Bipartisan group calls for standard curriculum

To date, more than 40 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards in order to establish a unified means of comparing student performance from across the country. Now, a bipartisan group made up of educators, labor leaders and business experts are supporting a common curriculum that they believe all states should adopt.

The New York Times reports that the proposal from the bipartisan group would go beyond what's being proposed through the Common Core State Standards. For example, the curriculum would provide teachers specific guidelines for what kinds of topics educators should teach at each grade level.

"We are well aware that this will require a sea change in the way that education in America is structured," says a statement the group published on Monday. "By 'curriculum' we mean a coherent, sequential set of guidelines in the core academic disciplines, specifying the content knowledge and skills that all students are expected to learn."

The Silicon Valley Mercury News reports that a number of prominent government officials have backed this proposition, including Chester Finn Jr., an assistant secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan and Richard Riley, secretary of education under President Bill Clinton.