As a part of its 2010 Race to the Top grant award, North Carolina pledged to adopt the Common Core standards in mathematics and English to address the grant requirement that the state adopt more rigorous standards and assessments.  This pledge has come into question as the current political debate builds on the efficacy of the standards.  Given this debate, it is useful to gather perspectives from those who will have to implement these new standards in their daily work – principals and teachers.  This study, a subcomponent of the overall evaluation of North Carolina’s implementation of the Race to the Top initiatives, explores educators’ perspectives with regard to the Common Core. 

This study focuses on qualitative data gathered related to teachers’ and principals’ experiences with the new standards.  Our purpose in this study is to explore teachers’ and principals’ perspectives on the Common Core in the final year of the Race to the Top grant.  The following research questions guide our study:

1. What do educators perceive to be the greatest challenges they face in transitioning to the Common Core standards?
2. What do educators believe are the greatest potential benefits, if any, in transitioning to the Common Core standards?
3. How will you sustain professional development after Race to the Top concludes?

Qualitative data included in this study were extracted from a larger mixed method evaluation of North Carolina’s Race to the Top Professional Development Initiative. The longitudinal sample in the study included 26 schools selected to represent schools across the state. School type, professional development ratings, and student achievement were the three primary variables that influenced the selection of the schools in the sample. The Evaluation Team categorized all schools in the state by type (elementary, middle, or high school), tercile of recent professional development quality (high, midrange, or low) based on the results from the 2010 Teacher Working Conditions (TWC) survey, and tercile of school performance composite scores (high, midrange, or low) based on the North Carolina ABCs of Public Education school accountability model. Urbanicity, achievement status, teacher characteristics, student characteristics, and other variables also were also considered.

Principals from each of the sample schools participated in a 45 minute semi-structured interview in the spring of 2013.  Six to eight core content teachers (in English, Math, Science, and Social Studies) from each school were selected to participate in a 45- to 60 minute focus group.  Teachers were assembled onsite and engaged in a discussion facilitated by a member of the research team. 

Overall, findings suggest that educators felt that the standards would help students develop skills for life-long learning.  Educators also expressed that a lack of reliable resources, information on assessments, and time were the biggest obstacles they faced to successful implementation.  Variation across sustainability issues will be discussed.