State Board approves new Common Core materials and ELD standards
3 vacancies await governor’s appointments
Published: November 14, 2012
With classrooms slated to begin teaching the Common Core State Standards in fall 2014, the State Board of Education approved two major items to help California schools get ready for the change.
First, new standards for English-language arts and English language development got unanimous approval, which was quite an accomplishment considering the state’s past history.
“In the past when we’ve adopted English-language arts it was a hugely contentious issue,” said CSBA Senior Director for Policy and Programs Teri Burns in a “This Just In” video briefing following the State Board meeting Nov. 8.
“This time all the stakeholders were supportive,” Burns said, largely because the standards have the desired rigor, the process was transparent to all the parties, and an accompanying chart shows clearly how the new standards match up with the state’s career technical education standards.
A second item to get the State Board’s unanimous approval were supplemental instructional materials aligned to the Common Core that districts may purchase now to begin transitioning to the new standards
“These aren’t the materials that will be your be-all and end-all final materials, but they are materials you can start using immediately to start transitioning to the Common Core practices and behaviors,” said Burns.
Parents and community members will also need materials—in multiple languages—about what to expect as their students encounter the Common Core, Burns told the State Board. She also expressed CSBA’s belief that the Common Core timeline may need to be adjusted to accommodate schools and districts’ capacity for implementation, and she called on the panel to seriously consider the implications of hurried and uneven execution of the changes.
The California Department of Education has posted information and resources to advise school board members during the implementation of the Common Core standards.
Common Core assessments
California is part of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, which is developing ways to test students’ grasp of the Common Core curriculum beginning in fall 2014. The new Smarter Balanced assessments will create a need to “teach well” and change the conversation to “teaching for the test” (instead of to the test) by developing thinking, performance and persistence skills, Burns said: “Sample items available for review show the great variety in test question styles and expectations that can illustrate to your community this shift to higher order thinking.”
State Board seats
James Ramos, appointed to the State Board by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will depart following his election to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors earlier this month, leaving three vacancies on the State Board for Gov. Jerry Brown to fill.