The Common Core Standards present a comprehensive, system wide change that must be incorporated in each and every classroom, requiring adoption by every teacher and leader, hopefully wholeheartedly. Implementing them presents another herculean challenge before all teachers and leaders. Robert Rothman, in his book Something in Common, explains, unlike most other changes, these "standards are clear and can provide guidance to classroom teachers about the kinds of learning students are expected to demonstrate" (p. 164). Rothman explains that the Common Core State Standards will not eliminate teachers' ability to develop their own lessons and frame their own classroom's experience. "Common Core State Standards spell out the ends that teachers should seek; they do not specify the steps teachers should take during the course of the year to get there" (p.165). Maybe they should if the implementation timeline is this short. We are asked for compliance and creativity simultaneously. It is no small order. Yet, we have come to this national curriculum in an evolutionary way. Our system has been long called to reform. We responded piecemeal, differently in every classroom and district. That opportunity passed us by. It is a new day.

Teachers, principals and superintendents need not to be trained but to learn, not to be filled with the pieces but to discover value within the Common Core Standards and to embrace their profession anew in this context. We need to experience the difference and become the learners we want to create in our students. Teachers do need a common vocabulary "...that will enable them to work together to develop and plan lessons" (Rothman, p.165). But, when pressure is upon us, time itself becomes a scarcity, complicated by declining fiscal and human resources. Twenty first century technology must become part of the new environment but, again, the demands on time and other resources slow the access to that path. And, yes, along the way we need guidance and feedback from knowledgeable facilitators to help change practice. Our current structure denies us the capacity to do that with fidelity.

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