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Not long after New York state raised eyebrows with a curriculum solicitation that was anything but business-as-usual, it is triggering uneasiness among teachers who feel that tests are being given on the new standards too soon.

At issue is a new, voluntary curriculum in mathematics and English/language arts that New York purchased from private vendors and is offering for free online as each piece is completed. Also at issue are new tests that the state had designed to reflect the Common Core State Standards, and which are scheduled to be given for the first time next month.

New York is ahead of most states in its work to design detailed curricula and professional development for the common core and to build brand-new tests to reflect them. What鈥檚 unfolding in the Empire State as a result of that work illustrates the way the common standards can pressure changes in the education landscape, and torque the tensions involved in a deep reworking of curriculum and instruction.

What happens in the publishing world, for instance, when a state demands total ownership over the curriculum materials it purchases so they can be available to all for free? And what happens when pivotal stakeholder groups disagree about the pace of change that best serves schoolchildren? Those questions sparked the two waves of concern that have arisen from New York鈥檚 curriculum procurement and its assessment timeline.

The first came from the publishing world, whose biggest players snubbed the competitive procurement process because of unusual requirements that the materials be free of licensing restrictions that would interfere with New York鈥檚 desire to make them available for free online. The second and current wave arises from the state teachers鈥� union, which welcomes the curriculum itself, but believes that it鈥檚 too soon to test students鈥攁nd evaluate teachers鈥攐n it. Many pieces of the curriculum are posted on the state鈥檚 common-core website, www.engageny.org, but it won鈥檛 be complete until December 2014.

鈥淲e鈥檙e giving the test before teaching the curriculum. That鈥檚 not what you should do,鈥� said Maria Neira, the vice president for research and educational services for New York State United Teachers. 鈥淲e鈥檙e rushing to do it, instead of doing it right.鈥�

Merryl H. Tisch, the chairwoman of the state board of regents, counters that the state鈥檚 timeline for common-core implementation has been clear for more than two years, and that schools and districts would have to have been 鈥渓iving under a rock鈥� to be surprised now.

鈥淭here is an enormous pushback against us because we are rolling out the common-core assessment, and some think we should have waited a year,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut as youngsters graduate high school right now, they鈥檝e already hit a wall. Their reality is right now. We feel this is such an urgent issue, we have to roll it out now.鈥�

Wading Into Content

New York state had never created curriculum before, preferring to leave that job to districts. But in the common core, officials saw the opportunity to create materials鈥攁nd accompanying professional development鈥攎arked by 鈥渁 real devotion to the higher bar that the standards demand,鈥� according to Kate Gerson, who has been central to the process as a senior fellow at the state鈥檚 Regents Research Fund.

With one set of standards shared by 46 states, the landscape had changed, and New York鈥檚 resources could prove helpful to states nationwide, officials reasoned. They used money from the Race to the Top program, which encouraged open-source materials, to power the engageny website and pay for contracts with vendors.

But their desire to own the curriculum, right down to the source code, and make it available for free meant that the materials had to be unencumbered by the licensing restrictions typically attached to text passages, photographs, and other elements in traditional instructional materials.

That model altered publishers鈥� typical financial picture for such projects. If what they developed would be posted for free online, it undercut their prospects for a key source of revenue: adapting them and selling them to other states, said Jay Diskey, the executive director of the Washington-based school division of the Association of American Publishers.

鈥淚t gave a number of publishers pause,鈥� Mr. Diskey said. 鈥淭here was a lot of head scratching and wondering if we would see this from other states. I heard a number of publishers saying they didn鈥檛 know if it was worth it to bid on it under those circumstances.鈥�

Pearson developed New York state鈥檚 new tests for grades 3-8. But it was one of the big publishers that chose to remain on the sidelines in its state鈥檚 curriculum procurement.

Mike Evans, who oversees curriculum development for Pearson, said the licensing provisions of the solicitation were a particular tripping point.

鈥淲e weren鈥檛 in a position to convey things we don鈥檛 own,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e just couldn鈥檛 see ourselves past that.鈥�

In its requests for proposals in late 2011 and early 2012, New York state detailed what it sought in curricula and professional-development modules, hewing closely to the standards and to the 鈥減ublishers鈥� criteria鈥� that the authors of the standards wrote to illustrate what true curricular alignment to the common core would look like. It awarded contracts totaling more than $28 million last spring and summer to Expeditionary Learning, Common Core Inc., the Core Knowledge Foundation, and Public Consulting Group. (See accompanying box.)

Separately, New York developed鈥攊n partnership with Rhode Island and Massachusetts鈥攁 new tool to help states ensure that instructional units and lessons they developed, or bought, aligned fully to the common core. That tool, known as the Tri State Rubric, is now being used by more than 20 states as part of an initiative called EQUIP.

The New York curriculum materials posted online so far are drawing praise from the common standards鈥� most ardent backers. The materials are 鈥渦nique and a breakthrough鈥� in their breadth and availability, said Amy Briggs, the chief operating officer of Student Achievement Partners, a New York City-based nonprofit whose founders co-wrote the standards and which has been working with states and districts to implement them.

鈥淚t is a full curriculum, soup to nuts. We don鈥檛 know of any other state doing something of this scope for the common core,鈥� she said.

Also notable is the degree to which New York sought to fully reflect the common standards in its materials, said Susan Pimentel, who leads the English/language arts work for Student Achievement Partners. 鈥淢ore than anyone else, New York was the first to base its RFPS on what is required in the common core,鈥� she said.

In its curriculum solicitation, the state included specifics from the common standards. In English/language arts, for instance, it outlined quarterly modules that should include 鈥渃lose readings of three to five short texts with instructional and assessment supports.鈥� Offering an example from 11th grade, the solicitation said, students could close-read Lincoln鈥檚 Gettysburg Address, a poem by William Butler Yeats, and George Orwell鈥檚 鈥淧olitics and the English Language.鈥�

The modules would also include in-depth study of an extended text such as a novel or play, or longer literary nonfiction or informational work, with written and oral analysis, as well as 鈥渁 short research project that would require building knowledge, studying sources, and comparing texts.鈥� For example, it said, 鈥淪tudents could draw upon the sources of [Martin Luther] King鈥檚 鈥楲etter from Birmingham Jail鈥� (such as Plato鈥檚 鈥楢pology鈥�), or read Garry Wills on the Gettysburg Address. They could also read early drafts of a poem by Yeats and discuss its development.鈥�

Seeing Progress

Josel Williams, who has been using the Expeditionary Learning materials in her 3rd grade classroom at School 8 in Rochester City, said she鈥檚 been pleased with the growth she鈥檚 seeing in her students鈥� interim-assessment scores.

鈥淚 was a little concerned at first, because it鈥檚 deeper, and a lot more rigorous, than what they鈥檝e been used to,鈥� said Ms. Williams. 鈥淎lso, it required me to be more hands-off as a teacher, to be more of a coach than holding their hands every step of the way. But my kids have really been doing well, and I feel like a better teacher when I鈥檓 doing it.鈥�

More than a few educators, however, are disturbed by how quickly their state expects them to move from new curriculum to assessment.

Ms. Neira of NYSUT said surveys of the group鈥檚 600,000 members show widely varying levels of familiarity with common-core resources such as the new curriculum. There have also been many 鈥渉iccups鈥� as units are posted online, taken down, revised, and reposted, she said. With brand-new curriculum and tests, she said, many teachers feel handicapped in preparing their students. The worry is ramped up because student test scores are now being factored into teacher evaluations in nearly every district.

鈥淕iving a student an assessment they have not been taught to, how does that make sense?鈥� she said. 鈥淩ight now, students will be hurt. When they sit for the assessment this April, they will learn quickly that they have not been exposed to this material. We feel that the state, unfortunately, will undermine the good about the common core and cause everyone to lose faith.鈥�

State officials contend that there is little reason for surprise now; they announced in December 2010 that they would test students in grades 3-8 on the common standards in 2012-13.

As the deputy commissioner for K-12 education, Ken Slentz, detailed in a memo earlier this month, a range of guidance and resources鈥攊ncluding assessment guides, curriculum modules, scaffolds, and professional development鈥攈ave been available to help teachers prepare for that transition for more than two years. Mr. Slentz argues that the teachers have had the standards themselves for three years, and that these鈥攏ot the still-unfinished curriculum鈥攕hould be key in shaping their instruction.

While he acknowledged in the memo that the percentages of students performing at or above grade level is likely to drop on the new tests, Mr. Slentz sought to address teachers鈥� worries about linking those scores to their evaluations. He said in the memo that since the new tests reflects new, more rigorous standards, they can鈥檛 be 鈥渄irectly compared鈥� with the previous year鈥檚 scores, so they 鈥渟hould not necessarily be interpreted as a decline in student learning or as a decline in educator performance.鈥�

Because of the way the growth model is built, he said, the state does not anticipate any significant change in the proportions of teachers found to be performing in each of four ratings categories.

Additionally, the memo said, no new 鈥渇ocus districts鈥� or 鈥減riority schools"鈥攖hose in need of intervention under New York鈥檚 federal accountability system鈥攚ill be identified based on the 2013 test scores.