A quiet, sub-rosa fear is brewing among supporters of the Common Core State Standards Initiative: that the standards will die the slow death of poor implementation in K-12 classrooms.
鈥淚 predict the common-core standards will fail, unless we can do massive professional development for teachers,鈥� said Hung-Hsi Wu, a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, who has written extensively about the common-core math standards. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no fast track to this.鈥�
It鈥檚 a Herculean task, given the size of the public school teaching force and the difficulty educators face in creating the sustained, intensive training that research indicates is necessary to change teachers鈥� practices. (鈥淧rofessional Development at a Crossroads,鈥� November 10, 2010.)
鈥淚t is a capacity-building process, without question,鈥� said Jim Rollins, the superintendent of the Springdale, Ark., school district. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not at square one, but we鈥檙e not at the end of the path, either. And we don鈥檛 want to just bring superficial understanding of these standards, but to deepen the understanding, so we have an opportunity to deliver instruction in a way we haven鈥檛 before.鈥�
In Springdale, which is fully implementing the literacy and math standards for grades K-2 this year, kindergartners in the 20,000-student district are studying fairy tales and learning about those stories鈥� countries of origin. Their teachers have scrambled to find nonfiction texts that introduce students to the scientific method. They鈥檝e discarded some of their old teaching practices, like focusing on the calendar to build initial numeracy skills.
The Durand, Mich., district is another early adopter. Gretchen Highfield, a 3rd grade teacher, has knit together core aspects of the standards鈥攍ess rote learning, more vocabulary-building鈥攖o create an experience that continually builds pupils鈥� knowledge. A story on pigs becomes an opportunity, later in the day, to introduce the vocabulary word 鈥渃orral,鈥� which becomes an opportunity, still later in the day, for students to work on a math problem involving four corrals of five pigs.
鈥淚鈥檓 always thinking about how what we talked about in social studies can be emphasized in reading,鈥� Ms. Highfield said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 like that throughout the week. I鈥檓 looking across the board where I can tie in this, and this, and this.鈥�
Such pioneers of the standards can probably be found the country over. But data show that there is still much more work to be done, especially in those districts that have yet to tackle the professional-development challenge. A nationally representative survey of school districts issued last fall by the Washington-based Center on 91制片厂视频 Policy found that fewer than half of districts had planned professional development aligned to the standards this school year.
Cognitive Demand
By any accounting, the challenge of getting the nation鈥檚 3.2 million K-12 public school teachers ready to teach to the standards is enormous.
With new assessments aligned to the standards rapidly coming online by 2014-15, the implementation timeline is compressed. Teachers are wrestling with an absence of truly aligned curricula and lessons. Added to those factors are concerns that the standards are pitched at a level that may require teachers themselves to function on a higher cognitive plane.
When standards are more challenging for the students, 鈥渢hen you also raise the possibility that the content is more challenging for the teacher,鈥� said Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. 鈥淥f course, it鈥檚 going to interact with what support teachers receive.鈥�
Anecdotal evidence from a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation study suggests that teachers already struggle to help students engage in the higher-order, cognitively demanding tasks emphasized by the standards, such as the ability to synthesize, analyze, and apply information. (The Gates Foundation also provides support for coverage of K-12 business and innovation in 91制片厂视频 Week.)
As part of the foundation鈥檚 Measures of Effective Teaching project, trained observers scored lessons taught by some 3,000 teachers against a variety of teaching frameworks. No matter which framework was used, teachers received relatively low scores on their ability to engage students in 鈥渁nalysis and problem-solving,鈥� to use 鈥渋nvestigation/problem-based approaches,鈥� to create 鈥渞elevance to history, current events,鈥� or to foster 鈥渟tudent participation in making meaning and reasoning,鈥� according to a report from the foundation.
Supporters of the common standards say the standards encourage a focus on only the most important topics at each grade level and subject, thus allowing teachers to build those skills.
鈥淚t could make things simpler and allow teachers and schools to focus on teaching fewer, coherent things very well. That鈥檚 the best hope for teachers to build in-depth content knowledge,鈥� said David Coleman, one of the writers of the English/language arts standards and a founder of the New York City-based Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit working to support implementation of the standards.
鈥淭hat said, the standards are necessary but not sufficient for improving professional development,鈥� he added.
Each of the two content areas in the standards poses a unique set of challenges for teacher training.
Mr. Wu, the UC-Berkeley professor, contends that current math teachers and curricula focus almost exclusively on procedures and algorithms, an approach he refers to as 鈥渢extbook mathematics.鈥�
But the common core emphasizes understanding of the logical, structural concepts underpinning mathematics鈥攖he idea being that understanding how and why algorithms work is as important as crunching numbers.
Many teachers, Mr. Wu contends, will themselves need more mathematics-content preparation. But training focused at least initially on content could be especially difficult for classroom veterans to accept, he concedes.
鈥淎fter 26 years of doing things only one way, the common core comes along and says, 鈥楲et鈥檚 try to do a little bit better at this,鈥� 鈥� Mr. Wu said. 鈥淲ell, suppose you鈥檝e been smoking for that long, and someone says, 鈥楯ust stop raising a cigarette to your mouth.鈥� It鈥檚 difficult鈥攊t鈥檚 26 years of habit.鈥�
Some teacher educators believe that conversation will need to begin at the preservice level, especially for elementary teachers, who tend to enter with a weaker initial grasp of mathematics, said Jonathan N. Thomas, an assistant professor of mathematics education at Northern Kentucky University, in Highland Heights, Ky.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great opportunity to say, 鈥楲et鈥檚 just take some time to think about the mathematics and set the teaching strategies aside for a moment,鈥� 鈥� Mr. Thomas said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 imperative we don鈥檛 send people out the door with just strategies, tips, and tricks to teach fractions. We have to make sure they understand fractions deeply.鈥�
Teacher Gaps
Meanwhile, the English/language arts standards demand a focus on the 鈥渃lose reading鈥� of texts, a literary-analysis skill that has been thus far mainly reserved for college English classes. And they call for expansion of nonfiction materials into even the earliest grades.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 worked deeply or strategically with informational text, and as the teachers are learning about the standards, they are finding their own instructional gaps there,鈥� said Sydnee Dixon, the director of teaching and learning for Utah鈥檚 state office of education. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a huge area for us.鈥�
In the Springdale Ark., district, instructional coach Kaci L. Phipps said those changes are also requiring teachers to pay more attention to teaching the varied purposes behind writing鈥攕omething not as emphasized when most reading materials are fictional and students are asked merely for their responses.
鈥淲e keep having to say to these kids, 鈥楻emember, it鈥檚 not what you think, it鈥檚 what鈥檚 in the text,鈥� 鈥� she said. 鈥溾�榃hat is the author doing? What is his or her purpose in writing? How can you support that conclusion with details from the text?鈥� 鈥�
Pedagogical Shifts
Pedagogical challenges lurk, too, because teachers need updated skills to teach in ways that emphasize the standards鈥� focus on problem-solving, according to professional-development scholars.
鈥淭eachers will teach as they were taught, and if they are going to incorporate these ideas in their teaching, they need to experience them as students,鈥� said Thomas R. Guskey, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Kentucky鈥檚 college of education, in Lexington. 鈥淭he PD will have to model very clearly the kinds of activities we want teachers to carry forward and use in their classrooms.鈥�
Moreover, Mr. Guskey warned, many teachers won鈥檛 be inclined to actually change what they are doing until they become familiar with the assessments aligned to the new standards.
Some districts don鈥檛 want to wait that long, and have found other ways to help teachers begin working with the practices outlined in the standards. In the 1,700-student Durand district, Superintendent Cindy Weber has used a state-required overhaul of teacher evaluations as a springboard.
The Michigan district鈥檚 new professional growth and evaluation system, which is being implemented this spring, draws key indicators of teacher practice directly from the common core鈥攊n essence closing the often-wide gap between expectations for student and teachers.
Principals observing teachers are trained to look, for example, at whether a teacher 鈥渦ses multiple sources of information鈥� when teaching new content, and 鈥渃hallenges students to present and defend ideas鈥� in the strand on applying learning.
To gauge changes in student growth across the year, as part of the new evaluation system, the district has settled on growth in academic vocabulary as an indicator. In every grade and content area, teams of teachers have come up with those words and related concepts all students must master by the end of the year.
Ms. Weber鈥檚 reasoning is that teachers will feel new standards really matter if instructing to them is part of their professional expectations.
鈥淵ou look back over the course of education, and there are so many things tried, yet somehow many classrooms still look the same across the country,鈥� Ms. Weber said. 鈥淚 felt that with our evaluation process, we needed to look at teacher commitment to this model and type of delivery鈥攐r teachers may give us lip service and go back to doing what they鈥檝e done in the past.鈥�
State Role
States, the first stop on the professional-development train, are themselves having to change their delivery systems in preparation for the standards.
鈥淢any states are moving away from the 鈥榯rain the trainer鈥� model and trying to have more direct communications with teachers, because the message either gets diluted or changed otherwise,鈥� said Carrie Heath Phillips, the program director for the Council of Chief State School Officers鈥� common-standards efforts.
Delaware has reached every teacher in the state directly through online lessons that lay out the core shifts in the standards from the state鈥檚 previous content expectations鈥攁 process it tracked through its education data system.
Now, state officials are hard at work building an infrastructure for deeper, more intensive work.
The state has organized two separate 鈥渃adres鈥� of specialists, one in reading and one in math, who are fleshing out the core expectations at each grade level, outlining how each standard is 鈥渧ertically linked鈥� to what will be taught in the next grade, and crafting model lessons in those subjects. They鈥檙e also each constructing five professional-development 鈥渕odules鈥� for high-demand topics, such as text complexity.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had other standards, but different interpretations of what they meant,鈥� said Marian Wolak, the director of curriculum, instruction, and professional development for the state. 鈥淲e want this to be very clear and distinct about how the standard applies at that grade level and what the expectations are for that standard.鈥�
Based on the cadres鈥� work, every district will have a clearinghouse of resources for professional development and be able to tap a local specialist for additional training, Ms. Wolak said.
Utah doesn鈥檛 have the benefits of Delaware鈥檚 limited geography. Its strategy has been building the capacity of a critical mass of trained educators in each district, and then gradually shifting professional-development responsibilities to the local level.
In summer 2011, the state trained about 120 facilitators鈥攖eachers nominated from the field with a track record of high student achievement in their subject鈥攊n pedagogical content knowledge and adult-learning theory. Then, those teachers facilitated 鈥渁cademies鈥� in ela and in 6th and 9th grade math for their colleagues, which were given at 14 locations in the state, according to Ms. Dixon, the state鈥檚 director of teaching and learning.
All teachers attending the sessions come voluntarily and are expected to have read the standards beforehand. Afterwards, 鈥渢he expectation is that both the facilitators and the attendees are back in their classrooms, using the standards, working with the standards, sharing student work, and studying it in [staff meetings], so their colleagues are getting second-hand experience,鈥� Ms. Dixon said.
Additional academies are now being set up; the state estimates about 20 percent of its teachers have attended one so far.
District Pioneers
For districts, the professional-development challenge is in finding the place to begin. Those districts apparently the furthest along in the process are integrating the training with successful efforts already in place.
In Springdale, the district has focused on providing teachers with enough time to sort through the standards and observe some of them in practice. It鈥檚 given teachers up to four days off to develop units aligned to the common core and encouraged teams to discuss student work samples, or 鈥渁nchors,鈥� to help inform their understanding of expectations aligned to the standards.
This year, the district is working to train teachers in grades 3-8 in math. It has spent five years using a problem-solving approach to mathematics known as Cognitively Guided Instruction that district officials say aligns well with the common standards鈥� math expectations. With a handful of teachers now well-versed in the curriculum, it鈥檚 creating opportunities for teachers new to the district to observe those 鈥渄emonstration classrooms鈥� at work.
The Durand district鈥檚 new teacher-evaluation system has helped to make the common standards real, said Ms. Highfield. And while teachers are understandably a bit nervous about the system, it鈥檚 also causing them to rethink long-standing practices.
鈥淗ow do I show [an evaluator] that students are thinking and analyzing without a project or experiment? It鈥檚 a big challenge, and I think it will take a little time to get there,鈥� she said. 鈥淏efore, with the rote learning, you could create a handout, put it in your file and just use it again next year. You can鈥檛 do that when you鈥檙e looking at students to apply these skills.鈥�
Nevertheless, Ms. Highfield said, she鈥檚 starting to see the benefits for her students.
鈥淒urand is a fairly poor district; a lot of students don鈥檛 have a lot of experiences,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e ask them, 鈥榃hat do you want to do in your life, with your learning? Can you imagine it? How would you get there?鈥�
鈥淚鈥檝e seen a change in my students, and I think that is a good thing.鈥�
