Still, states have been reviewing and revising content standards for decades, and nothing prevents them from making positive changes to the common core, said Kathleen Porter-Magee, a policy fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank and a common-core supporter.
In a 1979 interview, Otte answered a question about whether his work had a "common core" by saying, "I would say that behind my artistic work, as an aim or hope, is the need to find myself.
Mike Cohen, the president of Achieve, a nonprofit organization contracted to help states write Common Core standards, said Common Core should help students perform better on exams like the ACT.
"Jeb Bush — he's in favor of Common Core," Trump said blithely.
"Our major concern with common core standards," said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education, "is the likelihood that they will lead to a national standardized test and even more misuse and abuse of testing than we have now".
But OECD researchers think that problem can be overcome by concentrating on the transferable skills that employers value, such as critical thinking and analysis, and testing subject knowledge only in fields like economics and engineering, with a big common core.Moreover, says Mr Schleicher, it is a job worth doing.
"I'm still pushing for computer science to be added to the common core," DiBianca said.
More affluent parents are already hiring outside tutors to make up for the flaws in Common Core, he says, but many lower-income families are left without options.
Cross-curricular instruction is another element of Common Core, Christensen said.
They don't necessarily look for a common core, she said.
