University of Michigan Wins $5 Million Grant to Study Common Core
Researchers from the University of Michigan, Brown University and Stanford University have received a grant worth nearly $5 million from the Spencer Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation for the first phase of a five year study on the effects of the Common Core State Standards on teaching and learning.
The
project "Under Construction: The Rise, Spread and Consequences of the
Common Core State Standards Initiative in the U.S. Educational Sector,"
will examine the response of governmental and non-governmental
stakeholders to the Common Core, and how it is affecting "classroom
instruction and social disparities in academic achievement in school
systems across the country," according to a news release.
Researchers
will review video records of classroom teaching from approximately 240
teachers in six urban school districts that participated in the Measures of Effective Teaching project, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They will also examine a Stanford University database that tracks longitudinal student achievement trends in all 50 states.
"This
study will help us understand how trends in achievement levels and
achievement gaps may be related to patterns of adoption and
implementation of Common Core," said Adam Gamoran, president of the
William T. Grant Foundation, in a prepared statement. "In doing so it
will also help us to understand the limits and possibilities of
large-scale standards-based reform to achieve greater equity in
educational outcomes."
The research project is based at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and is led by Brian Rowan, a research professor at the institute and at
U-M's School of Education. Co-principal investigators on the project
include David K. Cohen, a professor at the U-M School of Education;
Susan L. Moffitt, associate professor of political science and
international and public affairs at Brown University; and Sean F.
Reardon, professor of poverty and inequality in education at the
Stanford University.
The Spencer Foundation is contributing
nearly $4.4 million to the project, and the William T. Grant Foundation
is contributing the remainder. The foundations will base further
funding of the project on the progress made during phase one.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].