College and Career-Ready Standards for School Leaders

Despite limited manpower and capacity at the state level, states like Maryland are trying to simultaneously implement five complex initiatives. Any one of these initiatives would put state capacity to a severe test. Combined, they spell big problems with implementation.

1. New Teacher Evaluation System

Full implementation of the new teacher evaluation standards is set to begin with the 2013-2014 school year. One of Race to the Top’s core concepts is the design of more clear-cut teacher evaluation systems that tie performance to student improvement and test scores, as well as professional development.

2. New Data Systems
Maryland also had struggled to meet deadlines on data systems projects because of hiring issues and delays retaining contractors and receiving products, according to the report.

3. Value-Added Modeling

But linking teacher assessments to student success is a relatively new science, and the process of creating a fair and accurate evaluation model is still being debated.

4. Upgrading Technology

Foran said that when purchasing technology in large enough quantities, the procurement must be approved by another internal state agency, which was the main cause for delays.

5. Common Core State Standards

Teachers need rich instructional tools.

To fill this need, the IFL has developed a set of model units K-12 in the four core content areas that illustrate how research-based content and pedagogical routines can transform instruction and raise student achievement.

These units suggest teaching progressions and routines that assure a focus on what specific content needs to be taught and how it should be learned.

Model units include suggested texts, tasks, and teaching routines and guidance, as well as supports for English language learners and students with disabilities.

The New York City Department of Education has taken a lead in implementing the Common Core State Standards in its schools. Middle College National Consortium Schools have been out front in embracing the Common Core Standards with professional development and an emphasis on aligning CCSS with the college and career ready work already being done.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

• Fourth and eighth grade students in Albuquerque are being taught using Common Core — an unprecedented nationwide effort to ensure students in every state are taught — and tested on — the same set of high academic math and reading standards.
• The idea is to improve standards nationwide, while allowing for valid comparisons of student achievement between states. In Albuquerque Public Schools, these standards are being piloted by about 100 teachers in fourth- and eighth-grade classes.
• By next fall, the standards will be in use in every kindergarten through third grade classroom in the state. And by fall of 2013, they will be used in all classrooms. 

Chief State School Officer

• New Mexixo Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera said the Common Core standards emphasize critical thinking and mastery of key topics, rather than a shallow understanding of many topics. “Part of the emphasis in Common Core is the ability for students to think critically and process,” Skandera said. “It’s moving beyond the first level of thinking to higher levels of thinking.”
• Skandera said Common Core also aims to break down barriers between subjects, teaching skills like writing in every class.
• Skandera said Common Core should elevate teaching across the country, as states will be able to share resources and programs that work. “The whole idea behind Common Core is that we have high standards and expectations, are taking best practices from across the nation, and are ensuring our kids across the nation are the recipients of those best practices,” she said.

Teacher Reaction

Burnham said she likes teaching to the Common Core standards because there are fewer of them and she can spend more time on each one. She said her day-to-day teaching strategies haven’t changed, just her emphasis.

More nonfiction

The Common Core English standards place more emphasis on reading nonfiction and complex texts, with less emphasis on novels. Students will have to read complex texts in college, and high school should prepare them. Eighth-graders might analyze the Gettysburg address, for example, or write an essay using evidence and arguments, rather than one about their summer break. 

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/04/09/news/common-core-standards-usher-in-teaching-reforms.html

Should teachers use "frustration level" texts?

• We have found no substantive research that indicates that beginning readers, or even elementary-aged readers, in small- or whole-group settings should exclusively, or even extensively, read frustration level texts. 
• There is a place for "frustration level" text in elementary classrooms.
• If you are not using "frustration level" text in read aloud, shared reading, partner reading, and fluency practice, then we recommend you begin there.
• Until we have more substantive and specific research on frustration level text, however, please don’t eliminate the bulk of the instructional level reading in your classroom.