State Implements Educational Learning Standards through Common Core

If you have school-aged children, then you have heard the words 'common core standard' being the new educational guideline for schools, but what does that really mean and how will it affect your child's education?

The Common Core is a New Jersey Department of Education initiative designed to provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn. The standards are designed to be relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that students need "for success in college and careers."

Central to this model is the fusion of the ways in which the information is presented in class, how teachers can evaluate whether or not a child is learning the material and the process by which administrators can then evaluate the teachers. In other words--the model contains built-in accountability through assessment and evaluation.

"What can be measured can be managed," Severns said.  

According to Tracey Severns, Chief Academic Officer for the New Jersey Department of Education, the Common Core State Standards are the first step in providing students with a high-quality education.

"It should be clear to every student, parent, and teacher what the standards of success are in every school and how those standards are achieved," Severns said.

Severns recently held a conference at Fort Lee High School for superintendents, teachers, administrators, members of boards of education and parents to explain the implementation of the core standards.  

Severns said that teachers, parents and community leaders weighed in to help create the Common Core State Standards.

"The standards clearly communicate what is expected of students at each grade level," Severns said. As well as what is expected of the teachers.

Because the standards are clearly outlined, Severns said that teachers are better equipped to know exactly what they need to help students learn and establish individualized benchmarks for them.

The Common Core State Standards focus on core conceptual understandings and procedures starting in Kindergarten. This allows the teachers to take the time needed to teach core concepts and procedures well and to give students the opportunity to master them.

In addition to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), there are two other initiatives: the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the new teacher evaluations.

All three initiatives are interdependent--teachers teach the Common Core Standards in Language Arts and Math, the PARCC measures student progress in the common core to make sure that they understand the core concepts, and the evaluations are tools to assess the effectiveness of the teacher in presenting the material.

According to Severns, the core standards are being organized into five, six-week units to clarify the concepts what students need to learn. The main difference in this new educational model is the one-week gap between units that allows the teacher to assess each child and work to ensure that the students are understanding the content before introducing a new concept.

"Failure is not an option in this model," Severns said. "Common standards allow us to measure a student's success."

According to Severns, key to this model is the integration of varying tools and devices to address all learning styles--visual, oral, technological. This is where initiatives such as "bring your own device" really pay off, Severns said. Children will learn on the very tools that they use in their everyday life--smart phones, tablets, laptops. Many schools in Bergen County have already started that initiative to great success.

Also key to this model is literacy.

Severns stressed that the assessments "make every one a literacy teacher" because students are expected to write explanations to their answers whether it is a language arts, math, science or health class--writing is key.

"We want the children to 'read, apply and think," she said.

Learning is not about knowing the answer, Severns said. It is about being able to demonstrate fluency in expressing the reasoning behind the answer.

The common core standards is an overhaul of the 19th Century model that education was based on and all the paradigms associated with it. According to Severns, leading change means giving the teachers and adminstrators the tools to implement that change.

Embedded in the Common Core are: innovation, collaboration, communication and creativity--the skills that students will need to be successful once they leave school. Educational leaders have to foster the change by offering training to teachers and providing constructive feedback to them through observation of their classrooms.

Schools must do this despite facing the challenges of time and budgetary constraints.

This model requires that teachers be innovative in the way they teach, Severns said. It encourages their collaboration and the sharing of techniques and ideas on ways to make the material they are presenting come off the page.

"As administrators, the greatest gift we can give our teachers is time to talk with each other to plan lessons and then guide that collaboration," Severns said.