The Inescapable Reach of the Common Core State Standards

The GED, the SAT, and the ACT are being redesigned to create alignment with the common core state standards. The first out of the gate will be the GED, which will unveil its revamped exam in 2014, with the new SAT and ACT exams following suit in 2015. These updates will extend the wing span of the controversial common core curriculum far beyond the boundaries of public administration.

Many parents that are unhappy with the direction of change in public school education have always enjoyed the option of enrolling their children in private schools. Up til now, private schools have remained largely unaffected by state led changes in school education. All of the exams that either public or private school students have had to eventually take (for example the GED, the SAT, and the ACT) have always followed a traditional curriculum. Well, that is going to change with the upcoming alignment of these tests to the common core curriculum. As important as the SAT and the ACT are, schools will find themselves maneuvering their curricula into the same ball park as the core, to ensure that their students continue to perform well when test time comes.

Other groups that will be drawn into common core's massive footprint will be home-schooled students, and public school students in states like Alabama, Indiana, Utah, Georgia, and Ohio that are attempting to create meaningful distance between their school systems and the common core. Some states are at odds over content and control, others are unwilling to shoulder the costs of implementation. While home-schooled students and the public school students in the mentioned states can dodge the bullet for now, they too will eventually have to come face to face with common core when they take either the GED, the SAT, or the ACT.

The GED
Created in 1948, it is used by adults who never finished high school, by students who want to finish high school ahead of schedule - or otherwise on their own schedule, and by home-schoolers. It was originally a means to  demonstrate high school equivalence for World War II veterans. The GED's last update was 2002. In the new, 2014 edition, the test will be administered on computer, but it will not be computer adaptive.

There will be a greater emphasis on short answer instead of multiple choice, and test takers will be able to manipulate graphical elements on the screen as part of the process of answering certain questions. The content will be new, but the passing standard will be calibrated to that of current graduating high school seniors who have not yet had common core curriculum instruction. The exam will be scored by computer. Each GED test taker will get, along with their score, performance feedback on their career and college readiness. The old passing score totaled 2,250, and the new one will be 600, based on a passing score of 150 for each of the 4 test modules.

In the year 2013, a "norming study" will be conducted to establish a passing standard, using current high school seniors who have not yet been taught according to common core. Following that, the score necessary to demonstrate college readiness will be established over a few years of longitudinal study. The intention of that score is to show that the test taker has the necessary competency to pass the first year of college courses with at least a C. The registration process remains the same.

Since the GED allows students to take the test in parts, then combine the scores from all parts into an overall score, scores from parts of the old test will not be compatible with scores from the new test. Candidates will have to either complete their GED requirements by successfully passing all parts of the old test before the switch, or allow those old scores to expire and look towards passing all parts of the new test.

The SAT
Used in admission to colleges mostly in the north east, the last overhaul was in 2005, and that was only to add an essay section at the expense of the analogies section. 

David Coleman, one of the architects of the common core standards, was selected - in 2012 - to be CEO of the College Board, which administers the SAT. Mr. Coleman has been working on a fundamental redesign of the SAT, which he announced in February 2013. The test, he said, should focus on “things that matter more so that the endless hours students put into practicing for the SAT will be work that’s worth doing.” So far, changes include the perceived accuracy of the written essays (favoring evidence-based arguments over non-evidence, "narrative" styles), and using math to analyze a presented scenario. There will be a higher premium placed on explaining the how and the why, instead of just producing an answer.

The new test will be in effect beginning in 2015. By then, the common core curriculum would have been fully implemented. Changes will reflect a leaning towards practical skills. For example, words like “compendious,” “membranous,” “mendacious,” “pugnacious,” “depreciatory,” “redolent,” and “treacly” will be removed to make way for more common words like “synthesis,” and “distill,” words that are more likely to be encountered in college or at work. In math, there will be fewer topics but there will be a deeper focus on conceptual mastery. The SAT test will be computer-based, but not computer-adaptive.
The College Board, which is responsible for administering the SAT, was instrumental in the common core design and refinement process.

The college board has a college completion goal of 55 percent of Americans holding a college degree by 2025, and it  believes that common core is one of the first steps to helping under-served communities of the United States move towards that goal through more rigorous requirements.

The ACT
Used in admission to colleges located mostly in the Midwest. The curriculum-based test has remained largely unchanged since its first use in 1959. With the new version slotted for 2015, test-takers will have an option to take a computer-based, Computer Adaptive Test (CAT). In the CAT format, rightly answering a question results in an increase of points earned, and the following question will be immediately more difficult. Wrongly answering a question causes a loss of points and the next question presented is easier. This will out-mode the current ACT strategy of relying on the early questions to be straightforward, while the later questions would be more difficult, requiring more time.

Since a computer will be grading the exam, scores will be available just minutes after test completion, as opposed to the current 2 to 6 week wait. The new test will feature virtual science labs that will allow the test-taker to perform experiments through moving objects on the screen. The option for a paper-based test will remain.

In addition, the ACT is planning on yearly assessments to guide students towards college readiness. Some speculate that the ACT organization might become the yearly assessment test providers/administrators instead of the current PARCC and SBAC. The assessments would begin in the 3rd grade, and would be aimed especially towards low income students and used to guide them on the path to college readiness. Alabama has already signed on for grades 3 - 8 for the ACT assessments. They will be administered at the end of each school year.

Mayo Olagundoye
Munch Math
Brooklyn Tutoring