Friday, January 13, 2012

Few States Cite Full Plans for Carrying Out Standards

This from Education Week:
Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have adopted a common set of academic standards, but only seven have fully developed plans to put the standards into practice in three key areas, according to a study released today.

The EPE Research Center, operated by Editorial Projects in Education, which publishes Education Week, teamed up with Education First, a Seattle-based education policy and consulting group, on a survey of states’ plans to implement the Common Core State Standards.

It found that “a handful of states are particularly far along” in their plans to transform the common standards into practice, but “most states ... still have a long way to go” before they have blueprints to take the standards from paper to practice.

“Whether the pace and quality of state planning efforts will be strong enough to ensure a smooth transition to the [standards] remains an open question,” the report says...

States that reported having plans in any of those areas were asked to characterize them as complete or in development.

[S]even states — Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, and West Virginia—said they had completed plans in all three of those areas, 18 reported no completed plans in any of them...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If we are so far along, why am I still waiting on social studies and science standards?

I think we are finding out that states have bought themselves a mail-order-bride whose initials are CCSS with great hopes that this bride will serve them and make them happy. Unfortuantely, even with promises of Uncle Sam's dowry, the groom is finding out that picture and discription they were sold does't match the effort and investment actually required to maintain the expensive and labor intensive needs of their new bride.

Anonymous said...

This where we are going to find ourselves as we begin implementation of KDE's grand plan. KDE folks may feel full of pride about bumping to 14th based on plans and policies but they are going to find it much tougher going when it comes to teachers on the ground trying to implement it.

As an educator, I can't feeling set up when the elements of this plan don't match the expectations of legislators and the Commissioner. Kids weren't performing high enough with KIRIS or CATS, so they create another scheme which is even more involved and expect better results? THen again we will blame teachers.

This is a perfect example. Most folks recognize that student improved during the use of portfolios, but because not all students were going to reach proficency by 2014 we scrap them. Instead we now have writing program reviews which in theory require gathering of documentation, review of materials and multiple meetings. Wouldn't teachers' time be better spent working directly with students on their writing as was the case with porfolios instead of wasting time on bueacratic reports which really don't measure student achievement but rather are measuring to what degree writing is being taught.

WHY DO EDUCATORS HAVE TO KEEP WASTING TIME PROVING THAT WE ARE DOING OUR JOBS INSTEAD OF SIMPLY ALLOWING US TO DO THE WORK WE ARE TRAINED TO DO? TIME IS A ZERO SUM GAME AND MINUTES USED TO CREATE REPORTS AND ATTEND MEETINGS IN THE NAME OF ACCOUNTABILITY RECORD KEEPING IS TIME NOT DEVOTED TO STUDENTS.