Common Core State Standards for School Leaders

Columnist Leanna Landsmann answers reader questions on education.

"The new voluntary, internationally benchmarked K-12 standards seek to give all students a strong knowledge and skills foundation in math and English."

Here is a video of Phil Daro calling for a change in classroom habits of how we teach students to solve problems. Great quote, from Phil’s daughter: 

“Daddy, I don’t have time to understand it, I just want to get it right on the test.”

International Reading Association Common Core State Standards Resources include:

• Webinars
• Powerpoint Presentations
• Articles

The Parents’ Guide to Student Success (listed below in English and Spanish) was developed in response to the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics that more than 40 states have adopted.

Created by teachers, parents, education experts, and others from across the country, the standards provide clear, consistent expectations for what students should be learning at each grade in order to be prepared for college and career.

Tennessee’s public education curriculum to include more analytical thinking and, officials hope, less teaching to the test.

Teacher Training

Tennessee is training 12,000 classroom instructors this summer how to teach math principles under the new “common core” curriculum in grades three through eight, a system Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman says will better ready Tennessee’s youth for college and the work force.

Best Schools

“Ironically, the schools that have the best test score gains, they’re not teaching to the test,” said Huffman.

“They’re teaching really rich, complex critical thinking lessons that incorporate the skills. They’re the ones who are getting the most gains. But we need to move everyone over in that direction,”

"All six of the shifts of the Common Core are text-based shifts:

1. Shift #1 (Balance): Balance literary and informational TEXTS.
2. Shift #2 ( Reading in the disciplines): Students learn through domain-specific TEXTS.
3. Shift #3 (Complexity): All students read the central, grade appropriate TEXT around which instruction is centered.
4. Shift #4 (Text-based answers): Students have rich and rigorous conversations which are dependent on a common TEXT.
5. Shift #5 (Writing to sources): students develop skills through written arguments that respond to the ideas, events, facts, and arguments presented in the TEXTS they read.
6. Shift #6 (Academic Vocabulary): Students constantly build the vocabulary they need to access grade level complex TEXTS.

The Common Core has the power to enrich data-driven decisionmaking at all levels Implementation of the Common Core State Standards has begun, and new aligned assessments are on the horizon.

Washington Post

May 23, 2012

By Donna St. George

As AP and IB courses proliferate, some schools are taking the next step: bringing in instructors to teach actual university classes.

Students are having early experiences of college life, taking full-on college courses as high school seniors in Montgomery County (MD) to get a glimpse of what lies ahead: fewer scheduled hours of class, more independent work and less hand-holding from instructors.

They reflect a growing interest in many areas of the country to go beyond work that is college-level and try college itself.

Teacher Mark Sass says teachers can implement Common Core Standards successfully if they and district administrators create the right conditions.

Teachers will be able to seamlessly incorporate the common core standards into their everyday practice if districts give teachers:

1) differentiated time,

2) plenty of feedback,

3) and the opportunity to struggle with the new standards.

With the 2014-15 Common-Core transition looming, we wondered: How are Ohio’s educators preparing themselves for this big change? Who is doing this work and what can other schools and districts learn from the early adopters?

"A major undertaking but worth the effort."

"Transitioning to a new system of common standards is possible – and actually wanted by frontline educators."

Under Ohio's current accountability system:

• 61 percent of third graders in Columbus (Ohio’s largest school district) are deemed proficient in readinUnder the Common Core standards coming online in 2014-15, it is projected that closer to 37 percent would be proficient.
• By eighth grade, just 29 percent would be proficient under the Common Core, despite 69 percent being deemed proficient today

Norwich, CT

Amanda Fagan, Principal of Ledyard High School, believes Common Core State Standards for schools ease transitions for children, especially those from military families. That hits close to home, since Fagan is the daughter of a well-traveled Navy veteran. The standards, which are being integrated into Ledyard High School’s curriculum, allow “plenty of creativity” and set up a “common language” for discussion, Fagan said.

NCTM serves math teachers, math educators, and administrators by providing math resources and professional development opportunities. Working for more and better math for all students.

NCTM Implementation Support

The adoption of the Common Core State Standards for mathematics could have significant implications for teachers. NCTM has prepared an overview PowerPoint presentation and other presentations for Pre-K–Grade 3, grades 4–5, grades 6–8, and high school to inform teachers and to support them in implementation of the Common Core Standards. Other presentations for grade bands are under development and will be made available soon.

Ideally, teaching kids how to think critically becomes an integral part of your approach, no matter what subject you teach.

Here are 10 concrete ways you can begin leveraging your students' critical-thinking skills in the classroom and beyond.

1. Questions, questions, questions.
Questioning is at the heart of critical thinking, so you want to create an environment where intellectual curiosity is fostered and questions are encouraged. For Jared Kushida, who teaches a global politics class called War and Peace at KIPP King Collegiate, "lecturing" means integrating a flow of questions throughout a lesson. "I rarely go on for more than 30 seconds without asking a question, and I rarely stop at that one question," he explains.

Washington (MO) School District Superintendent, Dr. Lori VanLeer, said the district wants to improve instruction through professional learning with grade level and subject area teams.

“Teachers, principals and district leaders will collaborate to plan curriculum implementation, develop assessments, analyze student work and assessment results, and plan lessons, as well as determine appropriate remedial, reinforcement or enrichment style inventions for students,” she said.

"Over the next few years, all public schools in Missouri will transition to the Common Core Standards and new assessments."
“This transition is very exciting, but also challenging,” she said.
Collaboration is key, VanLeer added, and professional teams will need to work together throughout this process.

by Timothy Shanahan, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

When teachers understand what makes texts complex, they can better support their students in reading them.

How is reading complex text like lifting weights? Just as it's impossible to build muscle without weight or resistance, it's impossible to build robust reading skills without reading challenging text.

The common core state standards in language arts treat text difficulty as akin to weight or resistance in an exercise program.