When we were asked recently by Autodesk for input and our opinion on the Common Core Standards, I had to pause and reflect on how this initiative fits with the needs of our customers in education.  Currently, many of the schools we service employ the Autodesk Design Academy (ADA) bundle of software tools and curricula in their day-to-day teaching.   The ADA has been extensively mapped to the National Standards of Learning – International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) Standards for Technological Literacy; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards for School Mathematics; National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Language Arts Standards; and the National Council for Science Education Standards Assessment (NCSESA) Science Content Standards.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare students for college and the workforce.  Designed to build upon the most advanced current thinking about preparing all students for success; this will result in moving even the best state standards to the next level.  In fact, since this work began, there has been an explicit agreement that no state would lower its standards. The Standards were informed by the best in the country, the highest international standards, and evidence and expertise about educational outcomes.

The Standards have made use of a large and growing body of evidence. The evidence base includes scholarly research; surveys on what skills are required of students entering college and workforce training programs; assessment data identifying college‐and career‐ready performance; and comparisons to standards from high‐performing states and nations.  Taken as a whole, we believe it is the best interest of schools using the Autodesk Design Academy solution, for Autodesk to map their curriculum to the Common Core State Standards.  More information about Common Standards can be found here, http://www.corestandards.org/. Click here to learn more about the Autodesk Design Academy.

Author: Jeff Mazzone