Current News

Chief State School Officers are invited to attend this year’s Labor-Management Collaboration Conference from May 23 to 24 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Last year’s event in Denver was for districts only; this year’s event will be open to State as well as district teams.

CCSSO Executive Director Gene Wilhoit joined U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and six fellow national education leaders today in signing a shared vision for the future of the teaching profession during the opening 2012 Labor Management Conference in Cincinnati.

Chief state school officers from around the country and CCSSO Executive Director, Gene Wilhoit will join U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, educators and leaders from across the world at the second annual International Summit on the Teaching Profession (International Summit) in New York City, March 14-15.

CCSSO recently kicked off a new series of convenings to facilitate discussion among assessment consortia, state leaders and technology/assessment experts around issues identified by the five federally-funded assessment consortia to support the development of comparable assessment systems that are aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

Several states will submit applications to the U.S. Department of Education on November 14 seeking waivers of certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). These waivers will allow states the flexibility to develop stronger accountability and teacher evaluation systems, and provide relief from current provisions preventing states moving forward with reform.

Next Issue of Chiefline Scheduled for January 3

Twenty-five states have expressly committed to advance recommendations aimed at dramatically improving educator preparation and entry into the profession. The recommendations are outlined in a new CCSSO report, "Our Responsibility, Our Promise: Transforming Educator Preparation and Entry into the Profession."

Twenty-five state schools chiefs are vowing to take action to update their systems of teacher preparation and licensing, with an eye to ensuring teachers are ready the minute they take charge of their own classrooms.

The U.S. Department of Education announced on Dec. 11 that 16 winners -- including three charter school organizations -- will share $400 million in the Race To the Top district competition. Miami-Dade is the largest urban district on the list, having also recently won the prestigious Broad Prize this year.

The Nebraska State Board of Education recently adopted new standards for social studies instruction, but local school boards will have to adopt or strengthen and implement them. The standards determine what students should know at different grade levels in history, geography, civics, and economics.