Jim Burke speaks to teachers about Common Core
“An excellent education should not be an accident; it should be a right…” wrote high school English teacher, Jim Burke, in his book “The Common Core: The Standards Decoded”.
Common Core currently being implemented in CVUSD, but these new standards are still a source of confusion for many students and teachers. On August 22nd, Burke spoke to teachers about Common Core and how they can use it in their classroom. He stressed that many teachers don’t have time to go over every standard to decipher exactly what it means and how they can teach it. With his book, however, Burke hopes they will be able to provide the best education for their students. His book gives a full description and explanation of each standard, so teachers can better understand them and incorporate them into their lessons.
“The main focus is the concept of literacy and writing … across all disciplines,” said Principal Josh Eby. Fields such as science will have the same basic standards as before, but will now have a bigger focus on literacy. In addition, there will be more critical thinking and application of modern skills.
The standards were developed by governors and state commissioners from all across the country, and then left to be adopted by the states. This past year, schools began using Common Core and took the SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) test for the first time.
This year, the administration will be able to learn from previous experiences and understand the new literacy standards, as well as how to use them in the classroom. “Teachers are very much ahead of the curve in understanding that they need to adjust their instructional practices and really digging in to what the standards are,” Eby said.
One important difference between the previous standards and Common Core is continuity throughout grade levels and in all states. Previously, each state designed their own standards, which ranged in difficulty level. This resulted in some schools having much more rigorous learning styles than others, causing the whole country to be on different systems.
“The Common Core standards are simplified,” Robin Lilly, English teacher, said. Common Core takes 10 basic standards and applies them to all content areas. This way, students are learning with the same central focus, but in a variety of ways.
“I think it honors the intelligence of kids,” Lilly said. “You don’t have to think exactly the same way I do, but here is a problem, let’s figure out how to solve it.”
This year, the standards will be in full affect, and students will experience many changes in the way they learn. The SBAC tests will be taking place again and students will be receiving individual grades however the school will not be scored as a whole. Burke wrote “The Common Core state standards … challenge us all … to commit ourselves anew to the success of our children and our country.”
