Are You Prepared for the Common Core Standards?

By guest blogger Leanne Link, communications assistant at the Center for Teaching Quality

This month's Teaching Ahead participants tackled the tough topic of the Common Core State Standards. The teachers found much to be hopeful about, including:

• Opportunities for Collaboration: Nearly all the teachers mentioned the potential for national collaboration that the standards could bring about. As Jessica Keigan suggests, teachers should "accept this challenge and see what great things can come from sharing our classroom expertise."

• Focus on 21st-Century Skills: Sarah Henchey notes that the Common Core emphasizes skills, such as writing, that will help students thrive in the 21st century. Lauren Hill and Ali Crowley highlight the standards' focus on critical thinking and depth of skills, rather than breadth.

• Student-Generated Learning: Todd Rackowitz points out that the standards will mean shifting traditional classroom organization: the teacher will serve less as a lecturer and more as a facilitator and coach while students complete task-oriented work.

Roundtable participants also realize that the success of the common standards will hinge on how they are implemented. The teachers recommend:

• Discussions, Not Scripts: Sarah Henchey writes that successful implementation comes from discussions among teachers, administrators, policymakers, and community members, rather than scripts handed down to teachers. Jessica Keigan notes that the Common Core is an opportunity for teachers to lead, grow, and reflect on the profession.

• Helpful Curricular Tools: Ali Crowley reflects on how tools created by the Mathematics Design Collaborative have helped her to boost rigor and depth in her classroom.

• Meaningful Professional Development: To teach the standards well, teachers want effective professional development that relates to classroom practice. Linda Yaron suggests that teachers lead PD sessions for their peers.

• Appropriate Assessments: Todd Rackowitz underscores the need for assessments that match the standards. Multiple-choice standardized tests can't accurately measure the skills Common Core emphasizes.

More thoughts and suggestions? Add them to the comments section below, and make sure to come back for next month's discussion on parent involvement.

—Leanne Link

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Ali Crowley

In my previous blog, I wrote about how the Common Core-based mathematical practices have improved my teaching methods in my Algebra 2 class. I said: "For the first time in my teaching career—:I feel the students really understand the connections between an algebraic equation, the graph of that function, and its complex roots. The problem-solving approach makes a difference."

A commenter asked for more detail.

Earlier this year, after students had solved quadratic equations, I tried out a Mathematics Design Collaborative lesson. I hoped "Forming Quadratics" would help my students understand what a solution actually is. At this point, many of my students could follow steps to get to the correct answers. However, conversations and assessments suggested that they had not understood why they were doing what they were doing—the meaning behind their answers.

This assessment-for-learning lesson involves three of the mathematical practices: 1) make sense of problems and persevere in solving them; 2) reason abstractly and quantitatively; and 3) construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
First, students worked individually on a pre-assessment that challenged them to match graphs to equations (written in both factored form and standard form), explain their reasoning, create an equation given the y-intercept and the minimum value, and find the roots of that equation.

Students' responses verified that they didn't really understand the connection between an equation and its graph.

Next, our class discussed the key features of parabolas and how they relate to quadratic equations. Students worked in pairs to match cards: One set of cards depicted graphs, and the other shared clues such as "has no real roots" or parts of equations.

Students' conversations showed that they were really grappling with the material and were working together to make sense of it all. They asked each other questions: "Why did you place this card here?" "Could you have done this another way?" "How did you know what algebraic expression to write here?"

Before this lesson, students could successfully "find x" given a formula—but what did they really understand? If we want students to master concepts, we must ask them to analyze their own thinking and to make conclusions based on prior knowledge.

This served as a springboard for a subsequent lesson on solving polynomial equations of higher degrees. Even on the first day of the polynomial lesson, students were able to look at a cubic or quartic function's graph and state its real solutions. By the end of the lesson, they genuinely understood how to find the complex roots of polynomial equations.

I'd never taught solving polynomials (beyond quadratics) to non-advanced Algebra 2 students—the content standards of Common Core are often more rigorous than our previous state standards, at least in math. I wasn't sure how it would go. But with the help of the mathematical practices and new tools, my students met the challenge.

Ali Crowley teaches Algebra 2 and AP Calculus at Lafayette High School in Lexington, KY. A National Board-certified teacher with 11 years of experience, she is a member of CTQ's Implementing Common Core Standards team.

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Todd Rackowitz

When we talk about assessment, people think of multiple-choice tests. After all, today's students spend a good bit of time filling in bubbles during testing season. And for teachers, a lot is riding on how our students perform on these "summative" assessments. But ultimately they don't tell us much—the results give only a hint at students' troublesome and successful areas, not specific detail.

Formative assessments are far more useful. Teachers' daily efforts to gauge student learning can include simple questioning, observations, group activities, tasks, quizzes, and other methods. What we learn from it guides our teaching, showing us how to differentiate instruction for a student or change the pace or direction of a whole class.

We rarely use multiple-choice tests for formative assessment. Why? These tests can only tell what objective the entire class understood, and which objectives need to be re-taught. But they cannot show us what misconceptions an individual student might have. There is no way to tell if a student understood and correctly answered an individual item on a multiple-choice test or if they guessed. Therefore, they don't give us sufficient evidence about how we can improve individual students learning.

And that's my big concern about the common core initiative. Will students' progress (and our progress in teaching them) be measured solely by summative tests that are multiple-choice in nature?

This possibility is especially upsetting since the common standards emphasize problem-solving, critical thinking, and communications skills. Can a multiple-choice test offer useful information about these goals? I don't think it's possible—such tests may measure comprehension and memory (encouraging "teaching to the test") but not much else.

But obviously, summative assessment is important for accountability's sake—and to mark whether students are on track at year's end. So there are a couple approaches left:

Make the tests open-ended and have trained teachers score the tests. ...Or let go of testing altogether. Come up with a summative assessment system in which teachers are observed throughout the year and offered the support they need to improve. Track students' progress through portfolios of work that are collected, analyzed, and supplemented over time.

Either of these methods will likely be more expensive than having computers scan multiple-choice tests. But, with the education system asking our students and teachers to move to a more challenging and complex system of education, maybe our methods of assessment need to move in that direction too.

Todd Rackowitz has been teaching math for 19 years in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, and for the past 11 years at Independence High School. A National Board Certified Teacher since 2001, Todd is a member of his district's mathematics leadership team as well as the Center for Teaching Quality's Implementing Common Core Standards team.

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Lauren Hill

The old story goes like this: A daughter is watching her mother make brisket. She watches her mother cut off the end, and then asks her why she does this. The mother explains that she watched her mother do it. So, they call up Grandma and ask the same question, receiving the same answer. Luckily, Great Grandmother is still alive, so they call her. "Why do you cut off the end of the brisket?" they ask.

"Well, without cutting off the end, it would not fit into my pan."

How much of what we do everyday is done to "make it fit into the pan"? The seven-period day? Departmentalized instruction? Grades? Grade levels? With fresh eyes, maybe we can discover a radical newness in our everyday work. The Common Core emphasizes critical thinking and depth. Shouldn't that inspire us to reimagine our practice?

We can start by reevaluating our texts. The common standards emphasize informational reading and writing (almost 60 percent of the ELA standards). This gives us the opportunity to study the world: everything from the Declaration of Independence to the local newspaper; from "A Modest Proposal" to reality TV and the blogosphere. We need to help students become critical readers and writers of the texts they already value as well as what we wish them to appreciate.

The appendix to the common standards recommends extraordinarily high text complexity. I have taught The Scarlet Letter to juniors, yet it is a suggested exemplar for freshmen.

But here's the thing. Not every student needs to read every word of every work. We can pull essential excerpts and examine them in small chunks—words, phrases, sentences—asking students to wrestle meaning from the text. Teaching complete works is important; that's how students can see authors build characters or arguments over time. But we can mix whole-work studies with an examination of shorter works or excerpts along with students' main mode of discourse, non-print media.

Maybe you think these methods absurd—and that's OK. The Common Core standards do not dictate how we should teach the skills they delineate. Teachers, if trusted by administrators, remain the final arbiter between students and the standards.

Imagine a school where every student works on real projects that fulfill a vital need. Imagine a school where the curriculum flows as it does in our adult lives, in and out like a creek, as necessitated by obstacles or dictated by our curiosity.

We must respect our craft and ourselves and not settle for less than what we can imagine. We cannot continue to cut off possibilities just to make learning fit into an antiquated pan.

Lauren Hill teaches AP Language and Composition and 9th grade English at Western Hills High School in Frankfort, Ky. A National Board-certified teacher, Lauren works with the Implementing Common Core Standards team at the Center for Teaching Quality.

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Jessica Keigan

The common standards push our students to think more collaboratively, and we have a unique opportunity to model this as we work to solve problems of implementation.

As many commenters have pointed out, plenty of corporations and publishers will try to jump on the Common Core bandwagon. What better way to address this than for teachers to highlight our qualifications as educators to determine which resources are truly aligned with this new way of teaching and learning?

Thankfully, there are ample opportunities for educators to be heard.

For example, I have the honor of working with the Colorado Content Collaborative, which brings together teachers from various content areas to review and "bank" assessments for our teacher-evaluation system. In our monthly meetings, my reading, writing and communication team uses classroom expertise to guide the process of choosing tools for implementing and assessing the standards.

Collaboration is not limited to the local level. The common standards allow us to work with peers on a national scale. Through collaborative tools such as the Literacy and Mathematics Design Collaborative or in teacher advocacy groups such as the New Millennium Initiative, educators have the opportunity to ensure that their voice and expertise are a part of the conversation.

We are in a time of great systemic change and it is completely valid to have concerns. However, if we persist on marinating in negative thoughts we will continue to be stuck in a system that is very clearly not meeting the needs of all students as well as it could be. Let's accept this challenge and see what great things can come from sharing our classroom expertise and practices to help each of us find success.

A Colorado native who has taught for nine years. Jessica divides her time evenly between teaching English at Horizon High School in Denver and supporting results-oriented efforts to improve Colorado's schools. She is a member of the Denver New Millennium Initiative team.

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Linda Yaron

The best resource to shift education paradigms and build investment is already in schools: the teacher leader. Teacher leaders are those who are invested in education beyond their classroom walls and work to improve educational institutions. And they are the best leverage point that districts have to build teacher ownership of the Common Core.

We can maximize the opportunity that the Common Core brings if districts can identify teacher leaders to learn about the standards and be a resource to peers at their school sites. Districts can strategically identify a cadre of teacher leaders, perhaps department chairs or those with National Board Certification or other criteria, and build their capacity of knowledge about the standards and how to apply them to curriculum and school sites. They can then lead informational and curricular workshops or professional development opportunities for colleagues. Doing so will shift the traditional paradigm that reform is done to schools and teachers, rather than with them.

After my English department colleagues and I created a common writing rubric through examining the Common Core Standards along with rubrics from the AP test, SAT, and state exit exam, a fellow teacher remarked that she really liked the standards and had gone online to check out their accompanying online resources on her own. In part because the effort was initiated from within, the standards were seen as a valuable tool rather than another reform coming from the top down. Powerful opportunities to build ownership abound if schools and districts likewise utilize teacher leaders to partake in a similar function of building early wins that show the value of the Common Core.

There still exists a window of opportunity to use Common Core implementation as an entry point to changing how schools function. Teachers and districts can leverage the Common Core as a means of not only changing curricular standards, but also building the capacity and scope of its teacher leaders, and shifting the framework of how reform in schools is done. From the inside out, with support from the top is my vote.

Linda Yaron is an English teacher in an inner-city high school in Los Angeles. Last school year, she was a Teaching Ambassador Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education. She is currently taking part in the Teachers for Global Classrooms program.

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Sarah Henchey

We are all stakeholders in education. When big changes are discussed, we must set a number of places at the table—for teachers, policy makers, researchers, state and local leaders, and members of the community.

In my first post, I described conversations I've engaged in with colleagues.

These teacher-to-teacher conversations are valuable, but they're not enough. All stakeholders must communicate with each other if we hope to successfully transform our schools into the system our students need.

Here are a few conversations I'd like to see and take part in:

• Teachers working with administrators to enhance collaboration within their buildings.


• Curriculum specialists and teachers discussing how to create tools without mandating scripts. (One interesting resource that's being used by the Implementing Common Core Standards team is MyGroupGenius. Here teachers can upload lessons, post tips, and discuss the Common Core math and literacy standards.)


• Researchers and teachers working together to create Common Core assessments, drawing upon qualitative and quantitative data on effective measures of student learning.


• Policy makers joining local leaders in touring classrooms, observing instruction, and learning from students.


• Entire communities discussing how we can support college and career readiness among our children.

As I look forward to the implementation, I'm hopeful. I see this as an opportunity for unprecedented collaboration—and for reform, transformation, and growth.

But we must talk to each other. We must notice who's not at the table and figure out how to make a place for them. We must work to gain each other's trust so that we may speak openly. We must focus on solutions and draw on all the expertise and resources we each have to offer.

What other ideas do you have about potential collaboration? How can you reach beyond your local sphere?

Sarah Henchey, a 6th grade language arts teacher in Orange County, N.C., serves as a virtual community organizer for the Center for Teaching Quality's Implementing Common Core Standards project team.

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Todd Rackowitz

As part of the Implementing Common Core Standards project, I've been test-driving Common Core-aligned curriculum and assessments this year—so I have a good sense of what's ahead for my students and me.

Student-Centered, Task-Oriented Classroom

I confess that I enjoy traditional teaching: being at the interactive whiteboard and lecturing about the topic, explaining the vocabulary, and modeling the problems. And that kind of whole-class instruction will still be necessary to teach students the basics and vocabulary.

But the common standards are inspiring me to alter my routine. My students will be more responsible for their own learning. They will often work in pairs or groups, performing tasks that require them to explore the topic more in depth. I will encourage them to explore many ways to solve a problem before I assist their group.

I will spend less time in front of the room, and more time moving among the groups, helping them move forward when they get stuck. I'll use high-quality tasks that encourage students to dig into each topic more deeply—and formative assessments that focus my attention on students' growth.

High-Quality Resources

Of course, developing this new student-centered classroom will call for big changes in planning. I am going to have to find, create, and test resources that align with the standards I am teaching.

I've already found some great, ready-to-use lessons through the Math Design Collaborative. Many other sites and publications offer Common Core material to explore. And there is much more to be done, which brings to me to the next thing that excites me ...

Collaborating with Educators Nationally

With all but four states adopting the Common Core, just think of the number of teachers that will be on the same page. I look forward to collaborating with other educators on a national level through Twitter (@TRackowitz), virtual communities, webinars, internet publications, blogs, and other sources. (Have you checked out #commoncore on Twitter yet?)

We will be able to share ideas, resources, concerns, successes and failures, so that others can learn and benefit from our discoveries. Collaboration and discussion on such a large scale can have a major impact on today's educational system. And that can only be good for my students.

For the record, I do have a concern about the Common Core: Is it possible to design a standardized test that measures the skills promoted by these standards? More on this in my next post ...

Todd Rackowitz has been teaching math for 19 years in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, and for the past 11 years at Independence High School. A National Board Certified Teacher since 2001, Todd is a member of his district's mathematics leadership team as well as the Center for Teaching Quality's Implementing Common Core Standards team.

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Lauren Hill

As educators, we value independence but teach in ways that foster dependence. We must stop. I adore explaining a new idea and watching students gain understanding of it. But it's even more rewarding when they can explain that idea to me.

The only way for students to "write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts ... " (W.CCR.1) is if we inspire them, from the start, to discover concepts and processes for themselves.

The difficulty is that we must do this in an environment that holds us accountable for test scores. That is, we must allow students to take responsibility for learning, yet simultaneously accept responsibility for the results.

Short of group therapy, how will teachers make this paradigm shift? How will we combat the fear involved in a dramatic change that may seem to threaten our livelihood? Here are some preliminary ideas:

• We must work with districts and state leaders to establish reasonable timetables for implementation and assessment.

• We must demand the professional development and time to collaborate around the standards, creating lessons, and units suited to our teaching strengths and our students' needs.

• We must see the standards more as a philosophy and less as a laundry list.

• Teachers must, in the end, accept the challenge of asking more of our students and ourselves.

In actuality, I don't think teachers are afraid of the common standards. What we fear is others holding us accountable for the standards and for how our students perform on tests we did not write, operating from brains we cannot control.

We have always been afraid of accountability, not because we are stupid or ineffective, but because we do not want to be accountable for children we cannot raise ourselves. This is not unreasonable. My daughter is nine and I cannot control her, either. Of course we are apprehensive.

But we also cannot let fear keep us from embracing necessary change. We have to rely on the best part of our teacher natures, the part that can always make something out of nothing, that never teaches anything the same way twice, and that loves and believes in our kids. Hold me accountable to that, and to them. The rest will follow.

Lauren Hill teaches AP Language and Composition and 9th grade English at Western Hills High School in Frankfort, Kentucky. A National Board-certified teacher, Lauren works with the Implementing Common Core Standards team at the Center for Teaching Quality.

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Ali Crowley

Yet I can also report that my students are learning mathematics this year at a higher level than ever before.

Every math teacher should understand what the common standards promote: 1) greater focus (fewer topics, deeper understanding); 2) coherence across grade levels; 3) conceptual understanding beyond just getting the "right answer"; 4) speed and accuracy in calculations; and 5) modeling and applications.

When I first started teaching 11 years ago, I was given a class roster, a textbook, and a list of when each section of the textbook had to be "covered" (one of my favorite pre-CCS verbs). Oh, and I mustn't forget the laminated chart of the state math standards: I was to mark these so that a visitor could see that I was teaching exactly what I was supposed to.

Those days are over. I focus now on the standards for mathematical practices and provide my students with the tools that they need to delve into topics more deeply. For example, my Algebra 2 students are solving polynomial equations using a variety of methods. And—for the first time in my teaching career—I feel the students really understand the connections between an algebraic equation, the graph of that function, and its complex roots. The problem-solving approach makes a difference.

When I talk about how the common standards have elevated the rigor of my teaching, people accuse me of drinking the Kool-Aid or having ulterior motives. But for me, the proof is in the pudding. My students have shown me that emphasizing the core values of the mathematical practices (modeling, collaborating, applying, problem-solving) has improved my teaching. And they are better prepared for life after high school.

Yes, the lack of resources and professional development surrounding the standards is frustrating. However, I hope that math teachers will see that the standards naturally accompany and highlight good teaching methods that are already in place, such as high-level questioning and student collaboration.

And who better to provide professional development than classroom teachers? I hope teachers will lead the transition to the common standards—and that administrators will afford teachers with the tools (and most importantly, time!) they need to learn, collaborate and share their knowledge with others.

Ali Crowley teaches Algebra 2 and AP Calculus at Lafayette High School in Lexington, KY. A National Board-certified teacher with 11 years of experience, she is a member of CTQ's Implementing Common Core Standards team.

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Jessica Keigan

With the impending implementation of the Common Core Standards Initiative, I feel as though I am watching a different kind of hoarding show—educational hoarders. And I have to admit I'm a part of it. Even though I know that the common standards require increased rigor and creativity, I see myself struggling to let go of that fantastic lesson plan that worked so well for that one novel that one day so long ago.

Fellow teachers, let's be honest now. Think about your classroom or educational workspace. Do you (like me) have filing cabinet drawers filled with old copies and student work? Do you have shelves filled with dusty books and binders of curriculum? Could you be an educational hoarder?

I don't believe that we have to throw all of our stuff out the window with the implementation of the common standards. Just as our students will need scaffolding to find success with the increased rigor of the new standards, we, as teachers, will need to utilize our tried and true lessons and tricks as a foundation to build from. But I'd challenge you to truly consider what best practice looks like.

View the impending changes as an opportunity to reflect. Look at the depth of the skills being assessed and consider carefully the various ways you can push your students to demonstrate their learning. Join a professional learning community, either in your school or within larger national networks. Take advantage of the fact that no matter the level of experience we have as educators, we all have the opportunity to grow with the new standards. Take the opportunity to be the voice for positive change within your department and help your peers reflect on their own practice so that there is more alignment and stronger collaboration in your teams.

Change is never easy. But is also important to embrace when it comes our way. It is often the thing we need to make sure we are doing what's best for our students. Take this chance to dig out of your piles and don't let your stash get in the way of your growth.

A Colorado native who has taught for nine years. Jessica divides her time evenly between teaching English at Horizon High School in Denver and supporting results-oriented efforts to improve Colorado's schools. She is a member of the Denver New Millennium Initiative team.

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Sarah Henchey

This is not a surprise to teachers.

In fact, the "standards" themselves are not what will make a difference for students. Change will come as result of teachers reflecting, collaborating, and facilitating this vision into a reality.

As teacher leader Darren Burris pointed out last week, the common standards create countless opportunities for teachers to "share our experiences about what's working, how it's working, with whom it's working, and which areas of growth still need support." It is these conversations, and the results of this collaborative discourse, that will impact student learning.

And these exchanges are already taking place in schools across the country.

Here's a brief glimpse of discussions I've participated in with colleagues, ranging from teachers in my building to those in other districts and states.

• What does it mean for a student to be "college- and career-ready"?
• How can we retain core content while interweaving new literacy standards?
• How will our methods of formative and summative assessments change under the common standards?
• What does rigor mean and how can we ensure all students are experiencing it?
• How do we put in the structural supports to meet the needs of all learners and ensure their success under these standards?

These topics aren't new nor are they revolutionary. But the scale on which these conversations are occurring can be.

And as a result of these discussions, ripples of change have already begun. For instance, after a conversation about the common literacy standards, my grade-level team began an integrated writing activity. The purpose of this assignment was two-fold. First, we wished to help our 6th graders develop their writing stamina—the ability to capture their ideas on paper and write continuously. But we also wanted them to understand that writing is thinking; it communicates your knowledge of vocabulary and concepts. As a grade level, we believe these are 21st-century skills our students need and are committed to working collaboratively to integrate them.

As teachers gather together, both in person and virtually, these conversations will lead to action. Through collaboration, teachers will develop the tools they seek and influence student learning beyond their own classrooms, and even beyond their own states. That's why it's imperative we continue this dialogue and use this opportunity to share and refine our instructional practices.

What conversations have the common standards prompted for you and your colleagues? What changes have already transpired as a result?

Sarah Henchey, a 6th grade language arts teacher in Orange County, N.C., serves as a virtual community organizer for the Center for Teaching Quality's Implementing Common Core Standards project team.

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Linda Yaron

Sequence: In order for standards and learning goals to have true impact, they must be aligned with instruction and assessment. Districts must intentionally structure appropriate sequencing of professional development to help teachers examine how the common standards differ from current state standards, how to align curriculum with the new standards, and why it is beneficial to do so.

One of the ways my English department is trying to reconcile multiple standards is through examining the rubrics for the SAT, AP Test, and state exit exam, and cross referencing them with the common standards. We pulled out common language from each and developed a rubric that fell into the four categories of ideas, evidence, analysis, and style. This enabled us to create something tangible that aligns with skills that students need to know, and is usable in the classroom.

Pace: The pace of implementation can have a direct impact on teacher investment in the Standards. There needs to be early wins that show the advantages to using the common standards. Teachers need to be given time to plan and a period of time to transition curriculum. In light of all the other teacher duties, this needs to be structured into existing meeting time.

Support Resources:The common standards cannot be seen as a one-time implementation event, but must be used as a recurring opportunity to examine what we teach, how we teach, and what students need to know how to do. Thus, teachers will need professional development time to work on aligning and creating curriculum with the new standards and continually revisiting connections between goals, instruction, and assessment. Available instructional units that use the common standards will be helpful as models, as well as available lists of books and professional development opportunities.

Current shifts in education offer unprecedented opportunities to transform education. But change must be done so thoughtfully, sequentially, at an appropriate pace, and with sufficient resources to meet needs. The creation of the Common Core Standards Initiative has the potential to offer a robust shift in what we teach, how we teach, and at what standard we expect from students. But only if states, districts, and schools properly implement the standards so that they are usable, rather than just something that hangs on the classroom wall.

Linda Yaron is an English teacher in an inner-city high school in Los Angeles. Last school year, she was a Teaching Ambassador Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education. She is currently taking part in the Teachers for Global Classrooms program.

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