At least four states have halted, and three others have slowed, their standards-revision processes in anticipation of the Common Core version. This national standards movement, the first-draft fruits of which we reviewed a few weeks ago, is intended to guide standards-setting in all fifty states--and Secretary Duncan is using “Race to the Top” to incentivize states to take this seriously. So it makes sense in multiple ways (financial and organizational, to start with) that states want at least to examine the Common Core standards before proceeding with their own. It’s also a fact--oft documented by Fordham over the past 15 years--that most states, left to their own devices, set truly mediocre standards.
“States Slow Standards Work Amid ‘Common Core’ Push,” by Mary Ann Zehr, Education Week, November 6, 2009 (subscription required)