Information 101 – Common Core State Standards and the Race to the Top

After taking over a year to develop and build on a foundation of previously established college and career readiness standards, the Common Core State Standards have now been published.

You should know that …

• The Standards were developed by the State Board of School Directors and the National Governors Association, along with input from numerous teachers, parents, school administrators, business and civil rights leaders, and are designed to replace the various currently uncoordinated defined by the states.

• Only Texas and Alaska did not participate.

• Standards address English Language Arts (ELA), History / Social Studies Literacy, Science and Technical Subjects, and Mathematics, K-12.

• All are “1) research and evidence based, 2) aligned with college and job expectations, 3) rigorous, and 4) internationally benchmarked.

• States can add up to 15% of their own standards to fill any gaps.

If adopted nationwide, as expected, all states, therefore all districts, will essentially follow the same curricular guidelines, allowing a child to pass seamlessly from, say, a school in the city from Oklahoma to one in Philadelphia, without losing ground or repeating a lot of material.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Education is reviewing state applications for the second round of the Race to the Top (RTTT) grant competition. In the first round, Pennsylvania came in seventh; only Tennessee and Delaware won that time. This time, 35 states and the District of Columbia are trying again.

Initially, Education Secretary Arne Duncan made the adoption of the national standards a requirement of RTTT enforcement, but organizations such as the Association for Curriculum Development and Monitoring were wary of such a mandate. As a result, adoption now earns a state additional points on its application.

Competing in this second round suggests that these 36 applicants will likely adopt the Standards.

And it’s up to all of us to read all of the Standards, which represent “what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade.”

You will find, for example, that instead of a required reading list, the English Language Arts Standards include an appendix with suggestions for appropriate text at each grade level. The Exception: Juniors and Seniors must study the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, and a Shakespearean play.

Meanwhile, I would also discover, for example, that third graders could describe characters in a story, sixth graders could compare and contrast various texts, while eleventh graders would demonstrate knowledge of grades 18, 19, and 20. -Founding works of the twentieth century in American literature.

And when it comes to writing, the standards indicate, for example, that a fifth grader would successfully write well-founded opinion pieces, while an eighth grader could write arguments based on relevant evidence, and the Seniors could convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly.

The history / social studies and science / technical literacy standards for grades 6-12 include:

• Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose.

• Analyze an author’s purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text, defining the question the author seeks to address.

Meanwhile, the Mathematics Standards include, for example, the expectation that first graders will be able to solve word problems that require the addition of three whole numbers whose sum is less than or equal to 20, while fifth graders could handle fractions with unlike denominators, eighth graders could use rational approximations of irrational numbers, and high school students could apply the remainder theorem.

Of course, adoption would force states to amend their standardized tests and curricula to fit the Standards. It’s worth it?

Core Knowledge Foundation Founder and President and Emeritus Professor of Education and Humanities at the University of Virginia, ED Hirsch, Jr. says, “This is a welcome recognition that only a content-focused, grade-by-grade cumulative curriculum “coherently, it can lead to the high level of literacy the nation needs. In short, the Common Core Standards represent a long-standing and fundamental rethinking of the dominant process approach to literacy instruction in the United States.”

Meanwhile, Walt Gardner, a former Los Angeles Unified School District teacher and lecturer at UCLA Graduate School, is now an educational contributor to major newspapers and magazines. He writes that “national standards are not a panacea for the ills that afflict public education, but they are a step in the right direction. There are always risks involved in an endeavor of this magnitude. However, at the end of the day, I believe that they are worth taking. “

Bottom line: These Standards, developed, so to speak, by experts, will provide teachers with flexible guidelines that they can follow as they develop lesson plans that meet the needs and interests of their students.

And that’s an advantage, no matter how you look at it.

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