Student Voice and the Common Core

Replacing a discrete, sometimes lengthy list of topics to learn, the Common Core asks teachers to help students develop high-level cognitive skills: to persist, model, critique, reason, argue, explain, justify, and synthesize. Faced with this challenge, teachers are wondering what they can do to help students to meet the new standards and prepare for 21st-century careers. Research on student voice can provide some answers and inform the conversation about Common Core implementation. Over the past two decades, researchers, students, and educators have teamed up across a variety of projects and places to provide us with what kids say they need to engage deeply in their studies. Interestingly, what students have long told us they want in classroom curriculum and pedagogy resonates with Common Core principles. As educators work to implement the Common Core, student voice can offer useful guidance as well as concrete examples of the schoolwork students find most challenging, engaging, relevant, and educational.

The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.

—Common Core State Standards Initiative mission statement