Enabling Common Core State Standards Implementation
A fast-track effort to define a core set of K-12 common core state content standards
in English language arts and mathematics and embed them in the nation’s
classrooms is being pursued by our education policy leadership. The Initiative,
being led by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National
Governors Association Center for Best Practices in partnership with Achieve, ACT
and the College Board, has been adopted by almost every governor, chief state
school officer and national education policy-leader.
The lead organizations are facilitating a state-led process to develop standards
intended to be: “fewer, clearer, and higher; inclusive of rigorous content and
skills; aligned with college and work expectations; internationally benchmarked
and ready for states to adopt.”
State and local administrators and teachers recognize that the pending disparities
between the new common core standards and existing state content standards, the
formal curriculum, the taught curriculum, and assessments are significant and serious. The responsibility for dealing
with these alignment issues and their inevitable achievement impacts is being
delegated to individual state education agencies, school districts and teachers.
Our Common Core State Standards Research Brief reviews the Initiative and
answers key requirement questions related to that strategy and the issues state
and local education agencies, teachers and students will face when adopting the new standards.
Improved teaching (instruction) and student achievement are the
Initiative’s primary focus; therefore, its greatest challenges are at the
classroom level. The key implementation questions are 1) how will state agencies
get the unit and lesson plans of 6.8 million classroom teachers in perfect alignment
with the new standards and assessments and 2) how will the individual
achievement progress of 50 million plus students align with them.
The more the common core standards identify and reference the precise
knowledge and skills intend to be taught and assessed in the classroom, the more
easily they will be communicated to, understood by, and effectively taught by
teachers. Content knowledge and skills are the common denominator for teaching
and learning and should be specified by the standards. They support and connect
all education system processes and instructional objectives.
Among the most important lessons that U.S. Educators have learned from our
high-performance competitor nations is that new standards be built on a
knowledge and skill centric foundation. This foundation is essential if the
Initiative hopes to ensure that the standards, and their corresponding
curriculum and assessments, are in perfect alignment. The Initiative’s standards
development and dissemination approach currently is not based on a solid
knowledge-centric foundation, which relegates to states, school districts and
teachers the responsibility of managing serious, but avoidable, implementation
issues.
An innovative, student-centric solution is now available to
systemically support Initiative leaders, states, districts and teachers in the
implementation of the common core standards. The web-based Aligned·By·Design System utilizes state-of-the-art process automation and management technology.
It supports the integration of all education processes and initiatives with
customized student learning features.
Empowering the comprehensive aligned instructional model, it inherently performs
the processes essential for education systems to improve instructional quality,
accelerate achievement progress, and increase education system efficiency and
performance. The System provides a time-sensitive breakthrough opportunity for
our education policy leaders to close long-standing achievement gaps and solve
chronic systemic problems. It will restore confidence in the common core state
standards and our leader’s commitment to ensure that the next generation of
students will graduate from high school prepared to succeed in a
highly-competitive global economy.
Related Pages
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To learn more about how the Aligned·By·Design Model can strengthen and support
the Common Core State Standards Initiative and state and district implementation
of the new standards,
please contact us.