CCRStandardsAdultEd

5
2 APPLICABILITY OF THE COMMON
CORE TO ADULT EDUCATION
The initial Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative was a state-led effort
coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the
Council of Chief State School Officers to develop education standards for English
Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical
Subjects and Mathematics for voluntary state adoption. The CCSS differ in one
noteworthy respect from earlier state standards efforts: the CCSS are anchored by
empirical evidence of what employers and educators actually demand of prospective
employees and students. Indeed, standards were selected only when the best available
evidence indicated that their mastery was needed for college and career readiness
(NGA 2010b, 2010c, pp. 91–93).
With 46 states adopting the CCSS, a full range of standards-based resources are being
developed from which adult education can benefit. These include formative and
summative assessments, instructional materials, teacher preparation, and professional
development opportunities. In addition, publishers and assessment designers have
considerable incentive to align materials carefully and closely, including textbooks,
technology-based resources, and a range of formative and summative assessments.
These materials will be more robust than any one state—or any one program—could
afford to develop on its own.
While adult educators have expressed interest in the CCSS, they have also raised
challenges to accepting outright for adult education the expansive list of K–12
standards. Limits on how much time most adult learners can devote to their learning
are genuine; many students are interested in just-in-time learning and cannot devote
time equal to a K–12 course of study spelled out in the standards. The 2012 National
Research Council report, Improving Adult Literacy Instruction: Options for Practice
and Research, pointed out that, “On average, learners participate in adult education
programs for less than 100 hours over the course of a program year, according to the
Adult Education Program Survey” (Lesgold and Welch-Ross 2012, p. 77). Further,
adult students often come to programs with some measure of schooling and a wealth
of life experiences, making some CCSS content unnecessary to include.
Thus, adult educators expressed a need to identify a manageable set of the CCSS
most indispensible for college and career readiness and important to adult students.