Which States Still Use Common Core in 2026 (and What Replaced It Elsewhere)

In 2026 most U.S. states still teach the Common Core State Standards or standards built closely on them, often under a different name; Alaska, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia never adopted them, Minnesota adopted only the English language arts standards, and states such as Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Florida replaced them with their own. The honest answer to “how many states use Common Core” is “it depends what you count,” because many states revised a few standards, gave them a new name and kept the same structure. This guide sorts the states into clear groups, explains what replaced the Common Core where it was dropped, and shows you how to check the version your school actually uses. For an introduction to the standards themselves, see our Common Core standards guide.

A quick history

The Common Core State Standards for English language arts and math were released in 2010 by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Within a couple of years, 45 states and the District of Columbia had adopted both sets, and Minnesota had adopted the ELA standards. Federal grant programs at the time rewarded states that adopted “college- and career-ready” standards, which helped adoption spread quickly.

Around 2013 and 2014 the standards became politically controversial. Some critics objected to what they saw as federal pressure, others to specific teaching methods, especially in math. Several states responded by reviewing their standards. A few wrote genuinely new standards; many more made modest edits and gave the result a state-specific name. That’s why a simple count is misleading: a state can say it “replaced” Common Core while teachers notice very little change in the daily expectations.

The four groups

Because states revise standards on regular review cycles, this table is a snapshot. A state can move from “kept” to “revised” in any adoption year.

States that never adopted Common Core

Texas has its own standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), and passed a law that prohibits using Common Core in its schools. Virginia uses its Standards of Learning (SOL), which it had long before 2010 and revises on its own schedule. Alaska and Nebraska also kept standards they developed themselves. Teachers in these states will see very different coding systems, so lesson plans and resources built around Common Core codes need to be re-mapped to the state standards.

Minnesota: ELA yes, math no

Minnesota adopted the Common Core for English language arts, with some state additions, but kept its own math standards. If you teach in Minnesota and use a resource tagged with Common Core math codes, check the state math standards before you rely on the tags.

States that replaced the Common Core

Indiana was the first state to formally replace the standards, adopting new ones in 2014. Oklahoma and South Carolina passed laws the same year requiring new standards and later adopted their own. Reviewers have noted that some of these replacement standards still share a lot of content with Common Core, because the underlying skills (reading closely, writing with evidence, fluency with operations, understanding fractions) don’t change much from one document to another.

Florida took a longer path. It adopted Common Core in 2010, revised it as the Florida Standards, and later replaced it with its own Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) standards, which were phased into classrooms in the early 2020s. Florida’s ELA standards use a different code structure, so a Florida lesson plan won’t use codes like RL.3.1.

Arizona and a few other states are sometimes listed as having withdrawn because they renamed and revised the standards. Whether that counts as a replacement is a judgment call; check the state’s own documents to see how much changed.

States that kept, revised or renamed

Most states are in this group. Some kept the Common Core word for word. Others reviewed every standard, made small changes in wording or grade placement, and adopted the result under a state name, such as “[State] Learning Standards” or “[State] College and Career Ready Standards.” In most of these states, the codes still follow the Common Core pattern, which is good news if you use Common Core-tagged materials: they usually line up closely.

What changes for teachers when a state replaces the standards

When standards change, the day-to-day work in an elementary classroom often changes less than the headlines suggest. Third graders still need to read fluently, answer questions with evidence, write organized paragraphs and understand fractions as numbers on a number line. What usually changes:

• Codes and wording. Lesson plans, report card templates and gradebook tags need updating.
• Grade placement of some skills. A math topic might move up or down a grade, which affects curriculum pacing.
• State tests. New standards usually come with a new or revised state assessment, which shapes district priorities.
• Curriculum adoptions. Districts often adopt new materials aligned to the state version.

If your state revised its standards recently, look for a crosswalk document from the state department of education. Crosswalks show, standard by standard, what stayed the same, what moved and what’s new.

How to check your state’s current standards

Search for your state department of education’s website and look for a page called “academic standards,” “content standards” or “learning standards.” Open the ELA and math documents for your grade and look at three things: the name of the document, the adoption date, and the coding system. If the codes look like RL.3.1 or 4.NF.A.2 and the wording matches the Common Core, you’re working with a Common Core-based version. If the codes look different, use your state’s document directly when you write lesson plans and report cards.

Avoid relying on lists from old news articles or third-party websites; many still show the situation from 2015. The state document is the only source your administrator and state test will use.

State tests and the standards behind them

Standards and state tests are tied together. When the Common Core was new, two testing consortia built assessments around it, and many states used one of them for a few years. Today most states give their own test, even when their standards are still Common Core-based. That’s one reason the “which states use Common Core” question confuses people: a state can drop a consortium test, give its test a new name, and keep nearly the same standards.

For classroom teachers, the practical rule is simple. Your state test measures your state’s standards as written in the current state document. Released items and test blueprints, which most states publish, show which standards carry the most weight at each grade. Those blueprints are worth a look when you plan the spring, because they tell you where to spend extra time.

What about science and social studies?

The Common Core covers only English language arts and math. It also includes literacy standards for history, science and technical subjects in grades 6–12, but there are no Common Core science or social studies standards for elementary school. Science standards are a separate story: many states adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or wrote standards based on the same framework, and the list of NGSS states is different from the list of Common Core states. Social studies standards are written by each state.

Why it still matters which standards you use

Even when standards are similar, the exact wording matters for observations, curriculum reviews and state testing. It also matters when you share resources across states. A lesson labeled for Common Core may need small changes for a teacher in Texas or Florida. Our guide on how to read and cite Common Core codes explains the code system so you can map it to your state, and Common Core ELA standards by grade shows what the standards ask for in K–5 so you can compare them with your state’s version.

To learn how the standards are structured, how they connect to curriculum and how to plan with them, visit our Common Core standards guide.