Forty-one states, including California, have adopted the Common Core State Standards in math and English language arts. The standards describe the knowledge and skills that students should master by the end of each grade to graduate from high school ready for success in college and the workplace. Over 3 million students in the 3d through 8th grade, and in the 10th grade, were first tested on the Smarter Balanced assessments aligned with the Common Core in the spring of 2015, the first time standardized tests were administered online. Major ongoing issues are whether teachers are adequately prepared to teach based on the standards in all schools and districts throughout the state, whether they have adequate curriculum materials aligned with the standards, and whether students, especially English learners and special ed students, are adequately prepared to take the new assessments.
