Shifts and Issues Associated With The Common Core

I attended another session on the Common Core State Standards today at the 2012 ASCD Annual Conference entitled Educator Readiness for the Common Core: ASCD Findings from Select States.  The two facilitators shared input from educators in four states about the standards and the assistance needed to integrate them into schools and classrooms.  

Image credit: http://info.sadlier.com/Portals/95641/images/Common-Core-State-Standards-Math-Gal.jpg

Key ELA Shifts

• Building knowledge through content rich nonfiction and informational texts.
• Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence.
• Regular practice with complex texts (and its vocabulary).

What can be done this year:

1. Teachers are aware of an understand the shifts required to implement.
2. Teachers can identify, evaluate, and develop text-dependent (evidentiary) questions.
3. Teachers begin reviewing existing materials to develop text-dependent questions.

Key Mathematical Shifts

• Focus: focus strongly where the standard focus
• Coherence: think across grades, and link to major topics
• Rigor: require fluency, application, and deep understanding

What can be done this year:

• Teachers are aware and understand shifts
• Teachers identify major work for grade
• Teachers begin reviewing existing materials to prepare for focus

Cases studies revealed approximately 50 percent of educators in AR feel that they do not have the resources and tools necessary to successfully implement the Common Core State Standards. Their number one concern is the technological capacity to teach and assess students.  Compounding this issue is the fact that there is no money to purchase what is needed to meet the expectations that will come along with these assessments.  Rural states like Arkansas don’t have the bandwidth to implement and support the assessments that are required.  A key question that came out of this analysis was how do we know what we buy today will be compatible in 2014-2015? 

In North Carolina, 45 percent of educators feel that they do not have the resources and tools necessary to successfully implement the Common Core State Standards.  They are primarily concerned about the summative assessments linked to the standards.  Utah educators were most concerned about the availability of professional development offerings. 


Successful transition to the Common Core hinges on the amount of support that schools will receive from states (if any) and quality professional development opportunities.  One trend that bothers me and many others is the fact that many stakeholder groups that do not have a vested interest in student achievement are raking in the cash while schools struggle to adapt to these changes.  As long as this issue and others discussed above persist resentment for this initiative will continue to grow.

Global Competencies and the Common Core

I attended a session at the 2012 ASCD Annual Conference early on Saturday morning entitled Common Core and Curriculum 21: Global Competency in Literacy, Math, and Science.  The session was facilitated by an organization called Facing the Future.  As we move to the Common Core it is crucial that we sustain a renewed focus on engaging students using global issues across multiple disciplines to keep them hooked and in position for achievement.  Some great resources were initially shared that can assist educators and schools develop a 21st Century curriculum while integrating elements of the Common Core Standards.  They included:

• Curriculum 21
• CCSSO
• Common CoreState Initiative
• EdSteps (be sure to check out their Global Competence Matrix)
• Asia Society (global understandings)
• Facing the Future (support all of the other organizations listed above).

So how did we get here?  The presenter discussed how many elements of the 21st Century Skills movement influenced the development of the Common Core Standards.  He referenced Tony Wagner's  Survival Skills for the 21stCentury that include:

• critical thinking and problem solving
• leading by influence and collaboration across networks
• agility and adaptability
• initiative and entrepreneurialism
•  curiosity and imagination
•  accessing and analyzing info
• effective oral and written communication skills

An overview of the work done by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Curriculum 21 was then discussed.  She contends that a curriculum for the 21st Century should:

• Ask the question for what year are we preparing our students.
• Be upgraded with more engaging selections.
• Demonstrate learning with products and performances that match our times.
• Be a model for growth, not a model for change. 

It is important to note that we must have a firm understanding of what global competencies are and how they are defined by the Common Core Standards if we are to successfully integrate them into lessons.  Global competence is defined as the capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance.  We must cultivate learning environments that allow students to demonstrate knowledge and apply skills that:

• investigate the world
• recognize perspectives
• communicate ideas
• take action

Now the task becomes developing learning activities and curricula that support 21st Century Skills while addressing the Common Core.  Facing the Future has a nice Standards Correlation tool that allows educators to align curriculum to the Common Core, state resources, and other national standards.  Download free curricular resources HERE. 

How are you preparing for the Common Core while also addressing the needs of today's learners aligned with societal demands and expectations?

Connect, Share, Learn

It has been an incredible journey since I decided to become a connected educator back in March of 2009.  As I sit here writing this post, I cannot help but reflect on the positive changes that have taken place at my school and with me professionally.  Through connected learning and sharing, I have become better equipped to lead change at New Milford High School and to begin to transform the teaching and learning process.  All one has to do is read this blog to experience what I am talking about. 

 Image credit: http://olc.oraclesoftruth.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/learn-e1306575081767.jpg

Make no mistake; the knowledge, resources, ideas, strategies, and feedback that I receive from my Personal Learning Network (PLN) have had such a dramatic impact on me as an educational leader.  As a transparent leader, I have been able to share this journey with thousands of educators from across the globe.  This has resulted in teams of other connected leaders descending upon New Milford High School to see firsthand how we have successfully implemented a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) initiative, use of mobile learning devices (i.e. cell phones) in the classroom, establishment of our own Academies, conversion of existing spaces into those more suited for 21^st Century learning, and the effective integration of Web 2.0 technology.  The following are two reflections written by connected educators who have recently visited NMHS:

Dov Emerson – A Twitter Visit in Real Life

Dr. Spike Cook – It’s About the Journey AND the Destination 

When we take the time to connect, share, and learn we are opening our minds to endless possibilities to improve our schools and ourselves.  Sure, we can accomplish this in other, more traditional ways.  However, I am a firm believer that educators in the trenches are in the best possible position to help us get to where we need, and want, to be.  As practitioners, we possess the power to share daily successes and failures to spur dramatic shifts in a school’s culture.  This is raw, uncut, and most importantly, real.   Thank you to everyone out there that has made me a better leader, educator, and person.  I could never envision myself not being connected, sharing, or learning like I am now. 

The challenge becomes not only sustaining the role and value of PLN’s, but empowering more educators to embrace this pathway of learning.  Our efforts to change minds and perceptions of this concept will provide more educators and schools with the appropriate tools to transform their respective cultures.  We cannot let the current educational reform movement dictate a movement in the wrong direction.  Keep sharing your journey and others will eventually follow.

The Best Ideas for Our Schools

This past week I was fortunate to attend the NASSP 2012 Annual Conference as a presenter, 2012 Digital Principal Award recipient, and most importantly a learner.  On Friday morning I attended a session facilitated by Dr. Gary Stager, a progressive educator whose work I have come to know over the past couple of years.  Gary’s message is one that resonates with me and many other educators who frequent digital spaces.  All around the world there are ideas that are put into action.  These ideas, for the most part, put student learning front and center and consist of experiences that enhance essential skills that all learners should possess.  These include creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, technological proficiency, global awareness, media literacy, communication, and collaboration. 

Image credit: http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/best%20ideas.jpg

Ideas like the ones Gary discussed also lead to the promotion of ingenuity, entrepreneurialism, and self-directed learning.  As he weaved together stories and firsthand accounts of these ideas in action one thing became painfully apparent and that was that the majority of schools in the United States to not place a high value on this type of learning.  Current reform practices and a system of education still entrenched in preparing students for an industrialized society squash many schools attempts or desires to embrace a better way of learning.  Gary is not one to mince his words and is blunt when it comes to the reasons why many schools and educators in our country are not changing.  In his opinion the problem is incrementalism and he stressed that this is the greatest enemy of change.  It is not secret that the policy of making changes is a process fraught with issue after issue.   This is, after all, what we hear and experience from those that resist change.   Now I have posted in the past some of my personal thoughts on factors impeding the change process and can now add this one to the list (thanks Gary).

As leaders, whether in the capacity as a teacher or administrator, it is our duty to be agents of change.  We must collaboratively develop and implement our own ideas to improve the learning process in a way that emphasizes our student’s cognitive growth, passions, and strengths, while challenging them to push their own boundaries.   It is difficult work to transform a culture of learning that has been embedded for nearly a century, but as Gray eloquently put it, every problem in education has been solved sometime or somewhere before.  The time is now for all of us to critically analyze our respective schools and take a stand against the status quo in order to do what is best for our students. 

Best ideas in the world don’t succumb to incrementalism or any other type of excuse or challenge.    As Gary stated they evolve around the following:

1. Respect for each learner:  We need to have actual conversations with our students.  They must be part of transformation efforts and their voices can provide invaluable feedback in efforts to reshape everything from curriculum, to pedagogy, to technology purchases, to how time for learning is allocated.  Respect also entails we will consistently seek paths to grow professionally in order to discover and implement new ideas on their behalf.
2. Authentic problems: This is as real world as it gets.  In my opinion there is no other powerful learning strategy that to have students exposed to and tackle problems that have meaning and relevancy. 
3. Real tools and materials: Students are using technology to solve problems outside of school.  They are also creating their own technology in some cases.  As Gary emphasized, learners are capable of incredible things if they are placed the right environment.  Just take a look at some of the Super AwesomeSylvia videos he shared.  It is our responsibility to create these environments.  To do so me must relinquish control, provide support (purchasing the right tools and providing quality professional development), encourage calculated risk-taking, exhibit flexibility, and model expectations.
4. Expanded opportunities:  I could not agree with Gary more on this one.  We have made great strides in this area in my District through the development of the Academies at NMHS.  With this initiative all students have the opportunity to be exposed to authentic learning experiences, online courses, specialized field trips, independent study, credit for learning experiences outside of school, and internships.  We plan to eventually incorporate capstone projects into our Academies program as well. 
5. Collegiality: Let’s face it, as educators we need to work together in order to successfully implement the best ideas in order to improve teaching and learning.  We must overcome personal agendas, bring the naysayers on board, implement a system focused on shared decision-making, and move to initiative a change process that is sustainable.  The best ideas will only become reality through collegiality.

The best ideas in the world can and should be cultivated in our schools.  As leaders it is our responsibility to see that they are.  The time is now!