Ensuring that our Students have Globalized Era Skills

The following blog post comes from Dr. Michael J. Martirano, superintendent of St. Mary's County Public Schools in Leonardtown, Maryland. 

In most states in America, great reform efforts are underway to adopt and implement Common Core State Standards in both English/Language Arts and Mathematics.  These national educational standards establish, at the basic level, a set of shared goals and expectations for what students should understand and be able to do in grades K-12 in order to be prepared for success in college and the workforce.

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Common Core State Standards: Not Your Father’s Standards

The Common Core State Standards represent one of the most significant developments in education in decades, and they deserve the scrutiny that Tom Loveless has given them. And in general, looking at the past is a good way of figuring out what might happen with similar initiatives in the future. But predicting the effects of the Common Core State Standards based on the effects of previous state standards is like predicting the performance of a Chevy Volt based on that of the Chevy Impala. These are not your father's standards.

In the nearly two years since the Common Core State Standards were released, a number of activities have taken place that provide some reason for hope that these new standards will make a difference in ways that previous standards did not. Three main reasons stand out.

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On the Daily Show, Duncan Talks Teachers, NCLB, Race to the Top

Last night, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for a wide-ranging interview that focused on everything from No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, common standards and the next generation of assessments to elevating the teaching profession and New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, who, like Duncan, played basketball at Harvard University.

Duncan also spent a significant portion of the interview discussing the importance of a quality education to the nation's economy.

I think our biggest challenge is that we've become too complacent. We're sixteen in the world in college graduates. A generation ago we were first. It isn't that we've dropped. We've flat-lined and fifteen other countries have passed us by.

We have to educate our way to a better economy. There are 2 million jobs out there today in our country that we can't fill because we don't have the educated workforce to fill those jobs. And so we have to be willing to change the status quo.

We have a million young people dropping out of school every single year. There are no jobs-none-they're guaranteed poverty and social failure. We have to challenge the status quo. We have to take some risks and we have to do some things in a different way, but we have to have a high bar, we have to have high expectations.

 

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Afternoon Announcements: October 27, 2011

A National Council on Teacher Quality report released Wednesday identifies Maryland as a leader in teacher evaluations, writes the Baltimore Sun.

The common core state standards in English/language arts and mathematics are generally aligned to the leading state, international, and university standards at the high-school-exit level, but a new report says they are more rigorous in some content areas, writes Education Week.

The Chicago Tribune offers four tech tips for parents to embrace digital education.

The MinnPost reports that in a recent visit to Patrick Henry High, Sen Al Franken mixed “math, mirth, and education-bill backing.”

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Something in Common: The Common Core Standards and the Next Chapter in American Education

On October 18, the Alliance hosted a book release party for Alliance Senior Fellow Robert Rothman's new book, Something in Common: The Common Core Standards and the Next Chapter in American Education.

Something in Common is the first book to provide a detailed look at the groundbreaking Common Core State Standards and their potential to transform American education. It tells the story of the unfolding political drama around the making of the Common Core State Standards for math and English language arts, which have been adopted by forty-five states and the District of Columbia, after decades of similar proposals had gone down in flames.

The October 18 event featured a panel discussion with national and state leaders on the opportunities and challenges that will be part of the implementation process of the Common Core State Standards.

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Five Myths About the Common Core State Standards

Writing for the Harvard Education Letter, Alliance Senior Fellow Robert Rothman explores five myths about the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted by forty-five states and the District of Columbia.

To hear more from Rothman on the common standards, register for the book release party the Alliance is hosting for him on October 18 in Washington, DC. Alternatively, you can order a copy of his new book, Something in Common: The Common Core Standards and the Next Chapter in American Education, at http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/146/SomethingInCommon.

Rothman's five myths about the Common Core State Standards appear below:

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Afternoon Announcements: September 21, 2011

Here are today's announcements!

Detroit Public Schools expects to shed nearly 40 percent of its teachers in the next four years to help close a $327 million deficit, yet projects a loss of just 6,000 students under a state-approved fiscal blueprint, according to the Detroit News. The district would cut more than 1,500 teachers by fall 2015.

Education Week reports that a group of 20 states will lead the development of a new set of common standards in science, according to an announcement today from Achieve, a Washington-based nonprofit managing the effort. Participating states span the country, from California and Arizona to Michigan and Maryland. They will help craft what have been dubbed the Next Generation Science Standards based on a framework developed by a panel of the National Research Council earlier this summer.

According to US News & World Report, a large number of America's highest-performing middle school students regress during high school, according to a new study released Tuesday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an educational research firm.

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Afternoon Announcements: August 4, 2011

In a recent Education Week blog post, the author asks, “Are 82 percent of schools ‘failing’ under NCLB, as Duncan warned?” According to the post, so far, most states that have released their results are not coming close to this number.

The New York Times reports that the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in a blunt acknowledgment that thousands of young black and Latino men are cut off from New York’s civic, educational and economic life, plans to spend nearly $130 million on far-reaching measures to improve their circumstances.

In California and around the United States, the public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors alike are investing resources and forging new partnerships to address America's glaring education crisis in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) (Huffington Post)

Education Week reports that at least twenty-three states have approved cuts to K–12 education for the coming year, reductions that will shrink or eliminate a broad array of school programs and services, particularly those serving the neediest communities.

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Morning Announcements: July 20, 2011

The New York Times writes about a new framework for improving American science education that calls for paring the curriculum in order to focus on core ideas and teaching students more about how to approach and solve problems, rather than just memorizing factual nuggets.

Yesterday, the Common Education Data Standards Initiative released its first draft of the second stage of its core data definitions, which is intended to get state data systems talking the same language, as reported by Education Week.

A new study Chicago study finds that when given the authority, principals make dismissal decisions that put a premium on teacher effectiveness and student achievement, reports Education Next.

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Morning Announcements: July 1, 2011

It's Friday again (already!?) and if we could, we'd send you home early to get a jump on the holiday weekend. If you head home early, have a quick looky-loo at some education news before you go ...

Education Week reports that experts are saying educators need training to understand common standards.

According to a recent U.S. News & World Report blog post, students can forget as much as two months’ worth of math and reading instruction over the summer, according to some reports; but for students who are unable to attend summer learning programs to keep them on track, playing certain video games or practicing skills around the house can help.

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