What Is The Implementation Of The CT Core Standards?

How can content area teachers plan and design instruction so that students will actively engage in literacy- and subject-related activities?

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) was first implemented in 2010, nine years after I graduated from high school. Although I wasn’t personally affected by the new academic standards, it has a direct impact on the current and future generation of leaders, innovators, and world changers including my future children. The initial purpose of the Common Core Standards is to set high-quality learning goals designed to prepare students to be college and career ready. Given the current controversies surrounding CCSS, studies have shown that although the intent was to benefit students in the long-run it may actually be hindering their mathematical and reading skills. To further explore the arguments behind the Common Core initiative, I will

While all fields of academia possess some level of practical application, there remains an ever-important and all-encompassing skill which is needed to truly understand each subject: reading. Though literacy rates in the US near 100%, literacy unaccompanied by tools such as context, critical analysis, and sufficient skepticism can leave one lost in arduous texts and vulnerable to flawed arguments. This notion is rarely rejected by anyone at face value, rather, questions regarding the implementation and perceived importance of certain reading strategies alienates differing camps. Many attempts at mitigating the dilemma of subpar reading comprehension have been made, most notably, Daniel Willingham's proposed reform of early education, Michael

According to CMS Superintendent Ann Clark regarding literacy as our North Star, it “is the most important skill we teach. Literacy is the foundation for academic success from pre-kindergarten through high school.” Literacy is key to achieving academic success and the responsibility of literacy encompasses every educator and discipline. Many media coordinators have been trained in Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and district adopted reading initiatives, such as Balanced Literacy and Reading Apprenticeship. However, most struggle with linking our programs with literacy initiatives. According to the 2015 Nation’s Report Card percentages of fourth graders and eighth graders reading on grade level continues to decline, especially among urban school districts (nationsreportcard.gov). “That is, when reading grade appropriate text these students cannot extract the general meaning or make obvious connections between the text and their own experiences or make simple inferences from the text. In other words, they cannot understand what they have read.” (National Assessment of Educational Progress). And, furthermore, principals are trading media coordinator positions at an alarming rate as evidenced by the more than 30 schools which no longer

Adopted by forty-two out states in 2010, the Common Core State Standard Initiative strives to provide an educational structure which details what English language arts and mathematics should be taught from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The initiative is the federal government’s attempt to ensure all students who graduate from high school are adequately prepared to enter a two or four year college or the workforce. Despite their intentions, the Common Core has caused much controversy in the education community. The thought behind Common Core is very valid and has the potential to help students, however changes must be made to unrealistic standards and wordy statements. Common Core must first be rewritten so that the language is clear and can be easily understood by the general public. Next ask experts on childhood development and elementary school teachers to review the standards and rewrite standards they see as unneeded or irrelevant as well as unrealistic.

There has been some speculation to as if the Common Core is even working for the students. Is it preparing them for College? For the Common Core Standard to be successful in the schools all rely on how it is implemented. Do the teachers implement the Standards in a good way or a bad way? The Common Core Standards are already hard to understand let alone teach. During research, on how the Common Core Standards are being implemented they found that there were teachers that undoubtedly know they are supposed to be implementing the Standards (Polikoff, 2017). This brings me back to say that there are many people that do not fully understand the Common Core. Some teachers are still confused on the fact that they have to implement it into their classrooms and everyday planning. Common Core is set up to help you, it tells you where your students should be and what they should be learning at the grade level. With not knowing anything about the Common Core, teachers are having a difficult time when it comes to implementing it into the

In chapter seven of Pathways to the Common Core by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman (2012), the authors explain that teachers often dismiss the Common Core writing standards as unrealistically high demands for their students, but clarify that through examination of the standard in a horizontal fashion, the standards are ultimately realistic and attainable. Calkins, Ehrenworth, and Lehman encourage teachers to begin with reading the kindergarten standards (no matter which grade level you teach) and look at the trajectory through next grade levels. The chapter continues by explaining that viewing the standards in this fashion and collaborating with teachers across grade levels will not only create a more realistic view of the standard, but allow students to meet the learning objectives through smaller steps across each grade level (Calkins, Ehrenworth & Lehman, 2012).

When many people think of elementary education, they think of reading small passages and learning the difference between addition and subtraction in easy, creative ways. Now, with the new Common Core State Standards implemented, today’s kids will have more things to worry about. They are asked more challenging questions and expected to have more rigorous answers. This does not set a steady learning pace for the average child.

The Common Core Standards engage a standards-based education. The standards guide teachers to prepare students for what they are expected to learn to succeed in life. It is essential that teachers understand the expectations and implications of the standards, so teachers can help students achieve educational goals by designing specific educational plans that align with the core standards. Furthermore, tailoring the curriculum will help to build relevant skills students are argued to integrate in college and their future careers.

Ultimately, Common Core is not the education our children need. Students need a mixed curriculum of learning, with the intention that they will recognize what their passions are, and not just how well educated they are in general subjects. Having knowledge in these subjects are extremely important, however only emphasizing on certain subjects narrows the child’s ability to learn more. The Common Core standards prevent students from that excessive knowledge they would have, and only focuses on how well they can think on a test. Despite the elaborate plan Common Core presents to raise the educational standards in our nation, these same standards will diminish the student’s individualism, as well as inflict stress and anxiety on the child’s

The Common Core State Standards were created to identify the skills and knowledge a student needs in order to succeed in today’s world. Essentially, these Standards were developed in an effort for public education to advance academically. In developing these Standards, six shifts were created to identify what a student is expected to accomplish in each grade level in order to prepare them for their future. Obviously, with six shifts, there is a beginning phase. The first shift generated states, to prepare students for reading and comprehension in their later school years, it is fundamentally necessary to increase the reading of informational text for students beginning kindergarten and continuing through the fifth grade.

When Common Core was put into full effect, teachers were unprepared and were not given the professional development that was needed to effectively implement these standards. As Sarah Boslaugh says in her article, “the new standards are more demanding than those already in place in many school systems and teachers and administrators do not have enough time to prepare for their implementation, which would result in widespread failure among students”(Boslaugh, 2015, para.1). Common Core’s standards were poorly implemented and it is causing the system to fail. Sue Pimentel, a founding partner of the nonprofit Student Achievement Partners and lead writer of the Common Core State Standards for ELA and literacy states, “Teachers aren't being given enough time to work together to develop the materials and teaching techniques that will be necessary to effectively implement the Common Core, nor are they being given enough time to observe and critique each other's teaching” (qtd. in Tucker, 2014, para.3). Sue Pimentel is saying that teachers are not properly trained to teach their students the Common Core curriculum, so it is illogical to have these standards be implemented. Since teachers are now required to follow a step-by-step format to teach, along with a set of required criteria to be met, the classroom has completely changed both inside and out. A majority of schools are not even attempting to help teachers with this change. “Adapting to change: teacher perceptions of implementing the common core state standards” is an article written by Brooke Burks. This article discusses how teachers are coping with this rapid change of curriculum. As the article says, “fewer than fifty percent of school districts planned professional development reared towards implementing and aligning Common Core standards” (Burks, 2012, p.4). Teachers are in need of any

Common Core State Standards Initiative caught parents and teachers off guard alike. Not many truly understand that concerns, consequences, and underlying issues that surround Common Core. It wasn’t until children were venting their concerns, teachers were frustrated with the statistics undermining their duties, and parents questioning Common Core’s teaching practices – that Common Core was put under the spotlight. An educational reconstruction sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers sought out to establish a unified education standard that would detail what K-12 students were to know in English and Math alike. Common Core’s mission is to

Biancarosa (2012) states in the introduction to this section that as students progress up through the grades their reading in content-area courses becomes progressively more distinct (p. 47). A student in a fourth grade science course will encounter different terminology in a fourth grade social studies course and even more diverse terminology by the time they reach high school biology. However, I have often found, and Biancarosa (2012) as acknowledges that many schools do not focus on reading instruction across content areas. Biancarosa elaborates, “too often, schools do not explicitly teach students how the reasoning processes, strategies, and rules for achieving comprehension vary across the content areas” (p. 47). In order to develop adolescents’ literacy skills we need to increase their interaction with diverse disciplinary texts. Looking at this from the higher education lens, once a student moves from the college-prep classroom to the collegiate environment they will be required to demonstrate comprehension and research skills in their specialized field of study. The best measure that teachers in the K-12 arena can do to assist them for this transition is to increase their interaction with these texts during the duration of their elementary and secondary school years.

Proficient teachers have the ability to shift among the behaviours, as needed, to accommodate learners’ needs, content focus, time constraints, and the myriad goals of education. Consequently, teachers must be strong, resilient, and resourceful. They must not only give meaning to, and breathe life into educational terminology, but they also must learn to flow from one fad or movement to another. Without professional consistency in terminology, reliable communication, accurate implementation, and assessment of ideas are difficult, if not impossible. Imprecise