Some Key Changes with the Common-Core Standards

“In the new common-core era, question marks appear to be a key feature of the landscape,” says Catherine Gewertz in this Education Week article. She begins with David Pearson’s (University of California/Berkeley) optimistic assessment: “I think these standards have the potential to lead the parade in a different direction: toward taking as evidence of your reading ability not your score on a specific skill test – or how many letter sounds you can identify or ideas you can recall from a passage – but the ability to use the information you gain from reading, the fruits of your labor, to apply to some new situations or problem or project. That’s a huge change.” But the new standards raise a number of questions and challenges for schools:

• Reading across the curriculum – The standards ask science, social studies, math, and other subject area teachers to teach literacy skills within their disciplines – for example, analyzing primary sources and making sense of diagrams, charts, and technical terminology. How will this be possible? Students will need to do more reading in all areas, somehow making more-effective use of in-school and out-of-school time.

• Explicit teaching of writing – Students’ writing will need to contain evidence and citations from what they’ve read. Some educators worry that this will cut down on personal, expressive, creative writing, but this is a false choice, say common-core supporters: students can write about things they’re passionate about and still learn to base their ideas solidly on what they’ve read or observed.

• More informational text – Students will need to read more essays, speeches, newspaper articles, biographies, and other nonfiction material. Some educators are concerned that literature and poetry will be downgraded, but supporters of the common core say that informational materials needn’t displace fiction and are vital to college and career success, especially for students who are turned off by a curriculum tilted too much toward fiction.

• Aligned curriculum materials – Publishers are rushing to produce materials that support the common-core standards, but schools need to check carefully to see how well they have done the job.

• Higher standards – The common core’s emphasis on academic vocabulary will make unprecedented demands on struggling students, in particular those with language and special needs challenges. 

• The third-grade threshold – Some states are toughening requirements for what students should know and be able to do before leaving this key grade, posing new challenges for teachers.

• Professional development – Since the 2000 National Reading Panel report, there has been a good deal of new thinking about how to help all students reach ambitious literacy goals. How will teachers be trained in the new approaches?

“Common Standards Drive New Reading Approaches” by Catherine Gewertz in Education Week, Nov. 14, 2012 (Vol. 32, #12, p. S2), www.edweek.org 

From the Marshall Memo #462