Common core: ACT, SAT, and friends

The Common Core Standards Initiative has made headlines for months with its invitation to states to join in developing shared mathematics and English/language arts standards and the initial commitment of 46 states to be part of the effort. The project is officially sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

So, who will do the actual drafting? A new press release (here) identifies five people who will serve on both the math and the language arts work groups:

• Sara Clough, Director, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
• John Kraman, Associate Director, Research, Achieve
• Sherri Miller, Assistant Vice President, Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
• Laura McGiffert Slover, Vice President, Content and Policy Research, Achieve
• Natasha Vasavada, Senior Director, Standards and Curriculum Alignment Services, Research and Development, The College Board (creator of the SAT and AP tests)
  

Achieve, ACT, and the College Board also provide thirteen of the nineteen people who serve on one of the two separate work groups. That clearly adds to the project's credibility as a college-readiness effort. I think it likely also means they will be unusually effective at keeping the standards short and clear, because the folks in question will know the testing difficulties that come from piling up unmanageable levels of detail.

The full press release is here, and the new Common Core website here.