Making the Common Core Standards Work

Robert J. Manley
Richard J. Hawkins - Greenville, South Carolina, USA

Foreword by Dan Domenech

Other Titles in:
School Change, Reform, & Restructuring | Standards & Accountability | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles

January 2013 | 288 pages | Corwin

Many educators and researchers view the Common Core State Standards as very high standards for schools to achieve. In truth, the standards are the basic standards for the 21st Century. Educators, at every school, need to learn how to redesign their curriculum and their instructional strategies so that the common core state standards are absorbed into the local curriculum.

Inside the authors discuss:

" How to merge the Common Core State Standards and local curriculum in English Language Arts and Mathematics

" The challenges that educators face at local schools and in their communities

" A way for school district and school leaders to take advantage of the diversity among faculty, parents and students to differentiate instruction and achieve higher levels of mastery for all students

" Multicultural issues, school improvement systems and public policy changes that must be addressed

This book provides practical advice, examples, and design considerations that are modifiable for any culture, school, or district that is serious about being part of the new age of American achievement and prosperity.

Dedication

Foreword by Dan Domenech

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Introduction: Why American Schools Must Move Toward Common Core State Standards

Section I. Designing Competitive Curriculum for a Global Economy

1. Common Core State Standards: What Are They?

Common Core State Standards: More Than Standards With an International Flavor

A Quick Trip Around the World

Moving Forward

2. The School Leader's Role in Making the Common Core State Standards Work

Creating Guiding Ideas to Implement the Common Core State Standards

Guiding Ideas and Evidence

Getting to How: Operationalizing Your Guiding Ideas

Identifying the Innovation

Teaching the Change

The Social and Emotional Literacy Components of the Common Core State Standards

School Leaders and Teachers Partner to Help Students

Inspiring Trust, Creativity, Transparency, and Success: A Framework for Loose Versus Tight Leadership

Part I: Building Understanding About the Issue and Its Impact on Your Organization

Part II: Moving From Understanding to Action

Section II. Helping Communities Create a New Future

3. Designing Local Curriculum to Absorb the Common Core State Standards in English

Real-World Applications

Grades K-2, Phonological Awareness (One Topic)

Grades K-2: Key Ideas and Details and Craft and Structure

Grades 3-4: Fluency (One Topic)

Grade 5: Reading With Fluency and Accuracy

Grades 6-8: Key Ideas and Details (One Topic)

Grades 9-10: English Language Arts Curriculum

Grades 11-12: Reading and Writing

4. Designing Local Curriculum to Absorb the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics

Comparison of State and Common Core State Math Standard Emphasis

Common Core State Math Standards

Kindergarten Common Core State Standard and Local Curriculum Math Standards

Grade 1 Common Core State Standard and Local Curriculum Math Standards

Grade 2 Common Core State Standard and Local Curriculum Math Standards

Grade 5 Common Core State Standard and Local Curriculum Math Standards

Six Domains of Instructional Strategies for All Students

Purpose of the Math Common Core

Grade 7 Common Core State Math Standards: Ratios and Proportional Relationships

Grades 9-10 Common Core State Math Standards: The Real Number System

Grade 10 Common Core State Math Standards for Geometry: Congruence

Grade 12 Common Core State Math Standards for Statistics: Using Probability to Make Decisions

5. Challenges to the Implementation of Rigorous Common Core State Standards

Testing Policies Do Not Improve Schools

The Common Core State Standards: Opportunities for Equity and Excellence

Section III. Helping Teachers Redefine Their Profession

6. How to Assess Mastery of the Common Core Curriculum State Standards

Direct Instruction

The Power of Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment Examples From Real Schools

Building Successful Schools

Special Education and General Education

7. The Leadership Challenge: Creating Common Understandings of the Common Core State Standards

The Role of School Leaders

Envisioning Excellence

We Get the Results We Design Schools to Achieve

Vision or Nightmare?

Enter the Common Core State Standards

8. Dialogue: Providing Opportunity So Facts Influence Opinions

Creating Context for the Common Core State Standards

Teachers Need Deep Understanding of the Common Core State Standards

Identifying Gaps: Current Versus Desired Reality

Section IV. Creating Systems That Accelerate Learning for All

9. Multicultural Issues That Teachers and School Leaders Must Face Beyond the Common Core State Standards

Common Core State Standards Lift Us Beyond Difference

What All Teachers and School Leaders Need to Know About Multiculturalism

Grouping and Labeling Students

Building a Multicultural Learning Community

10. An Effective Intervention in Schools That Improves Instruction and Learning

Creating Sustainable Change in Struggling Schools

Leaders Create the Context and Design for Change to Succeed

Homework

Student Work and Deficit Assumptions

Focus Groups

School Leaders

Parent Involvement

Students

Changing Public Mental Models About School Reform

11. Public Policy: Helpful and Harmful

References

Index

"Making the Common Core Standards Work provides a detailed approach to systems thinking and how to manage a real-life paradigm shift. Having that coached in the context of core standards is somewhat unique and provides an opportunity for enhanced dialogue across grade levels and disciplines in areas of the country where those discussions may not have occurred on their own."

William Richard Hall, Jr., Principal

R. C. Longan Elementary School, Henrico, VA

"Making the Common Core Standards Work looks at the implementation of CCSS within the context of all of the components that face public schools, and, in doing so, put the CCSS in a proper perspective. This is a book that could actually help make a difference in the improvement of instruction in the public schools."

Martin J. Hudacs, Superintendent

Solanco School District, Quarryville, PA

"The book is easy to read and offers concrete suggestions without establishing walls that prohibit creative practices. Making the Common Core Standards Work pushes educators to plan, reflect, and revise cooperatively to move from a traditional scripted approach of teaching to one that promotes critical thinking and analysis for all students."

Charlotte R. Bihm, Instructional Specialist

St. Landry Parish School Board, Opelousas, LA

"As a busy superintendent who is very careful with her time, I’ve been searching for what seemed to be an impossible … one resource that is full of good, solid research and practical information on CCSS. Manley and Hawkins are practitioner scholars…and they created, in Making the Common Core Standards Work, exactly what I need to intelligently and confidently move my district forward …thanks!"

Roberta Gerold, Superintendent, Middle Country Schools, Centereach, NY

President Elect, Suffolk County School Superintendents Association