Common Core State Standards

Kenji Hakuta, Professor of Education at Stanford University, is hosting a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) this spring on NovoEd called Constructive Classroom Conversations: Mastering Language for College and Career Readiness. This course focuses on student-to-student dialogue as a means to identify ways to improve students’ abilities to engage in the linguistic and critical thinking skills required by the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards.

In response to the highly anticipated results of the first Smarter Balanced administration, State Board of Education President Mike Kirst shares his impressions of the scores in the San Francisco Chronicle. Kirst first emphasizes the importance of viewing the results as baseline data for college and career readiness and to inform teacher preparation and support.

A new report from the American Institutes for Research, co-authored by the Collaborative’s deputy director Joel Knudson, tells the story of how the CORE Districts came into existence and designed their early work together. The report documents the ways in which existing relationships and the political opportunity offered through California’s Race to the Top Round 2 application set the stage for a new 10-district partnership focused on Common Core implementation and teacher quality.

A new book chapter from Collaborative Chair Jennifer O’Day describes how California’s solutions to troublesome policies and funding structures have positioned the state to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) well. In “A Window of Opportunity: The Politics and Policies of Common Core Implementation in California”, O’Day describes the state’s recent history with faulty laws and unanticipated crises and highlights several critical changes that sought to improve California’s situation.

In an article in the Sacramento Bee, Mike Kirst, president of the State Board of Education, warns that state assessments scores are bound to exhibit an initial dip when the state first administers new Common Core-aligned tests this spring. He contends that the inevitable drop is a result of the demands of the new academic standards.