This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Kenneth J. Saltman, Sara McAlister, Gabriel Santner, Kennan Cepa, David W. Moore, Timothy Shanahan, Christopher H. Tienken, Dawn Teuscher, Elizabeth Haller, and Audrey Figueroa Murphy.
(2015). Teachers' Perceptions of the Implementation of the Literacy Common Core State Standards for English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities, Journal of Research in Childhood Education. This qualitative study explored the experiences of U.S. teachers of English language learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities (SWDs) as they sought to align the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) with previously used standards and instructional approaches during the first year of CCSS implementation. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 20 ELL and SWD literacy teachers to investigate (1) the teachers' experiences as they began the alignment of their curriculum and teaching methods with the CCSS, (2) the teachers' perceptions of the support that they received and that they still require, and (3) the teachers' perceptions of the challenges to and potential for implementation. Four themes emerged from analysis of the interview data: alignment to the CCSS, teacher comfort level, best teaching practices, and challenges of teaching literacy. The authors conclude that broad-based alliances across schools, districts, and communities are needed to support professional development that responds authentically to the challenges revealed, as well as understanding at all levels that time and support are critical for teachers of special needs students. [More] Descriptors: Qualitative Research, English Language Learners, Disabilities, State Standards
(2013). Partnerships for College Readiness. College Readiness Indicator Systems, Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. In recent years, the education spotlight in the United States has shifted from high school graduation to postsecondary success, along with the recognition that to thrive in today's economy requires more than just a high school diploma. Also, while prior research has focused on after-school and higher-education collaborations with districts, there has been less written about collaborations that are specifically focused on college readiness. As states begin to implement the Common Core State Standards, there will be a greater need for collaboration between districts and their partners to support students, especially as many school districts are simultaneously facing a time of increased budget austerity. This study provides useful examples from the College Readiness Indicator Systems (CRIS) network for districts and cities considering greater collaboration around data and indicators related to college readiness. [More] Descriptors: College Readiness, Partnerships in Education, School Districts, State Standards
(2013). The Professional Educator: Six Steps to Effective Teacher Development and Evaluation, American Educator. Teacher evaluation should address the complexity of teaching by assessing individual teachers and by helping them continuously improve. Constructive feedback, evidence from multiple sources, and high levels of support are all essential. The six steps to effective teacher development and evaluation presented in this article are: (1) Match high expectations with high levels of support; (2) Include evidence of teaching from multiple sources; (3) Use information to provide constructive feedback to teachers, as befits a profession, not to shame them; (4) Create confidence in the quality of teacher development and evaluation systems and the school's ability to implement them reliably; (5) Align teacher development and evaluation to the Common Core State Standards; and (6) Adjust the system over time based on new evidence, innovations, and feedback. [More] [More] Descriptors: Teacher Evaluation, Faculty Development, Feedback (Response), Expectation
(2013). Speaking My Mind: Poised to Partner–The 21st-Century School Librarian, English Journal. In schools where student learning is a top priority, librarians' roles include teacher, instructional partner, reading motivator, staff developer, information specialist, curator, and program administrator. They are steered by national standards akin to those guiding core subjects, and it is the librarians' job to embed these standards authentically into the school curriculum through all disciplines, including English. In this article, the author describes several of the many ways that school librarians can be of assistance to teachers–such as assisting teachers in addressing the Common Core State Standards, introducing teachers to new materials, providing teachers with the best research materials, customizing materials for teachers, providing a 21st-century library, assisting teachers in scaffolding successful research projects, building skills for lifelong learning, and assisting teachers in evaluating student work. [More] Descriptors: School Libraries, Media Specialists, Library Role, Librarian Teacher Cooperation
(2015). Getting College and Career Ready during State Transition toward the Common Core State Standards. Working Paper 127, National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). This study provides a first look at how student college- and career-readiness have progressed in the early years of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) implementation. It is motivated by concern that changes triggered by the standards transition might be disruptive to student learning in the short run, even when those changes may become beneficial once fully implemented. Using longitudinal administrative data from Kentucky, an early adopter of the CCSS, we followed three cohorts of students from the end of the 8th grade to the end of the 11th grade and found that students exposed to the CCSS–including students in both high- and low-poverty schools–made faster progress in learning than similar students who were not exposed to the standards. Although it is not conclusive whether cross-cohort improvement was entirely attributable to the standards reform, we found that students made large gains in proficiency in the years immediately before and after the transition. Additionally, we found student performance in subjects that adopted CCSS-aligned curriculum framework experienced larger, more immediate improvement than student performance in subjects that carried over last-generation curriculum framework. [More] Descriptors: College Readiness, Career Readiness, State Standards, Academic Standards
public schooling, unless educators act at the local level to blunt some of the force of the initiatives. Curriculum customization is one method educators can use to reshape the CCSS. The author argues that educators must dissect the Standards into their component parts to scaffold instruction and customize the generic content to meet the needs of the students for which they are responsible. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, Curriculum Development, National Standards, Standardized Tests
(2013). Literacy on the Move: A Journal for the Journey, Reading Teacher. Travel provides students with multiple opportunities to learn about people, places, and the world around them. At times, students are given opportunities to travel causing them to be absent from the classroom. This manuscript provides a practical suggestion for engaging students in learning while on the journey. Students are asked to share and expand upon their experiences through narrative writing, creative illustrations, and the reading of print resources (menus, maps, brochures, etc). Authentic reading and writing experiences help students connect curriculum within the classroom to the contexts in which they see literacy used outside the classroom. In this project students return to their classrooms to share their new learning while teachers can use their writing as a form of authentic assessment. Connections to the Common Core State Standards are provided to demonstrate curricular content of this project. [More] Descriptors: Literacy, Educational Practices, Learning Experience, Student Journals
(2016). Corporate Schooling Meets Corporate Media: Standards, Testing, and Technophilia, Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies. Educational publishing corporations and media corporations in the United States have been converging, especially through the promotion of standardization, testing, and for-profit educational technologies. Media and technology companies–including News Corp, Apple, and Microsoft–have significantly expanded their presence in public schools to sell hardware and curriculum products such as tablets and learning software aligned with the Common Core State Standards. The growing role of for-profit media in public education is structural and systematic, and it has economic, political, and cultural implications for a society theoretically committed to democratic values. In this article, Kenneth J. Saltman details the tendencies of for-profit companies to standardize, homogenize, and automate knowledge, curriculum, and pedagogy. The first section of the article reviews the policy trends that established the standards, standardization, and technology regime that created the conditions for the education media/tech convergence and its consequences. The second section examines the economic interests driving the expansion of media and education companies, with a particular look at the expansion of tablet products; and the third section discusses the political and cultural implications of these trends. [More] Descriptors: Publishing Industry, Mass Media Role, Standards, Testing
(2013). Starting Out: Practices to Use in K-3, Educational Leadership. Can informational text be used effectively in beginning reading instruction, as mandated by the Common Core State Standards? Yes, writes Nell K. Duke-in fact, the primary grades are the perfect place for informational text. Duke discusses seven features that characterize K-3 classrooms that make good use of informational text: (1) informational text used from the beginning; (2) read-alouds using informational text; (3) sets of informational texts related to themes; (4) an informational-text-rich environment; (5) a lexically curious environment; (6) teaching about text; and (7) opportunities for students to share information through writing. Effective use of informational text in grades K-3 promotes both students' content knowledge and their foundational decoding and comprehension skills. As Duke concludes, "The notion that children must learn to read before they can read to learn is a relic of the past." [More] Descriptors: Elementary School Students, Reading Instruction, Reading Materials, Beginning Reading
(2013). Dissect, Design, and Customize the Curriculum, Kappa Delta Pi Record. Education bureaucrats in 45 states have approved the Common Core State Standards ([CCSS], 2010) as the de facto national curriculum. The implementation of the CCSS will be monitored by a national standardized test in language arts and mathematics. The confluence of a standardized curriculum enforced with a standardized test will entrench a one-size-fits-all approach to
(2013). You Want Me to Read What?!, Educational Leadership. Does the Common Core State Standards' focus on informational text mean that teachers must teach fiberglass installation manuals and the minutes of National Reserve Board meetings? No, responds literacy expert Timothy Shanahan. "I've pored over the lists of exemplary texts suggested by the standards, and I've not been able to find either of those entries. You might want to take a look yourself." In a sometimes tongue-in-cheek but always informative look at the questions surrounding the new emphasis on informational text, Shanahan addresses, among other things, the somewhat fuzzy definition of the term, why the standards are making such a big deal of this kind of reading, whether such texts are developmentally appropriate for younger students, and what this means for both English teachers and other content-areas teachers. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, Reading Instruction, Content Area Reading, Language Arts
(2016). Creating a Coherent System to Support Instruction Aligned with State Standards: Promising Practices of the Louisiana Department of Education, RAND Corporation. The impetus for this report is new evidence that state department of education work to align instruction with standards may make a difference for teachers' practices and understanding about their state standards. Using data from the RAND American Teacher Panel, the authors found that Louisiana teachers were more likely than other teachers to consult resources that address their state standards, and they reported teaching–and thinking about teaching–in ways that differ from U.S. norms and that are more aligned with Common Core State Standards. In this report, the authors examine Louisiana Department of Education strategies that could be contributing to these results, including a coherent academic strategy focused on alignment and quality across systems supporting standards, transparent and regular communication about academics across layers of the education system, and support for local decisionmaking and ownership of change by districts and teachers. This report is intended to provide guidance to states about sensible state systems that give educators coherent messages and concrete tools to help students meet high academic standards. [More] Descriptors: Alignment (Education), Common Core State Standards, Educational Quality, Accountability
(2013). Close Reading: A Cautionary Interpretation, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Implementation of Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts across most of the United States has yielded the rapid creation of new, interconnected literacy assessments, curriculum guidelines, instructional materials, teacher preparation programs, teacher evaluation systems, and professional development. This essay explores two researchers' concerns about instructional recommendations for teaching students how to engage in close reading, a key construct underlying these Standards. Meant to encourage and inform educators' exercise of professional judgment in planning instruction, the essay summarizes explicit and implied shifts in literacy instruction that are suggested by the new standards, examines various competing interpretations of close reading and close reading instruction, and offers research-based instructional recommendations to enable youth to complete close reading tasks effectively, rather than distancing them further from the literacies needed to fulfill their lives. [More] Descriptors: Teaching Methods, State Standards, Language Arts, Reading Instruction
(2013). Teaching Students to Dig Deeper: The Common Core in Action, Eye on Education. This important new book identifies the skills and qualities students need, based on the Common Core State Standards, to be "really" ready for college and careers. Go beyond content knowledge…the deep thinking and learning skills detailed in this book will equip students for success! Prepare your students for their futures by helping them become: (1) Analytic thinkers; (2) Critical thinkers; (3) Problem solvers; (4) Inquisitive; (5) Opportunistic; (6) Flexible; (7) Open minded; (8) Teachable; (9) Risk takers; (10) Expressive; (11) Skilled at information gathering; (12) Skilled at drawing inferences and reaching conclusions; and (13) Skilled at using technology as a tool, not a crutch. For each skill, you'll learn why it matters, and get a whole host of practical strategies and techniques for bringing the skill to life in the classroom–across the curriculum and for different grade levels. Bonus! You'll get useful, much-needed information on planning high-quality assessments. [More] Descriptors: State Standards, Problem Solving, Classroom Techniques, Inferences
(2013). Common Mathematics Standards in the United States: A Comparison of K-8 State and Common Core Standards, Elementary School Journal. This article reports the findings from a comparative analysis that examined several mathematical content strands, reasoning processes, and emphasis on technology in prior K-8 state mathematics standards and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). Various methodological tools were utilized to compare and contrast CCSSM with prior state standards. Results suggest four primary types of shifts in CCSSM when compared to prior state standards: (1) changes in grade level(s) at which some mathematical content is taught, (2) changes in the number of grade levels in which particular mathematical topics appear, (3) changes in emphasis (increased/decreased) on particular mathematical topics, and (4) changes in the nature and level of reasoning expectations. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, Mathematics Instruction, Mathematics Achievement, Course Content
(2013). From Manga to Math, Educational Leadership. Considering the nature of the complex prose that K-12 students today must learn from, in light of the Common Core State Standards, students need to read informational texts on a meaningful level-and with enthusiasm. Teachers, Brozo says, need to achieve three goals: motivate students to read informational texts, expand students' background knowledge to help their comprehension, and equip students with tools to process informational texts. Using examples of graphic novels rich in informational content and concepts–such as a manga in which calculus saves the day for a reporter and a dystopian novel about corporations patenting human DNA–Brozo shows how secondary teachers can use graphic novels to accomplish all three goals. [More] Descriptors: Secondary School Teachers, Reading Instruction, Reading Teachers, Reading Motivation