Michael Moody

Michael Moody
December 13, 2015

When the Common Cadre Land Standards were launched in 2010, one-time Los Angeles Unified superintendent Roy Romer appear his high expectations for the initiative: "The common standards will provide an accessible roadmap for schools, teachers, parents and students, with clear and realistic goals."

Now, more than 5 years later, the Common Core is still making headlines, but feelings are mixed every bit to whether or not the standards can live up to this vision.

According to contempo research from Sacramento Country'southward EdInsights Centre, there is currently a stiff sense of optimism amid both policymakers and educators – and widespread support for the Mutual Core across the state. But despite the California Department of Education's efforts to develop a systematic implementation plan and provide resource, my piece of work in schools beyond the land has shown that "initiative fatigue" is setting in and there's confusion and frustration regarding implementation amid educators at all levels.

Given this – and at present that 2022 California Cess of Student Functioning and Progress data are bachelor – it's clearly a crucial time to shift the focus from planning and transitioning to implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). I come across bang-up potential for the Mutual Core to assist California's students succeed earlier and beyond graduation, merely successful implementation volition depend on listening to lessons learned from the field.

Since the release of the Common Cadre standards, nosotros have partnered with school leaders nationwide to assess both successes and challenges faced in implementing the standards. Based on that work, here are iv key considerations for schoolhouse and district leaders to think near when it comes to getting Common Core implementation right:

  1. Connect the Common Core to all systems.
    As Marc Tucker suggested in an Education Calendar week mail last year, for the CCSS to piece of work in a district, well-nigh everything must alter. An exclusive focus on simply ane component, such as didactics, will inevitably fail. All systems, from instruction, curriculum and assessments to professional learning and evaluation frameworks, must be aligned with each other and clearly connected with goals established in the standards. With these cohesive and reinforced systems in place, teachers won't see the CCSS as simply "one more thing to practice," but rather as fundamental to all aspects of their piece of work, and leaders will exist able to more than accurately decide what'due south really working in their schools.
  2. Give teachers the support they need – and deserve.
    When it comes to the shifts in instruction called for in the Common Core standards, teachers face up a steep learning curve. Research from EdInsight'south August 2022 report, Leveraging the Mutual Core to Support College and Career Readiness in California, showed that teachers receive a lot of information well-nigh what the standards are, and very piffling about how to teach with them. Additionally, data from The Center for Public Educational activity's Instruction the Teachers report showed that most professional evolution teachers receive related to the Common Core is still workshop-style, "sit down and get" experiences – fifty-fifty though it's articulate this is not the most effective way to learn new instructional strategies. Instead, teachers need ongoing, task-embedded professional person learning experiences and content-specific feedback to finer implement Common Core-aligned instructional strategies in their classrooms.
  3. Focus on assessing student progress, not testing.
    The measure of pupil success should not be a atypical focus on high-stakes testing. Successful implementation of the standards requires constructive formative cess practices that monitor student comprehension within lessons and apply information to inform and conform instruction – not simply preparing students for a examination at the finish of the year. Over the by twelvemonth, I have worked with the U.Due south. Section of Education'southward Reform Support Network to build educators' assessment literacy. Among the resources available is the Assessment Design Toolkit, a series of videos and modules nosotros developed to help teachers write and select high-quality assessments.
  4. Look for teaching and learning in the classroom.
    The Common Core does non dictate how teachers should teach, but it's articulate that successful implementation requires teachers to apply proven strategies that are aligned to the standards. Only while it is essential for school leaders to evaluate the quality and efficacy of teachers' practices, it's equally if not more important to focus on pupil actions and expect for evidence of learning – peculiarly the higher thinking and reasoning chosen for past the CCSS. School leaders must adopt tools that provide articulate guidelines and indicators for both didactics and learning. The Insight Core Framework, for case, outlines hands appreciable teacher and student actions aligned to standards that make it possible to accurately judge students' response to instructional environments on the spot.

The Common Core was born out of bold visions for teaching and learning that require thoughtful, thorough approaches to planning and implementation. In my work supporting educators, I ever explicate that the Common Cadre implementation is a marathon, non a sprint. Simply with the standards at present being taught in every California classroom, we're at a disquisitional moment in that race when it'southward more of import than ever to focus on getting it right. And the students we serve need usa to get this right.

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Michael Moody is the founder of Insight Pedagogy Group.

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