New standards streamline state's education goals

Any successful trip begins with a road map and clear destination. On the educational journey, that means smart and clear learning standards that prepare students for success in college and careers.

Fellow Illinois State Board of Education members and I recently adopted just such a road map, known as the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics. Those same standards are before 48 states and U.S. territories that have all been part of an unprecedented collaborative effort to ensure academic excellence and equity across our country.

These standards do not tell teachers how to teach, nor do they attempt to override the unique qualities of each student and classroom that make learning fun and interesting. They simply establish a strong foundation of knowledge that all students need for success after graduation.

Local teachers and administrators will have flexibility in how they implement the standards in schools and in classrooms.

This is not a federal mandate. It is a state-led initiative driven by teachers, educational administrators, business and community leaders. The effort began with the common sense premise that the content covered in core subjects should not be all that different from one state to another. A fifth-grade math class in Illinois should look much like a fifth-grade math class in Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa or Wisconsin.

Illinois teachers have long known our standards were too broad and not always measurable. These new standards combine both what students need to know and how students would apply that knowledge in real-life situations. No longer can we accept that someone is "book-smart" but can't work in a group or meet a deadline. In just about every field and career, we need people who can apply a depth of knowledge to a broad range of challenges.

The nation's governors and state superintendents of education oversaw the project.

The people who developed these standards included teachers, professors and testing experts. To start, experts first developed college and career readiness benchmarks before tracking back and spelling out the necessary steps and skills for each grade, all the way down to kindergarten. As part of the process, experts studied and incorporated the most rigorous international learning standards as well as more than 10,000 public comments before the final versions were released earlier this month.

Over time, the standards will also increase the efficiency of our education system by providing states with greater opportunities to share experiences and effective practices. This will allow for important and costly undertakings, such as curriculum and assessment development to be streamlined, so that every state does not have to separately invest time and resources to create similar products.

These newly adopted standards are just the beginning. We started with math and English language arts because they set the foundation for learning, but other common standards will be developed, beginning with science, in the coming year. In the meantime, we hope that you will support this effort to put our students on firm common ground.

• James Baumann is a member of the Illinois State Board of Education. He lives in Lake Bluff.