The Illinois State Board Of Education

Mississippi, as well as our school district, is offering a wide range of activities to aid in implementing CCSS. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring that students master the knowledge and skills in the standards rests with our district, schools, administrators, and teachers (Center on Education Policy, 2011). Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) allows our school district the flexibility to decide how accomplish the goals outlined in CCSS. First and far most, our district had to hastily make changes to the curriculum, instruction, assessments, and professional development to align the curriculum with this new initiative.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative is a plan to restructure the educational system in the United States and provide students with a high-quality education. Many states have adopted and are implementing these standards. In our fast changing world, different skills are needed to do the jobs our society has to offer. Upon completion of high school, these students need to be equipped to either enter the workforce prepared to meet the demands of their employers or to enter college prepared to take their education to the next level in pursuit of careers. The CCSS will increase in depth and difficulty from kindergarten through grade 12.

For staff, parents and community members, a survey can be a highly effective tool in gathering data. Questions for staff could include the training backgrounds and language fluency of district instructional personnel, the number of trained support staff available, along with relevant experience, personal observations and educated recommendations. It is important to ascertain early whether there are sufficient, qualified

“Common Core State Standards Initiative” is a result of the “Standards and Accountability Movement” which began in the 1990s in the United States. This particular branch of education reforms was geared towards expectations of learning at each grade level. The Standards and Accountability Movement not only brought attention on what students were expected to learn, but on teachers as well – focusing on how teachers were to implement lessons and able to teach for student achievement which would be measured in

If there is one thing that all American’s can agree on it is that the education provided for our youth serves as the foundation for the continuation and prosperity of our nation’s future. On the smaller scale, the students that live and learn here in the state of California will become our congressmen, doctors, policemen; the future of our great state. The adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) was necessary for improving the education policies in place for the youth in California. For one, it replaced the failing academic system, the No Child Left Behind Act. Second, the CCSS drives students to build deeper conceptual understandings of course material and foster their critical-thinking and analytical skills. Next, the CCSS levels

The New York Department of Education is debating re-zoning some of Manhattan’s schools in order to diversify the student bodies. Of all of the proposed integrations, the re-zoning of Public School (PS) 199 and PS 191 has led to the most persistent parent protests. On the one hand, this change would lead to a more diverse student body, reduce overcrowding at PS 199, and break down the walls of racial, political, and socio-economic division. On the other hand, it would potentially cause disruptive relocation, decrease property values, and create awkward zoning boundaries.

Needs assessments are conducted every spring and is administered by each LEA which includes input from the teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, parents, recruiters, and other service providers. Interviews/focus groups are held every year to determine the needs and satisfaction regarding the LEA’s program. The Language proficiency assessment is given to all ELL students for placement in the LEP programs. The content achievement assessments are given by the state to student in grades 3-12 which are administered annually and measure the student’s abilities in reading, writing, math, computer skills, and other content areas. K-2 assessments are used to provide data of student’s development and progress in reading and math using formative and summative assessments (http://www.dpi.state.nc.us).

CCSS is initiated by the Council of Chief State School Officers(CCSSO) and the National Governors Association(NGO) and approved by American Federation of Teachers(AFT). It has been accepted by 46 states. Although background and belief is strong for the standards, some states are having difficulties to adopt it due to financial challenges and professional development. As it is seen, State Policy makers agreed to work together and decided to create rigorous, more challenging standards that can prepare students for the future. With these standards, students will be equipped with the skills they need to succeed in college.

The Common Core State Standards are a state attempt to create strong educational standards. The standard are created to ensure that students in the country are learning and grasping the information that are given in the classrooms for them to succeed academically. The Common Core plan included governors and education commissioners form forty-eight states and the District of Columbia. They wanted to make sure the standards are relevant, logical and sequential. For content all subjects must have critical-thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. Some positive aspects of this policy is that it prepares our students for a competitive global jobs. It can provide national connections in education. Designed to shape the best standards so that all states will be taking a step ahead in education. These standards had been created after extensive research by professional educators for excellence in education. The CCS focus on what students expectations of learning, and achievements. Educators do not need to worry that the standards will make their jobs look redundant because they are in charge of creating lessons to teach their students the content and skills that the CCS demands. The teachers do not feel that the standards are one-size-fits-all. Some negative aspects of the policy are that is a program created by solely the government. The CCS is a program put together on idyllic situations in education by individuals who have subsidy and students ahead of the learning

The first thing that CCSS did was divided into two categories: College and Career- Readiness Standard and K-12 Standards. By dividing the process into two categories

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a widely debatable topic. Parents, teachers, administration, and even states have taken a stance on what they believe. CCSS is a document created by researchers, teachers, administration, and even the public, stating exactly what each student in grades K-12 should be accomplishing by the end of each level. It is ideally in place for teachers to have a clear understanding of what students are expected to achieve and know by each benchmark test so they can ensure this readiness. Though much thought and exertion has gone into the production and implementation of these standards, many myths have been formulated from them, causing the standards to sound as if they do not have any advantage to our schools (“Understanding the Common Core”).

In 2010 majority of the states in the U.S. adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). These new standards were built on the best of high-quality math standards from states across the country. They also draw on the most important international models for mathematical practice, as well as research and input from numerous sources, including state departments of education, scholars, assessment developers, professional organizations, educators, parents and students, and members of the public. The CCSS provide clarity and specificity rather than broad general statements. The CCSS stress conceptual understanding of key ideas, but also by continually returning to organizing principles such as place value and the laws of arithmetic to structure

1.5 Systems for Continuous Improvement – While leaders are able to articulate West End’s priorities, the path or strategy for success within each of these initiatives is not consistently defined for teachers, students and parents. Priorities are clearly identified by the leadership team however the expected outcomes for these strategies are not clearly defined at the outset. For example, the implementation of a CCSS-aligned Math curriculum is a widely understood improvement strategy among West End leaders, however teachers, students and parents may remain unclear on benchmarks and expected outcomes as they relate to increased rigor and resulting student gaps, changes in classroom instruction, teacher coaching and parent education/support with

The Integrated Study Units is divided into nine components. The first part of the guide is the Unit Overview. This part summarizes the content of the unit which consist of English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science. The next part pertains to the standards that are covered within the unit. Standards within the unit are used to write student-friendly “I Can” statements to post in your classroom daily. “I Can” statement are observed by school level administrators and Curriculum and Instruction department teams. Social Studies, Science and STEM standards are taught through read aloud, shared and close reading structures. The Assessment address English Language Arts and Suggested Tasks, ELA contains specific assessments that are required

Parent Teacher Conferences are typically fraught with no-shows and school board meeting are rarely utilized as a forum for collegiality or positive discussion between stakeholders and administration. We at ABC Technical Center have a parent orientation night before classes start every year to inform students and parents about goals and expectations throughout the year. Invitations are mailed to each family; this would be an excellent time to pose a question regarding the use WKTA instead of the typical standardized testing devices. This letter could explain the basis for considering the innovative change and weight the alternatives in order to stimulate feedback prior to the orientation night. Feedback could be collected as data if the letter contained a return postcard that had several preconceived responses listed in a multiple choice format that could be used in a ScanTron data collector. At the orientation meeting the results could be graphed and included in a PowerPoint presentation and another round of discussion and feedback (brainstorming) could occur (Hall, G. E., & Hord, S. M.,2001, p.266). The gradual, but steady, flow of information and feedback, implementing the use of group interaction and input in a positive format will hopefully create a majority of support from which to draw upon in the