The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative is the latest effort by educational leaders to improve educational outcomes of American students. The standards are intended to bring uniformity in educational content of what is being taught in schools across the nation in order to promote rigor and academic portability. Proponents claimed the new standards would raise standardized test scores and better prepare students to be successful in college or a career after post-secondary education. The purpose of this study was to investigate what impact the CCSS initiative had on ACT math scores of eleventh-grade students in a West Tennessee School district. The ACT math data were collected from the West Tennessee School district. The data represent how students performed over two years and were collected from the Shelby County School district using the school district's online request form. This study used quantitative methods as the data were analyzed using a t-test and ANOVA tests. There were a total of 13,742 subjects in the study comprised of both male and female students. The results of the data analysis suggested that the increase in ACT math scores was statistically significant for the eleventh-grade student population as a group. The results of the data further indicated that the interaction of Common Core and race was effective for White and Hispanic students, but not effective for African American students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]