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Common Core State Standards: Case Study

Decent Essays
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) reform affects not only the structure of the general education, but also the instructional strategies used to improve student achievement. However, according to statistics from Issues in K-12 Education Case Study Document 2 and research from the National Center for Education, African American, Hispanic, English Language Learner (ELL), and economically disadvantaged students are consistently reporting significantly lower mean CCSS test scores ("State Profiles.net", 2016). To address the issue of achievement gaps with marginalized populations, I am proposing a plan that includes revising the use of 21st Century technology in the classroom, providing correlation of professional development to meet the needs…show more content…
The long-term goal is to significantly close the achievement gap of marginalized student from non-marginalized students by correlating research-based results to instructional practice within a five-year timeframe.
The first component of this multiyear plan is to create the short-term goal of assessing and improving accessibility of technology because “Inadequate access to and/or underutilization of instructional technology impedes students’ learning” (Ford & Moore, 2013, p. 407). The “digital divide” that exists among schools is a notable factor and this could help narrow the disparities among student achievement (Ford & Moore, 2013). Therefore, in a two-month timeframe, administrators and the school leadership team would determine the infrastructure of existing technology and analyze funding options for immediate and future needs. This strategy not only enhances the equitable use of technology in the classroom; which affects the school’s accountability ratings, it also provides an evaluation tool to document student achievement. The next step involves the principal collaborating with the Information Technology (IT)
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1). Consequently, teachers need training and support through professional learning communities (PLC) as they “…have proven to be a cornerstone of effective teaching and, in underperforming schools, a catalyst for improvement” (Farbman, Goldberg, & Miller, 2014, p. 10). As a result, my plan proposes following Claudet’s model of a change agent (2011) by inspiring stakeholders to become collaborative partners in remedying academic gaps. It begins with the faculty analyzing student data scores to prioritize topics, designing a timeframe to meet goals, and identifying the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. Once this is determined, several teachers would attend summer or fall training sessions to develop strategies to address the learning needs of low-achieving students because “…collective leadership has positive effects on student achievement” (Barth, 2001, p. 12). The trained teachers would provide monthly PLC activities to cultivate developmental and cultural instructional strategies, analyze student progress, share successes, and problem-solve concerns. Measurement of the effectiveness of the training occurs through staff participation, observations, and classroom formative and summative assessments, as recorded through the software programs provided to the teachers at the beginning of the
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