Common Core State Standards

Standards are not a Curriculum

The National Governors Association Center and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) partnered on a state-led initiative to develop common standards for mathematics and English language arts.

Forty states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards to date.

The terms "standards" and "curriculum" are often—and erroneously—used as synonyms for one another. Standards define what children should know and be able to do at the end of each grade.  A curriculum specifically describes what children need to learn to meet those standards.

The Common Core State Standards leaves curriculum decisions to the states, but the message is clear and unambiguous: there must be a curriculum and not just any curriculum will do. Successful implementation of the new standards depends on a coherent, specific and content-rich curriculum.

The Core Knowledge Sequence is just such a curriculum.