science educators has released a
draft of what they plan will become national education standards
for K-12 science. Forty-five states have already adopted math
and language arts Common Core standards, grade-by-grade lists of
what each student must know to be deemed proficient by the
government in each subject. Most states rushed to adopt them in
2009 and 2010 because the federal government required this to
win a Race to the Top grant. Common Core proponents say their
nearly national spread allows families to move between states
and maintain curricular stability, and allows for comparing
student achievement across states using the same measures. It
also prevents states from degrading their standards, since they
no longer control them. Clear, uniform, high-quality standards
are necessary to create the proper expectations for schools and
teachers to aim towards. Individual liberty advocates counter
that centralization for