In a few short weeks, students across Northshore will begin taking annual, required state assessments. This year, however, students in Washington and 20 other states will take a completely new set of assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards in math and English/language arts. Adopted by 42 states, these standards are generally regarded as much more rigorous and demanding than previous state learning standards.

For the first time in the 20-plus years of annual state testing, we will soon have data that will demonstrate how our students perform on common learning standards and assessments with students from across the nation. While this will be our first district-wide administration of these new assessments, in recent years we have participated in testing pilots. Likewise, we have invested a great deal of time and energy training teachers and aligning curriculum to support classroom instruction on these new standards. This work will evolve in the coming years as we continue to learn, grow and become more proficient across our district, at each school and in each classroom about the Common Core State Standards.

Experts who have piloted these new assessments in Washington and other states tell us that it is highly likely all districts will see a significant drop in the percentages of students meeting standard. If this is correct, it will not mean that schools have fallen off a performance cliff or students have somehow regressed in their learning. What it will mean is that the Common Core State Standards represent a much higher performance bar than previous state standards, and we will need more time to support our students to make it over that bar.

History suggests that we will successfully rise up and meet this challenge. When state standards and annual testing were first introduced in Washington back in the 1990s, some of the test scores from the first years were shockingly low. Over time and with persistent and sustained focus, those scores improved dramatically. And that improvement was the result of intentional changes in instructional practices, curriculum and support structures to help students, parents and teachers more successfully navigate learning standards that were initially new and unfamiliar.

Regardless of the outcome of the first administration of these new assessments, I have complete confidence that our school communities will continue to dedicate themselves to the success of all students. With powerful teaching and learning in classrooms that are supported by an engaged community that values high quality public schools, our students have every opportunity to improve, grow and excel, just like they did in the 1990s.

Larry Francois is the Northshore School District superintendent.