Common Core Standards for Learning Supports: Looking for Feedback from All Concerned about Equity of Opportunity
By Howard Adelman, Ph.D. and Linda Taylor, Ph.D., UCLA School Mental Health Project/Center for Mental Health in Schools
When policymakers introduce another initiative for education reform, the press to implement the new initiative often draws attention away from other essential facets involved in improving and transforming schools. Currently, this is happening with the Common Core State Standards movement.
Efforts to revamp schools cannot afford to marginalize any primary and essential facet of what must take place at schools every day. As those who have followed the work of the Center for Mental Health in Schools know, we are moving efforts to improve schools from a two to a three component framework.
Read More →How will the Common Core Impact Bright Students?
In the Huffington Post article “To accelerate, or not,” Dr. Hung-Hsi Wu, professor emeritus of math at the University of California, Berkeley takes head on a concern that “…students will be impacted negatively by having to study material that is no longer challenging or considered beyond grade level. As a result, a misguided hypothesis has […]
Read More →Common Core: “Huge Advantage” for Military Families
Needing to relocate is an all too familiar reality for many military families. “Each time her family moves, T. Kimberly King has to navigate a new public school system. As a military spouse, that has meant figuring out that an honors student in Florida might not be considered on grade level when they move to another state.” According to The News Journal article “Military families salute core standards move,” military families view the Common Core as a “huge advantage” that will help students succeed academically. In addition to the work of the Delaware Department of Education, the Delaware Parent Teacher Association is working to help parents learn more about the state’s new standards.
Read More →The Common Core State Standards & How They Will Change Teaching
“Why did our earlier efforts to establish standards not have the intended effect, and how are these new standards different?” This is the central question posed by Richard R. Schramm, vice president for education programs at the National Humanities Center in his Inside Higher Ed op-ed, “Strengthening the Core.” Going beyond generalizations, Dr. Schramm discusses specific examples of how previous learning goals in states varied dramatically on skills such as “discerning cause and effect.” He also tackles “…how might these standards, based on a ‘vision of what it means to be a literate person in the 21st century,’ change teaching?”
Read More →2010 National Teacher of the Year Expresses Support for the Common Core State Standards
Featured in today’s Answer Sheet in the Washington Post, 2010 National Teacher of the Year Sarah Brown Wessling describes the Common Core State Standards as providing an “underlying organization that gives [teachers] collective purpose.” Sarah also states that, “our goal must be to collectively support teachers as they work to unpack, integrate and assess the standards.” Sarah currently teaches English in Johnston High School in Johnston, Iowa.
Read More →Marc Tucker of NCEE Offers 8 Reasons to Support the Common Core
Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy offers a compelling piece in support of the Common Core State Standards in his September 5th Education Week commentary, “8 Problems with the Common Core Standards? I Don’t Think So.” Written in response to a Marion Brady post on the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet […]
Read More →Multi-State Collaborative Tackles Common Core Implementation
By Gavin Payne, ICCS Coach
Looking for a clear example of how the Common Core State Standards is providing an opportunity for states to collaborate and share information? Look no further than the Implementing the Common Core Standards Collaborative (ICCS) – a two-year effort by 30 states to shareandcompare strategies and practices in their efforts to implement new state standards deeply and with fidelity.
The ICCS is sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and supported by CCSSO and states. Each state ICCS team is comprised of agency leadership and content experts, along with representatives from higher education, teacher organizations, district staff, and other stakeholders. The ICCS also utilizes four coaches to manage connections between a smaller set of states and customizes supports for state departments on a constant and ongoing basis. State groups meet quarterly to focus their energy on topical issues and on the processes of change required to ensure deep and broad implementation of their new Standards.
Read More →Summer’s Over and It’s Back to School with the Common Core
As you may have seen from a number of media outlets this week, millions of students and teachers are back to school, and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are now a reality in countless classrooms across the country. Many hardworking teachers and curriculum experts have spent months strategizing and revising their lesson plans to align to the new math and English language arts standards, while district leaders have engaged in outreach and education to the larger community. Creating rigorous standards and training teachers and administrators on these changes is not an easy task. However, a growing number of school districts around the country are proving that effective implementation of the Common Core is possible. Collaboration within school districts and across sectors appears to be one of the keys to success, as these examples show:
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