Based on a review of literature and on interviews with individuals involved in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) nationally and in Washington State, Florida, and Kentucky, this NCPR working paper outlines the development of the CCSS and the CCSS-aligned assessments, the involvement of higher education representatives in their design and implementation, and how the CCSS and the aligned assessments can be used to support the mission of community colleges.
The authors recommend that community colleges use the CCSS 11th-grade assessment as one in a set of multiple measures used in placement decisions for students entering college directly after high school. They also encourage colleges to align developmental education and introductory college-level courses in math and English composition to the CCSS to smooth the transition for recent high school graduates entering college, and to work directly with local K–12 partners to help more graduating high school students enter college without needing remediation.
