For the first time since standards were last adopted in 1997, Long Beach Unified School District and other districts across the state will adopt and implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English and math standards, adopted by the California State Legislature and 45 other states in 2010.
The new core standards—developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the National Governors Association, and Achieve—have been met with both supporters and detractors.
Supporters laud the standards and its push for focus—that is, covering fewer topics in greater depth rather than enveloping students with a vast amount of knowledge that depends more upon remembering facts than applying skills. This can even be seen in its publishers’ criteria, addressing issues such as textbook length and when chapter tests are appropriate as well as the the way in which assessment tests are given, where students are required to display their work for mathematics and write more lengthy responses in regards to literary analysis and critical thinking.
LBUSD was somewhat ahead of the curve on this notion, approving in 2007 the Academic and Career Success Initiative, focusing on a curriculum that applies to all students throughout the district while simultaneously preparing them for both college and careers—where academic endeavors were paired with technological skill development and more contemporary skills.
Detractors are perturbed by the lack of a science standard, amongst other things.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan addressed this issue in 2010, stating that science—along with history, foreign languages, civics, and the arts—should be assessed and part of the “vital core.” However, he was also quick to point out that assessments in those areas, particularly science, cannot be implemented until standards for those given subjects are implemented. This sparked criticism amongst those who claimed the standards-development process was bureaucratic.
That same year, the Obama Administration urged for the reauthorizing and revising the Elementary and Secondary Education School Act (ESEA) in order to permit school boards to implement such subject standards on their own, outside of CCSS. LBUSD’s implementation of CCSS will begin this year and be completely immersed into district operations by the 2014-15 academic year.
According to Director of Curriculum, Instruction, & Professional Development at LBUSD Pamela Seki, “Changes in the classroom [beginning 2012-13] will be obvious to student and parents. For example, the new English language arts standards require a balance of fiction and informational text and an emphasis on gathering evidence from the text. Teachers will be asking students questions that can only be answered by referring to the text. Teachers will also focus on evidence-based writing.”
In other words, LBUSD will now implement more non-fiction and informational texts—such as philosophy, science, history, and technology—along with literarily significant texts to help harness English skills.
Emphasis on critical thinking skills—which many critics feel lacks immensely in K-12 education throughout the United States—within English is not the only characteristic of CCSS; math is included as well. Many students and parents alike look at complex math problems and wonder how solving them could prove useful in the real world.
The new focus is on how math truly does apply to real world situations, where instead of having a student guess their way out of a particular problem, they’ll apply mathematical skills to do so—and be required to not only show their work, but explain their answers and even produce “products” such a brochure to sell their answer, incorporating technology and design into their responses.
The idea is to drive students away from multiple-choice, bubble-in answers and gear them towards explaining themselves, showing their work and displaying how they can contribute to solving the problem outside of a direct answer.
Teachers have already begun to shift their instructional practices to fit the new standards, with the district having laid out “a sequence of instructional strategies, techniques, and assessment items to introduce to students,” according to Seki. “Teachers are supported by the professional development component of the plan which includes site administrators and central office staff who are coaching, modeling lessons, and developing instructional units.”
As to how this affects the school’s budget, Seki was unclear but optimistic.
“While the district is struggling with the state’s financial crisis, our focus is on students’ success in the classroom,” she says. “The district has leveraged grant and foundation funding to develop the innovative lesson and assessment modules aligned to the CCSS, and provide training for teachers and administrators. For the first time, the “common” component of the Common Core allows districts to collaborate and share best practices.”
CORRECTION: This article originally stated that the CCSS was developed by The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC); however, the PARCC is an assessment consortium made up of 23 states whose assessment will be aligned to the CCSS.