Two men who helped craft the state’s math standards in 1997 and have been critical of the effort to create national common-core standards in math and English language arts are among the 11 individuals named by Gov. Schwarzenegger to a commission to evaluate them.

With the nominations Friday of Ze’ev Wurman and Bill Evers, both of whom served in the Department of Education under President George W. Bush, and nine others, the roster of the 21-member Academic Content Standards Commission is complete. But by the time the commission holds its first meeting, on Thursday, June 17, it will have less than a month before it must report its findings to the State Board of Education. That’s little time in which to cram a lot of work, with little professional help to get it done.

Schwarzenegger has recommended that Greg Geeting, whom he also nominated, chair the commission. Geeting, a trustee of the Sacramento County Board Education, is another veteran of standards battles. He was assistant executive director, then executive director of the State Board of Education from 1992 to 2003, when state standards were written and implemented.

Under SB X5-1 (sections 14-15), which the Legislature passed in January to promote the state’s Race to the Top application, the State Board of Education must vote up or down on the Academic Content Standards Commission’s common-core recommendations by Aug. 2. The state’s second-round Race to the Top application, now before the federal Department of Education, not only reaffirms that date but also commits the state to adopting the standards that have been developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The catch is that SB 5X-1 requires that the Academic Content Standards Commission verify that the new common-core standards are as “high-quality” as California’s standards. The law also allows the commission to recommend additions and/or changes to the common-core standards (it’s not clear to me which it is) of up to 15 percent in content areas.  Much of the Commission’s debate will be over supplementing common-core standards to make them as rigorous as California’s standards, with the focus on teaching Algebra I in eight grade.

But first, the Commission must do a standard-by-standard comparison in math and English language arts of California’s and the common-core standards. In this effort, it will have help from a pro. Sue Stickel, Sacramento County’s director of curriculum and instruction, is on loan to the Commission and has begun the work, Geeting said on Saturday. Stickel previously served as state deputy superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction.

Separate from the Commission work, the Legislative Analyst, the Department of Finance and the Department of Education will analyze for the State Board of Education the potential costs and other implications of adopting Common Core. This may involve substantial sums for new textbooks, professional development and new assessments, although some of the cost could be spread among states. Geeting said the Commission would also consider how a transition from current state standards and state standardized tests to a new system might occur.

The final common-core standards were released only last week, after having gone through several substantial revisions. Both Wurman and Evers, who are vigorous defenders of the state’s current math standards, can be expected to be the strongest skeptics on the commission.

A political scientist, Evers,  led the fight for traditional math standards, first in Palo Alto, then in Sacramento. He has been a research fellow on education at the Hoover Institution for two decades and was assistant secretary of policy for the federal Department of Education from 2007-09. Wurman is a software engineer  from Palo Alto who helped write the current state math standards. In a paper published by the Pioneer Institute and a video interview on this blog, Wurman sharply criticized the math standards in the first common-core draft, although by most accounts, the final standards are clearer and more rigorous. He says he’s keeping an open mind.

The governor’s nominees:

By law, at least half of the 21 Commission members must be K-12 classroom teachers. See here for 10 nominations of the Senate and Assembly. The governor’s additional nominees are:

Steven Dunlap, an elementary school teacher from Riverside.

Mark Freathy, a math teacher and math department chair for the Elk Grove Unified School District.

Lori Lin Freiermuth, a teacher for the Sweetwater Union High School District and member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics.

Jeanne Jelnick, an English teacher at University High School in Irvine and  Orange County Teacher of the Year for 2010.

Deborah Keys, an administrator for Oakland Unified School District and past principal and education program consultant for the state Department of Education’s Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division.

Jim Lanich, executive director of California State University Center to Close the Achievement and past president of California Business for Education Excellence. He is also on the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees NAEP, a national test known as the nation’s report card.

Brian Shay, a high school math teacher in the San Dieguito Union High School District and an adjunct community college mathematics instructor.

Lorena Sweeney, an English language development/Spanish for the Capistrano Unified School District.