High standards benefits low income students

Low-income students in states looking to ditch the Common Core were more likely to score lower on the National Assessment of Educational Progress than their low-income peers in states that stuck to strong academic standards, the Center for American Progress finds in a new report.
The report combines both empirical and anecdotal evidence. Oklahoma and South Carolina recently left the Common Core. Both states generally have low levels of achievement, the report says. Just 13 percent of Oklahoma's low-income middle school students are performing at grade-level in math. In South Carolina, it's 14 percent. The numbers for low-income students are higher than the national average, but still very low, the report says.
Low-income students in D.C., Florida, Massachusetts and Tennessee have posted some of the largest gains on NAEP, however. These states stuck to the implementation of rigorous academic standards, the report notes.

"While there is an important debate over the definition of standards-based reform - and this analysis is undoubtedly anecdotal and impressionistic - it appears clear that states that have not embraced the approach have shown less success, while more reform-oriented states have shown higher gains over the long term," the report says.