Preparing for Change: A National Perspective on Common Core State Standards Implementation Planning

This report details the progress many states made during the first year of Common Core State Standards implementation. Drawing on survey data we collected from 47 state education agency representatives in 2011, we found that a majority of states had a plan or were working on a plan to integrate the standards into teacher development, teacher preparation or teacher instructional materials. However, only seven states had a plan for addressing all three areas and eighteen states lacked a plan in all three areas.

This was the first in a series of three reports created in collaboration with Editorial Projects in Education. The subsequent reports included a rubric for assessing the quality and comprehensiveness of state implementation plans and a report on state progress toward meeting the benchmarks articulated in the rubric. For the survey, we asked each SEA representative five questions about their progress in implementation and integrating the standards with their existing systems.