The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released of an updated edition of the Common Core Implementation Tools and Resources Guide. CCSSO developed this list of free tools and resources to point states, districts, and educators to promising ideas and tools to support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards.
Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia now have waivers from certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) approved by the U.S. Department of Education. These waivers provide states the flexibility needed to establish rigorous, high-quality accountability systems that support schools and districts, and provide students with the interventions they need to improve. States are now months into implementation of waivers and, having made significant progress, are considering how these important reform efforts will be continued. States are calling on Congress to reauthorize ESEA to include the innovations from their waivers and provide stability to move forward with systemic reform.
A report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) reveals that past attempts to enact standards-based education reform have been impeded by teacher evaluation limitations and that the Common Core State Standards draws on the "standard of care" concept, which calls on teachers to continually acquire new knowledge and hone their skills.
A new report from Education First and the EPE Research Center, "Moving Forward: A National Perspective on States' Progress in Common Core State Standards Implementation Planning," looks at the progress being made by states in implementing the standards, with a focus on professional development, curriculum materials, and teacher evaluations.
Redesigning the high school English curriculum under the Common Core Standards Initiative has begun, and the College Board is pushing for the inclusion of more nonfiction narratives on student reading lists to help prepare them for university-level coursework.
Florida education officials recently discussed the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) at a panel hosted by St. Petersburg College. The discussion touched on how the CCSS will enable better comparisons among states, though states will implement the new standards differently, and the ways in which the CCSS will incorporate technology into the classroom.
The public review and comment period for the second draft of the Next Generation Science Standards, developed with the help of 26 states, ended on Jan. 29. Kansas Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker says, "We're pleased to have another opportunity for a broader audience to view the work being done [on the standards.]
In a recent report from the Council of the Great City Schools, about 87 percent of 36 urban school districts said they would have the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) fully implemented by the 2014-15 school year.
Jessica Cuthbertson, a literacy teacher based in Aurora, Colo., says the Common Core State Standards offer numerous professional possibilities and greater collaboration. Many question whether the Common Core stresses contemporary texts or the classics, informational texts or literature, excerpts or whole works, but Cuthbertson says "or" should be replaced with "and" when implementing the standards.
Watch CCSSO's webcast of chiefs discussing state NCLB waiver implementation. Chris Cerf, Commissioner of Education for the New Jersey Department of Education, Terry Holliday, Commissioner of Education for the Kentucky Department of Education, and John King, Commissioner of Education for the New York Department of Education spoke about the new accountability systems in their states and implications of waivers on state & federal policies and practice. Andy Rotherham, co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education, moderated the conversation.
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