Common State Standards and Assessments on College and Career Readiness

Standards

During the past 12 months, the College Board has been assisting the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and National Governors Association (NGA) in developing common college and career readiness standards. While currently under review, these standards identify essential college- and career-ready skills and knowledge in math and English Language Arts (ELA).

The College Board has long been a leading force in designing assessments that are tied to college readiness and college success. Assessments such AP®, CLEP®, and ACCUPLACER® are used by higher education institutions to award college credit or make placement decisions. Other assessments, such as the PSAT/NMSQT®, the SAT®, and the SAT Subject Tests™ are used by high schools and colleges as indicators of college readiness, and by higher education institutions for student placement level decisions.

In response to calls for expert comments on common assessments, the College Board submitted written comments in December 2009 and provided verbal comments at a hearing in Boston in November 2009.

In an effort to respond to the needs expressed by states, experts at the College Board, along with experts at ETS and Pearson, collaborated on a series of white papers. These papers were developed to assist states and policymakers address issues concerning the design and use of common assessments tied to common standards.

They address issues related to the overall design of common assessments; the development of robust high school assessments that measure college and career readiness; the use of technology to create, deliver and score assessments; and the linking of scores across different assessments.

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• Some Considerations Related to the Use of Adaptive Testing for the Common Core Assessments (pdf/484K)
• Thoughts on an Assessment of Common Core Standards (pdf/419K)
• Designing and Operating a Common High School Assessment System (pdf/297K)
• Thoughts on Linking and Comparing Assessments of Common Core Standards (pdf/273K)
• Automated Scoring for the Assessment of Common Core Standards (pdf/328K)
• How the College Board Standards for College Success Align to the Common Core State Standards (pdf/83K)
• Common Core State Standards Alignment: ReadiStep™, PSAT/NMSQT® and SAT® (pdf/1.71M)