Sunday, January 22, 2012

Common Core -- Coming Soon

Well, I for one, have great hopes for the Common Core that is soon arriving in the Kansas City area. I just spent a day, examining how to link ELL/ESOL standards to Common Core, and I have to say, there's much promise in its format. Unlike the No Child Left Behind that stressed scores and little else, Common Core seems to focus on curriculum, involved reasoning strategies, and a cohesive strategy for involving our students on a much higher plane than our past curriculum has (and Kansas has strong standards). A article in Education Week goes into some early detail as to how the framers of Common Core developed their set of ideas from the best teaching practices both abroad and here. I entered teaching, full of inspiration; I have a full jolt of it again.