College and Career-Ready Standards for School Leaders

"As states tackle the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, the balance between addressing the conditions necessary for students to learn and what students are actually learning has become more difficult to strike. The S3 grants aim to eliminate the need to prioritize one or the other.

Under a federal grant program, 11 states are using student surveys and select data to monitor and address issues around safety, discipline, and engagement....in an attempt to put safety and discipline, student engagement, and students' connection to school on the same footing as their performance in mathematics and reading."

This is the "first attempt at this benchmark—really measuring in some tangible way—school climate, and then blending that with incident data like attendance, referrals, suspensions."

3 Digital Tools For Common Core Academic Vocabulary by Susan Oxnevad first appeared on gettingsmart.com  The Common Core identifies six instructional shifts needed to effectively implement the standards…...

Walt Gardner 

Tracing the rise and fall of grammar instruction ("Grammarians in Hoodies," Education Next, Spring 2013

"I'm talking about gross errors in usage and sentence structure that detract from that goal.

Companies complain that workers can't fashion a clear and coherent memo. That doesn't surprise me at all. Young people can't enunciate a declarative sentence without the words "like" or "you know." That assumes they even know what a declarative sentence is. So when it comes time to put their thoughts in writing, they're predictably at a complete loss. Texting, of course, only exacerbates their deficits."

The bottom line: Sixty percent bombed the test. Translation: Most adults who took a student standardized test pretty much flunked it.

Despite often lacking support and clear guidance, math educators are taking steps to refine their practice and adopt creative methods to help at-risk and struggling students make the shift to the new instructional paradigm.

Students need "prerequisite knowledge" to meet the new grade-level expectations mapped out in the common standards

The Common Core State Standards eventually will require students to take standardized tests online, and that will pose a problem for many schools, especially those in rural areas.

Turnarounds generally happen through a series of disciplined improvements, not because of one silver bullet, Amanda Gardner writes.

1. Make the classroom a sacred learning environment.
2. Teaching is a joint enterprise.
3. Accountability isn't found in a test.

Kathleen Porter-Magee & Sol Stern write on NRO: The new Common Core math and reading standards adopted by 45 states have come under a firestorm of criticism from tea-party activists and commentators such as Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin.

Here’s what the Common Core State Standards do:

1. They simply delineate what children should know at each grade level and describe the skills that they must acquire to stay on course toward college or career readiness.
2. They are not a curriculum;
3. It’s up to school districts to choose curricula that comply with the standards.
4. For most states, the Common Core is a great improvement with regard to rigor and cohesiveness.

In the study, "Consolidation and Transfer of Learning After Observing Hand Gesture," psychologists from the University of Iowa and Michigan State University taught 184 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-graders a lesson about mathematical equivalence, a foundation concept for algebra.

Here's a book excerpt from veteran educator Larry Ferlazzo's new book on how to get students to warn to learn.

We support the Common Core because it is a clear, collaborative vision that identifies what students need to know to be successful in the 21st century.

"triggering uneasiness among teachers who feel that tests are being given on the new standards too soon."

CCSSO and NGA have been good stewards of this initiative. I know that when I asked for more teacher involvement, they were very responsive. Both NEA and AFT convened panels of some of the best teachers in America who reviewed the initial draft of the standards. The teachers made many suggestions, and most were integrated into the standards. The Common Core Standards deserve to be implemented.

What evidence can administrators and teachers collect that will show true engagement and not on task behavior?