Backed by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Common Core Initiative Standards which are intended to provide clarity and consistency to student learning countrywide are scheduled to go into effect in the 45 states presently committed to them in 2015 (Five states, Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia are not participating at this time).

At the recent 2013 meeting of the International Society for Technology in Education, giant IT company CDW-G presented the results of a survey of 300 educational professionals from those 45 states taken with the intent to discover what educators think of those core standards.  Some of the questions were as follows:

Were the Common Core Standards a priority with these educators?

• 75% answered in the Affirmative

• 29% even claimed that the Common Core Standards Initiative was their First Priority.

What were some of the challenges that these educators felt were presented by the Common Core Standards Initiative?

• It should come as no surprise that most felt the lack of a budget in their districts was the biggest challenge.

• Lack of sufficient IT staff

• Many teachers were concerned with the lack of sufficient technology for online student assessment.

• Insufficient classroom technology for students.

What were some of the expected benefits of the Common Core Standards Initiative?

• 81% looked forward to improved student data analysis.

• 79% hoped to see new and improved technology.

How will the committed districts administer online testing?

• 75% of respondents thought that traditional computer labs would be the most common means of testing. Many of these hoped that the traditional computer lab would not be done away with.

• carts stocked with notebook computers, tablets and other devices.

• traditional PC’s.

• cloud computing.

• one-to-one programs.

• students would bring their own devices.

• on virtual desktops.

Well, here’s to 2015 and the Common Core Standards Initiative. Hopefully the five states still outside the initiative will have realized they are making a mistake and find their way into the fold. In the meantime let us hope that some of the challenges mentioned above like insufficient budgets and IT staff will be overcome. The answer to insufficient classroom technology on the other hand, is available now with innovative devices like our own RobotsLAB Box.