Dive Brief:

• A new study from the American Institutes for Research, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, finds that under Common Core State Standards, Kentucky students “made faster progress in learning” than their peers using previous state standards.
• The report does not say student achievement is a direct product of the Common Core, but it does say “fears about [the standards’] impact on student outcomes may be overstated.”
• Despite this good news, a recent Associated Press article reports that Kentucky is also still seeing disproportionate funding between poor and affluent schools despite enacting the Kentucky Education Reform Act 25 years ago. 

Dive Insight:

These two stories indicate how education failures and achievements can essentially be spun — leaving people unsure of what is accurate. Is Kentucky making improvements? Is it no different than its been for the past 25-years? Perhaps, this is the beginning of improvements? It's all very unclear.  While AIR is a reputable and highly respected research company, how likely is it that the report on Common Core funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (which has spent millions on Common Core implementation) was going to turn up results that negatively reported on the standards' impact?

This reality speaks to the need for more independent research. Think tanks were initially envisioned as places where real problem solving and critical thinking about policies could occur sans the noise and money of special interest groups; unfortunately, so many are financially tied to the various people and institutions that they are meant to weigh in on.