Standards and Disciplines

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Those federally mandated math and reading tests will continue, but a sweeping rewrite of the nation's education law will now give states - not the U.S. government - authority to decide how to use the results in evaluating teachers and schools."

"John B. King Jr. takes over as acting secretary of education Jan. 1, assuming the position with barely more than one year left in President Barack Obama's second term. "

"he chemistry students at Northwestern High School were not fiddling with Bunsen burners or studying the periodic table one recent weekday morning. They were sitting at their desks, reading an article about food coloring, underlining key ideas and preparing to analyze it in an essay. This is the beginning of what Prince George's County officials hope will be a significant shift in teaching and learning, one that mirrors a change taking hold in high schools nationwide as districts adjust to the Common Core State Standards. Literacy, long the responsibility of English teachers, is filtering into every other classroom - including math, science and even health class."

High school testing is on the brink of a profound shift, as states increasingly choose college-entrance exams to measure achievement. The new federal education law invites that change, but it comes with some big caution signs and unanswered questions.

"Common Core Basics Teaching Channel Video" - Simplifying Text Complexity"

"Playing a math game designed to encourage practicing the basic "number sense" all children are born with improved the ability of young children in a study to do math, Johns Hopkins University researchers report. The study is due to be released in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology in July and is available online now. "

"The Common Core State Standards recognize that to thrive in the newly wired world, students need to master new ways of reading and writing."

"In our data-centric world, statistics are everywhere and statistical literacy is essential. For example, what is "margin of error" in a political poll? Is the finding from a study of a new cancer drug "statistically significant"? "

"Adults forget all that they do while reading. We are predicting, making connections, contextualizing, critiquing, and already plotting how we might use any new insights or information. Yep, we do all that when we read. As teachers, we need to train students in each of these skills, and begin to do so early on. I was recently in a second-grade classroom where 70 percent instruction was in English and 30 percent in Spanish. Most of the children spoke Spanish as their first or home language. "

"It's time to leave sunny San Antonio and resume life in a much less sunny Portland. NSTA was a truly inspiring conference. While engaging science teaching and learning is currently happening in classrooms around the country, we're confident that it's only going to get better with the shifts that the Next Generation Science Standards will bring."

"Achievethecore.org has ready-to-use modules include PowerPoints, videos, facilitator's instructions, and hands-on activities. Ideal for PD workshops, professional learning communities, and self-study."

"Dear Williamson County Schools Community Member: You may have heard the term Common Core State Standards. The State of Tennessee has adopted Common Core Standards for English language arts and mathematics, and Williamson County Schools has begun implementing these standards over the past few years. Williamson County Schools is already the highest performing school district in the State, and as Superintendent, I want to assure you that we will continue to build on our academic success working with the new State standards. "

"Well before the Next Generation Science Standards became final last month, teachers in pockets around the country were already exploring the vision for science education espoused by the document and bringing elements of that approach to the classroom."

"We can all remember learning our times tables - even if we can't remember the sums themselves. But which one do children find the hardest? And how do boys and girls compare?"

"The information presented in these materials will assist Canadian educators using NCTM products and materials to better connect the Canadian mathematics curricula to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) "

"Math has a bit of an image problem. It's often seen as hard, abstract-even pointless. he creators of the National Museum of Mathematics in New York City are all about turning that image around and convincing young people that mathematics is cool."

"Indiana Department of Education is now making NBC LEARN K-12 a part of its digital offerings! Now all middle and high schools will be able to access thousands of high-quality archival, original, and currents events videos from NBC LEARN K-12 for use in classroom instruction, student projects, and homework."

Visual that encapsulates important points about the CCSS

"The school year isn't a series of sprints, but the way you forge your curriculum can make it feel that way. The most common way of structuring how you teach is by first assembling standards into units, then those units into lessons. You may use a backwards-design process (popularized by UbD and Grant Wiggins), where you start with what you want the students to understand, then decide what can act as evidence of that understanding, then finally design an assessment that provides the best opportunity to uncover what students know."