Panelists
Sandy Boyd, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Achieve, Inc.
Jacquie Lawing Ebert, Partner, GMMB
Elizabeth G. Schneider, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Alliance for Excellent Education
Michael Sponhour, Executive Director of Communications and Outreach, Ohio Department of Education

Forty-six states have adopted the common core state standards in English language arts and mathematics and three other states have had their standards verified as college and career ready by Achieve, Inc. These new standards offer a distinct improvement over virtually all other state standards in identifying the knowledge and skills students must learn to be successful in postsecondary education and in the workplace. Helping students meet these goals and equipping teachers to teach to them will be no small feat, but the standards offer a critical foundation for the K–12 education system and work is underway in schools, districts, and states across the country to ensure that students are able to master them.

In an election year, however, detractors are criticizing and politicizing the decisions made by states to adopt these new standards. While the standards still enjoy strong public support, educators, elected and appointed officials, and other stakeholders have been put in the position of having to defend the standards and articulate again the value of moving in this direction.

The Coalition for a College- and Career-Ready America (CCCRA) held a webinar on March 15 that provided CCCRA members with an opportunity to review the best available information about public support for new college- and career-ready standards and guidance for how reform advocates can communicate with parents, educators, and communities about the standards and the work in states to implement them.

The webinar also featured a timely update on developments in federal education policy that could impact the work being done at the state and local levels. Webinar panelists addressed questions submitted by viewers from across the country.

Supplemental Materials:

• Strong Support, Low Awareness (PDF)
  Sandy Boyd's presentation
• Communications Research and Guidance on the Common Core State Standards (PDF)
  Jacquie Lawing Ebert's presentation
• Raising Expections and Rigor in Ohio (PDF)
  Sample Ohio Department of Education presentation 
• Google Map of Ohio Superintendent of Public Education Stan Heffner’s recent speaking engagements to educator and non-educator groups
• Sample media coverage of the roll-out of Ohio’s new school accountability system
• Sample media story in Ohio on common core state standards implementation