In February of 2015, the state of Georgia revised the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards and renamed them the Georgia Standards of Excellence ("Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE)," 2015). Georgia’s transition from Common Core to GSE created instructional shifts. One of the areas affected by the shift is in the area of English Language Arts. More specifically, the role of the principal has shifted from an overall manager to that of instructional leader. In addition, principals now more than ever are being held accountable for student learning.
Research has revealed the need for principals to be instructional leaders and have more than a general command of literacy knowledge. With the increased accountability for school principals, the emphasis on maintaining high student achievement for all learners and the decline of reading scores in Georgia, (“http://nationalreadingpanel.org/Publications/summary.htm,” 2015) an even sharper focus is placed on teaching and learning. Although the teacher is responsible for delivery of instruction, the principal’s role is to lead that instruction and ensure that a high quality curriculum is delivered to all students. In order for instructional leadership to be most effective, teachers and principals must work together. According to Marzano, Walters &
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The most recent, and possibly most debated, is the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS). According to Ainsworth, Ortleib, Cheek, Pate and Fetters (2012), by August of 2011, 44 states had adopted CCSS which are frameworks of consistent standards and expectations for student success. Georgia educators adopted the Common Core Standards, renaming them the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS). Although the Georgia Standards for Excellence (GSE) establish ends or goals for students, schools and teachers maintain control of the means by which standards are
The second domain in the Florida Principals Leadership Standards is composed of three different standards. The first of these is Instructional Plan Implementation and is about how an effective leader must collaborate to develop and implement an effective instructional framework that aligns with the required standards and meets his/her students’ needs (“The Florida Principal,” n.d.). Due to the variety in options that are available to align instruction to a pupil, given that the instruction will be adjusted to his/her needs, I feel that the situational leadership approach will be able to be implemented in this situation to create better results as “different situations demand different kinds of leadership (Northouse, P., 2016). The different leadership styles that make up the Situational approach can be tied to this standard by connecting the necessary leadership style with the supportive and directive behaviors in the task that is performed. As an instructor, I will spend time in the S1 category of the Situational Leadership Model as I make use of a “common language of instruction”, spend time between the S1 and S2 categories by “communicate the relationships among academic standards” and by being engaged “in data analysis for instructional planning and improvement”.
This is a key part in schools today because it’s enforcing a higher bar of achievement for teachers and students (Catapano, 2018). Implementing standards into a school system that are internationally benchmarked means all states and countries have a way of measuring their academic performance. They can use this also as a tool to compile scores and understand the weaknesses to improve students’ knowledge. This provides teachers with various ways to assess their students more frequently through observations and informal assessments to understand the student’s comprehension level of the lesson material. It will help the teachers to strive to improve her test scores by adapting lesson materials to the needs of each
Additionally, the United States ranked twelfth in college completion rates, a drastic decline for the former global leader of college completion (Kraft, 2014, p. 5). Pennsylvania adopted the original Common Core Standards at first, but then switched to their own state-specific version. The Pennsylvania academic standards are very similar to the Common Core. As stated by Kraft (2014), the PA Common Core is about 90% of the original Common Core (p.2).
One of the biggest concerning the need for an increase in rigor in instruction in American schools. She discusses that in Poland students must stay in academic classes for an extra year and teachers are paid bonuses to engage in professional development work. She also notes that in Finland they “rebooted their teacher-training colleges, forcing them to become much more selective and rigorous.” In an article written by Sarah Tantillio on Only Good Books, she recognizes the validity of these statements, but comments that in America “the Common Core States Standards, which most states have adopted, they are definitely rigorous, But how they are implemented (and assessed) from state to state and school to school is still a Very Big Question.” Further in her article she points out the large population differences between Finland, Poland, and the United States, and how this affects our education system.
Sawchuk discusses the massive task of getting all the public school K-12 teachers ready for the standards. Professional development and the roles of the states and school districts are reviewed. This article is clearly demonstrates the amount of work it will involve to make the Common Core Standards a reality across the United States. Wilhoit, G. (2012). Make-or-break state action.
The Goals 2000: Educate America Act was a vital step to reform American education. The overall intent was to aid the nation move toward a system that was based on high standards that all students could meet —a system that will provide both equity and excellence for all of the pupils in this country. The police targeted state-grade support for reform in curriculum and assessment standards. By emphasizing standards-based reform and focused on content and performance standards, along with accountability for improvement, assessment, student performance, accountability, teacher preparation, community and parental involvement, and coordinated changes, to make a few (H. R. 10804 Goals, n.d.). The other object of this policy was to establish a
The Common Core state standard used through this learning segment is 8.EE.A.4: Perform operations with numbers expressed in scientific notation, including problems where both decimal and scientific notation are used. Use scientific notation and choose units of appropriate size for measurements of very large or very small quantities (e.g., use millimeters per year for seafloor spreading). Interpret scientific notation that has been generated by technology. For this learning segment, we will only be covering the first part of the standard where students will be performing operations in scientific notation. This standard addresses conceptual understanding because students must understand the meaning of scientific notation in order to perform operations
Our current period in education is full of great change and opportunity. Students, teachers, and principals are being challenged to think, learn, and apply in different ways. The Common Core State Standards and technology are the main reasons this time period is so important. These two things are creating, "great opportunities within themselves" (Fullan, p.12, 2014) and at the same time are very challenging because they have "unclear implications for implementation" (Fullan, p.12, 2014). Both Common Core State Standards and technology are very complex and create an exciting time in learning across the educational system however, make it challenging for educators in the U.S. to be effective and implement in a way that maximizes learning.
They must be the primary means of determining the yearly performance of the state, each school district, and each school in meeting the act's academic achievement standards. The achievement standards must be aligned with state content standards, and have three levels of achievement or mastery - basic, proficient, and advanced. (Common Core State Standards Initiative) Any test administered must be the same for all children (there are allowable accommodations for certain students); be aligned with state content and achievement standards; provide coherent information about students' attainment of the standards; and be valid and reliable for the purposes for which they are used and consistent with relevant nationally recognized professional and technical standards (Yell). Tests must objectively measure achievement, knowledge, and skills and not evaluate personal or family beliefs or disclose personally identifiable information.
As stated in the article, “A Disturbing Look at Common Core Tests in New York” by Valerie Strauss,
The Common Core does have a lot of support from the Obama administration. The Core does not prescribe how the students should meet the standards (Strauss). Each state that adopts Common Core also receives federal funding. The states needed this; otherwise, they would have trouble paying for everything that is needed in the change from the state standards to the Common Core state standards. The states that applied for waivers from No Child Left Behind were asked to adopt the common standards by the Education Department.
Recently, educational institutes from all around the United States of America have dropped curriculums in favor of the new “Common Core” standards for their students. Many people would agree that The Common Core will change schools for the better, but these “many people” is stupid people. These people have at least one point going for them: they agree that the school system has to change in some way. The Common Core; the American school system’s saving grace? Not by a long shot.
For the first time in American history there is a sense of a national curriculum and an urgency to reach a level of proficiency. Across the nation public school educators have searched for new and better teaching methodologies, assessment methods, and instructional techniques to address the needs of a diverse student population in meeting these expectations. The creation and adoption of Common Core Standards (CCS) have caused many teachers to pause and consider the degree to which their instruction is aligned to these standards. For many, the thrust toward heightened alignment has provided an impetus to deliberate the instruction presented to students, the techniques of assessment used to determine student achievement, and the communication of student performance and
Students under common core standards are often the victims of being “taught to the test”, or only given the information that will help them pass a test of the standards. Opportunities for individual exploration or delving deeper into a subject are lost in order to enforce common core. Young learners are only encouraged to analyze information from secondhand sources and firsthand experience is not a
Teachers are the life-blood of school districts across the United States. They are masters of their specific grade-level content and work tirelessly to manage the learning and well-being of their students. Teachers are the academic leaders of the learning environment within their classrooms and collaborate with their students throughout the year in order to facilitate learning, and foster creativity and problem solving. However, over the last thirty years, teacher leadership has taken on a whole new meaning.