The Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Kathleen Porter-Magee shares three takeaways about curriculum and Common Core implementation from a recent report, “Large-Scale Evaluations of Curricular Effectiveness: The Case of Elementary Mathematics in Indiana,” appearing in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. The report examines district-level curriculum decisions and the relationship to student achievement.
ALEC Vote Rejects Anti-Common Core Resolution
This post originally appeared on November 19, 2012 on The Foundation for Excellence in Education’s EdFly Blog.
By Dave Myslinski
Over the weekend, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) rejected an anti-Common Core bill, thus completing its 18-month exploration of the Common Core State Standards. This action reaffirmed ALEC’s position that states should be in charge of their education standards and supports the option for states to freely adopt Common Core.
By rejecting the bill, which would have tied the hands of state legislators, ALEC made clear its support of states raising student expectations through higher standards—working in consort with other states or working independently. This position is laid out in ALEC’s current Resolution Opposing Federal Intrusion in State Education Content Standards. The decision to work together to improve academic standards is a choice all 50 states have freely made, with 46 states adopting Common Core so far, and four states choosing not to adopt the standards.
Read More →A Milestone on the Road to Next-Generation Assessments
By Joe Willhoft, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
We are at an exciting time in the development of the Smarter Balanced assessment system. After extensive collaboration with educators and content experts, the Consortium released a set of sample items and performance tasks in early October. This release provides an advance look at the rigor and complexity of the English language arts/literacy and mathematics questions that will appear on the assessments in the 2014-15 school year. With more than 100,000 unique visitors to the Smarter Balanced website in just the first few weeks, it is clear that this has been a highly anticipated release for educators and stakeholders.
Read More →Consensus on Essential Characteristics of Effective Professional Learning
Effective teaching and learning, not standards, prepare students for college, careers, and civic life. The Common Core State Standards and other rigorous college- and career-readiness standards, however, can contribute to effective teaching and learning by pointing to the centrality of educators in generating ever higher levels of student achievement. To support these higher levels of student achievement, schools and districts must support effective professional learning. Thirteen professional associations and education organizations have reached consensus about essential characteristics of effective professional learning.
Read More →Kentucky Releases Results from Common Core Aligned Assessments
Student preparedness, district infrastructure, and anticipating public reaction are frequent points of discussion amongst many school districts across the country looking to implement aligned assessments to the Common Core State Standards. Last Friday, the wait was over for Kentucky when they became the first state to release test scores explicitly tied to the Common Core. While student test scores have dropped, the two news stories highlighted below provide a sense of how Kentucky has worked to prepare students, educators, and their broader stakeholders for the new assessments – and their impact.
Read More →Moving the Common Core State Standards from Adoption to Implementation to Sustainability
This post originally appeared on November 6, 2012 on ASCD’s Inservice blog.
By David Griffith, ASCD Public Policy
If you’re an educator in one of the 46 states that has adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), you’ve not only been learning about the standards and what they mean for you and your students, but you’ve most likely begun implementing them as well.
As you’ve been busy moving forward, you probably still have a great deal of questions. Does your district or school have the technological capacity to administer the new computer-based assessments? How can you better leverage technology for teaching to the standards? How can you take your understanding of the standards and translate them into effective lesson plans? What are the best professional development resources on the Common Core, and how can they help you?
Read More →