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New state standards for what students should learn in English language arts and literacy have changed expectations for what teachers should know and be able to do in their classrooms. This report provides U.S. educators' perspectives on their readiness and needs for support to help students meet state standards. Findings are drawn from surveys of the American Teacher and School Leader panels, national samples of K–12 teachers and school leaders.

U.S. mathematics teachers have been working to adjust their instruction in response to states' adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and similar standards. Drawing on web-based surveys of U.S. teachers, this report presents data on how prepared teachers feel to address new mathematics standards and what professional development opportunities they think they need to help them implement standards effectively.

This report shares U.S. principals' and teachers' concerns about implementation of state assessment tests aligned to the new standards, drawing on new survey tools for understanding educators' perspectives: RAND's American Teacher Panel (ATP) and American School Leader Panel (ASLP). Findings indicate particular concern with students' test performance, as well as more prevalent concerns about the PARCC assessment compared with other assessments.

RAND researchers conducted a three-year study of New York City's promotion policy, using interviews, case studies, student surveys, and demographic and test score data to determine its effects on the outcomes of 5th-grade students held to the policy.