Most Louisiana Students Taking Common Core Tests

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Concerns that large number of Louisiana's public school students would refuse to take the heavily-debated Common Core standardized tests this week appear unfounded.

Education Superintendent John White says self-reported numbers from school systems show that 99 percent of students took the exams Monday, the first day of testing.

Of those who sat out the tests, roughly half are from Calcasieu Parish, one of the centers of opposition to Common Core.

The Common Core standards are benchmarks of what students should learn at each grade level in English and math. They've been adopted by more than 40 states, though critics see them as a federal attempt to nationalize education.

About 320,000 students in grades 3 through 8 are taking the standardized tests over five days.