Connecting Common Core Standards with Instructional Improvement

 

Dr. Stephen Fink is the executive director of the Center for Educational Leadership. He is the co-author of Leading for Instructional Improvement: How Successful Leaders Develop Teaching and Learning Expertise.

 

With so much of the nation's attention caught up in partisan and intra-partisan arguing and brinksmanship, it is rare these days to find widely shared agreement on any national issue. But amidst the seemingly intractable political divisions, I have been heartened by the broad support at both the state and national levels for the adoption of the Common Core State Standards for education. Not since the time of Sputnik have such diverse political and popular wills rallied behind a shared nationwide vision of educational attainment.

 

Randy Dorn was elected superintendent of public instruction for Washington state in 2008. On July 20, 2011, Washington became the 44th state, in addition to one territory and the District of Columbia, to adopt the Common Core State Standards.

By Jennifer McDermott, CEL Project Director

 

At first glance, some might say that the task of moving from one set of standards to another is a straightforward process. School districts buy new textbooks, and teachers write new lesson plans. Standards are, after all, simply what is to be taught and learned. But CEL has found that the "how" of teaching to the new Common Core State Standards requires a shift of direction. With these new national standards, teachers and district leaders must reframe the instructional enterprise from one that says, "We teach that," to one that says, "Our students know that, and can demonstrate their understanding independently."

 

Read more >> 

By Catherine Gewertz, White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

 

As first appeared in Education Week, June 30, 2011. Reprinted with permission from Editorial Projects in Education.

 

States should take advantage of the ways in which new common standards are different from the state standards already in place, leveraging them to provide better learning for students and a path to better practice for teachers, experts urged recently.

 

Delegations of top curriculum leaders and board of education members from 13 states gathered here last month to brainstorm about implementing the common-core standards, which have been adopted by all but four states, and to hear advice from experts. The meeting was one in a series of regional convenings organized by the National Association of State Boards of Education.

 

Read the full article >> 

They say nothing succeeds like success, and the UW College of Education's Center for Educational Leadership is celebrating 10 years of fine work with school districts regionally and across the country, working for equity and excellence in the classroom.

Read more >>

 

The Tool Shop is a feature through which CEL provides tools we believe school and district leaders will find useful to support their leadership practice. In this newsletter edition we feature our new Teacher Evaluation Rubric (version 1.0), which is aligned to our 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning instructional framework and the Washington state criteria.

 

 

CEL is pleased to announce the release of our latest DVD, 9th Grade Algebra: Making Sense of Variable Expressions. The DVD is now available for sale in our online store. 

 

 

Leading for Instructional Improvement, by Stephen Fink and Anneke Markholt, shows how teacher, school and district leaders can cultivate the expertise of teachers to deliver high quality instruction for all students.