Sociologist Aaron M. Pallas says that, in the next year, we may begin seeing wide discrepancies in student test scores across districts as a result of the Common Core State Standards. The reason:

As states begin aligning their [own] assessments with the Common Core standards—which are, by all accounts, more challenging than the existing standards in much of the country—there is a high probability of uneven implementation of curriculum, professional development, and other supports within those states.

For Pallas, this possibility highlights a central flaw in efforts—such as value-added models—to pin the responsibility for variances in student test scores principally on teachers.

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