Common Core Standards for K-12 English language arts and math are here, and schools as we know them will never be the same. Or will they?
That’s the question Arizona and 44 other states need to answer and, as the saying goes, “Time is running out.”
The Council of Chief State School Officers and National Governors Association members united to ensure all high school graduates in the United States can compete not only for jobs around the corner, but also around the globe. These state leaders, not the federal government, decided that we needed to have some common learning expectations for students in kindergarten through the 12th grade and a common assessment system across the U.S. to gauge how students are progressing.
The idea is to ensure that children — my son, your daughter, our grandchildren, the neighbor’s kid down the street, or any young person in one of the 45 states that adopted the Common Core Standards — are really ready for college or a career upon graduation.
The Arizona State Board of Education formally adopted the new standards in August 2010. Teachers are going back to school themselves to learn how to implement the new standards. Last year, Arizona public charter schools and districts implemented the new standards in kindergarten classrooms. This year, students in several more grades are experiencing the new learning standards, and next year the standards will be in place at all grades.
The final step in the transition to the new standards will be in 2015, when the common assessment system will be in place. That means students all across the U.S. will take similar tests, and we’ll see how students in Arizona measure up to students in the other states.
As we work together to achieve these new and more challenging standards, schools must be different. Teachers must expect more from students. Parents must expect more from teachers, schools and their children. We — as a community, state and nation — must recognize that the work to be done won’t be easy or cheap.
Ultimately, the hard work has to be done by students. They must persevere in challenging course work, have a good productive struggle now and then as they work to solve difficult problems and strive to produce their best work.
Adults will also have to work hard and realize that students and teachers need to be supported and encouraged, not blamed and discouraged. Our communities and states must invest in different resources and greater access to technology to truly meet the new learning expectations.
Parents must understand that school should be different from when they or their older children attended and work to support teachers and principals in their efforts.
Time is short. We all have a lot of work to do to make this happen.
For more information on the Common Core please visit www.azed.gov/azcommoncore or www.corestandards.org
M. Suzan DePrez is assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Mesa Unified School District.
chatmandu002 posted at 11:37 am on Wed, Oct 10, 2012.
I've said it over and over, teach to the core. Forget all the touchy feely stuff and get back to the basics. Demand respect for teachers, order in the classrooms and leave the electronics at home.
mesateacher posted at 1:08 pm on Wed, Oct 10, 2012.
I hope Dr. DePrez remembers her own words in a couple of years: "teachers need to be supported and encouraged, not blamed..." because I guarantee you that when a large percentage of Mesa kids fail the upcoming PARCC test she will be in the front of the line pointing fingers at teachers. Mesa will continue to pass kids along without having mastered the basics which will cause them to do poorly in the next class and so on until a test she has no control over reveals the truth. Pity those teachers who live in poorer neighborhoods where parents don't care as much, don't have aspirations for their kids, and are politically helpless. They will have miserable job.
Then there's the other issue: teacher shortages. Did you see the article in the other paper about a current shortage of math teachers? What do you think is going to happen when the older generation retires, and the younger one quits in droves because they've been given an impossible situation to work with? Has anyone in Arizona been working to produce more math teachers? Does Mesa have a plan to fill those classrooms? Is DePrez doing anything to reduce class sizes so this "new" method of teaching can actually be implemented? Chatmandu002 has it right: get back to basics and to traditional education!
Irons1 posted at 5:39 pm on Thu, Oct 11, 2012.
I have to admit, she can talk the talk, but can she walk the walk. But demographics don't count do they? Administration in Mesa Public Schools constantly talk about how they support teachers, but when push comes to shove, they very rarely do. This fits about every administrator out there.
JMJ posted at 11:01 pm on Thu, Oct 11, 2012.
Sorry, Suzie, you are part of the problem. Can you honestly say that the dorkwad administrators who are promoted by the stupidintendency of MPS are worth it? Not by a longshot. People who are good leaders, who would know what to do and how to do it, but who are not blonde and stupid get passed over in favor of the afore-mentioned nimrods. It's all a "who-you-know, or....." situation in Mesa, and it extends into Chandler and back as you all play ping pong with people who blow down to Chandler to "get experience", then blow on back to MPS to be promoted. MPS does a LOUSY job of training its administrators, who are, by and large, former PE teachers who have never taught in an academic setting [unless you count hula hoops as circles, which makes them partially 'academic', I suppose, since circumference is a four syllable word that some PE teachers can actually pronounce.
And, what of the teachers who are retained on MPS's payroll even when they cheat on AIMS? Pullllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzee.
PLC about that, would'ya?
Irons1 posted at 9:23 am on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
MPS has a history of making people administrators who have only taught for 2 to 3 years and have the means to go back to school and get their PhD. They don't know how to teach because they haven't done it very long. They get their methods out of a book and because the book says so, they believe they can evaluate teachers. How does someone who has never really performed the job believe they can tell someone else how to do it better. It is interesting that these people will defend their "book learnin" until the cows come home. Experience doesn't really matter. This seems to be the way administrators are taught. And, by the way, they do hire based on physical appearance. It would not be so easy to tell, but the profiling is obvious. Tell me it's not true, prove it.
VofReason posted at 1:18 pm on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
This is fantastic. Right there in 2010 the AZ board of Education approved standards for education. Kind of strange since people have been educated for hundreds of years and I don't think to many people outside of the Education bubble have much confusion of wha it means to understand what was taught or not. Think it sounds like they are trying to keep moving the target and buy time for the next excuse to develope. However, whatever the new standards are, I can bet dollars to doughnuts they aren't going to have enough money to do what ever it is. They will have to come crying for more tax dollars to accomplish it. Predictable.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:31 am on Thu, Oct 18, 2012.
Get the 20" wide Afros, the blue-red-spiked hair, the piercings, the tattooes, the casual-wear and the sandals out of the classrooms..........and I am not talking about the students.....I am talking about the ...........TEACHERS.
How can a teacher in the Mesa Schools be and authority/education leader in the classroom when they are dressed/look like students they are teaching......OR WORSE.
WE NEVER HAD THIS EDUCATIONAL NIGHTMARE BACK IN THE 1950'S BECAUSE TEACHERS ...COMMANDED...RESPECT FROM THEIR STUDENTS. TEACHERS DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO ..........MENTOR.....BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO BUSY......TEACHING.
WHO CAN YOU EXPECT THE PARENTS OF STUDENTS IN THE...."LITTLE MEXICO"....GHETTO'S OF SOUTH AND WEST MESA TO ENCOURAGE THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS TO BE GOOD STUDENTS........WHEN THEY CAN'T READ OR SPEAK ..........ENGLISH.
WOULD MESA'S OR ARIZONA'S ...OR EVEN AMERICA'S EDUCATION STATISTICS BE SO ROTTEN IF ALL THE ............."E.S.L.'s" ....(English as a Second Language)...STUDENTS WERE SENT BACK TO THE COUNTRIES THAT THEY WERE BORN IN ????
ONE OF THE MESA TEACHERS COMMENTED ABOUT LACK OF FUNDING......WELL, MESA TEACHER........THERE WOULDN'T BE A ....LACK OF FUNDING....FOR SMALLER CLASSROOMS OR MORE AND BETTER TEACHERS IF IT WASN'T FOR THE ............$7,670.00.....THAT IS SPENT TO EDUCATE....EVERY SINGLE ILLEGAL ALIEN CHILD EVERY SINGLE YEAR = HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF ARIZONA'S HARD-WORKING TAX-PAYER DOLLARS SPENT TO EDUCATE CHILDREN WHO HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING IN MESA....ARIZONA...OR ANYWHERE IN AMERICA........IN THE FIRST PLACE.