Gilbert Unified School District, and many other East Valley Districts, are working through the first phase of implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). These high-quality standards, adopted by Arizona, along with 44 other states, are part of a national movement toward providing a common rigorous and relevant education to children across the United States. Designed to develop 21st century globally competitive students, the CCSS were carefully constructed using evidence-based research to create college and career ready students upon high school graduation.

The state House voted to require that teacher-education programs be revamped to conform with the new "common core'' standards.

Business leaders told state lawmakers Wednesday the recently adopted Common Core Standards for education will produce a workforce better versed in the math and critical reasoning skills they need.

We are in a time of hope and excitement in American education. Arizona, like most other states in the nation, has adopted the Common Core Standards as a guide-post for new curriculum in all classrooms K-12. The Common Core Standards represent a staircase of math and literacy skills that students should be able to perform at each grade level in order to be college- or career-ready by the end of grade 12.

We are pleased to see that Gov. Brewer has prioritized resources for the implementation of Arizona’s Common Core Standards in her fiscal year 2014 budget.

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?

Big changes are coming to the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test that is administered to elementary school students and high school sophomores, which could affect not only how teachers teach but, in separate legislation, how they are evaluated.

Reading, writing and math facts are becoming part of the routine in the Reese household each night as my older children sit down to do their homework.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain, casting himself as the embodiment of the Republican Party’s future in the vein of Ronald Reagan, said Thursday the GOP has lost its way and must return to “common-sense conservatism.”

Like fashion, trends in public education come and go.

Arizona schools are being forced to implement new standards for English and math this year while still waiting for financial help from the state officials who are promoting them.

Arizona schools are being forced to implement new standards for English and math this year while still waiting for financial help from the state officials who are promoting them.

Arizona schools are being forced to implement new standards for English and math this year while still waiting for financial help from the state officials who are promoting them.

How are the United Nations, the Arizona legislature, and our state’s schools linked?

Calling it "an important part of improving education,'' Gov. Jan Brewer signed legislation Thursday to eliminate the AIMS test -- including the graduation requirement -- paving the way for something else to measure the new Common Core standards already being implemented in Arizona schools.

San Tan Learning Center, a public kindergarten-through-eighth-grade charter school in Gilbert, has opened enrollment for its new middle school for the 2012-13 school year. Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms will feature the standards-based Common Core curriculum and incorporate the learning community model — a learning format in which a small group of students take a common set of courses together and share a common academic experience. Admissions forms are available at http://evtnow.com/2ip or by calling (480) 222-0811.

Construction at Fulton Ranch Learning Center, 204 W. Chandler Heights Road in Chandler, is now under way. This K-6 charter school, sister school to Gilbert’s San Tan Learning Center, will open for the 2012-13 school year.

Legislative District 18 legislators made a commitment to Kyrene parents and teachers that they would fight for all the funding they could for education this year during a “Meet Your Legislators Night” at the Kyrene School District.

A preschool wall in Mesa is covered in words, colors and pictures.

Gov. Jan Brewer called Monday for Arizona to make performance part of the formula that allocates school funding.

Target has awarded a $50,000 “21st Century Libraries for 21st Century Students” grant to Mesa Unified School District to fund ebooks, “to boost English language arts skills districtwide,” according to a release.

Arizona high schoolers may soon be rid of having to pass AIMS -- or any standardized test -- to graduate.