indicate, we have with us robert, senior fellow and vice president of external affairs at thomas ford am institute. thank you for join us. what do the scores many? >> you refer to them as the nation's report card. it should probably be called the nation's test. there's a lot of people, and you tend to see what you see in the data. a lot of people may try to determine is common core a factor here. my best guess is yet. we are making major changes across the country in terms of asking teachers to know a lot about the practice. it just stands to reason. >> how long have the changes been in place? >> common core hit in a biggy 3-5 years ago. it's an intuitive guess. you need to drill deep on the data. my hunch is we are seeing a common core test. >> is the test the same in the entire country. >> it is. >> what is important to know, this is not a test one studies for, it's not like a test all the kids take. it's a random test. you are not studying for it, preparing for it, you drop it down on a representative sample of kids. are school districts engaged in common core because i read, heard, some are, s