District 200 Implementing Common Core Curriculum Changes

As District 200 continues to adopt Common Core State Standards, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Faith Dahlquist on Wednesday outlined a framework for implementing training standards for staff in the district.

Common Core is a rigorous educational program aimed at teaching 21st Century skills that are aligned with work and college expectations. District officials began mapping out the transition to Common Core standards in the fall of 2011.

During a district committee of the whole meeting Superintendent Brian Harris said the district has high expectations for students' college readiness, but there are some segments of the student population who are not as prepared.

“We have to come up with a culture of collaboration,” Harris said.

District staff will begin to receive Common Core training in February. Some teachers and principals attended a training session at the end of 2011 and Dahlquist said the new curriculum was well-received.

But there is still plenty of work before the new curriculum can be implemented.

One area that needs improvement is finding time for teachers to collaborate on best teaching practices. Dahlquist said research indicates teachers need 45 minutes per week to meet together for collaboration. She said it would not be too difficult for elementary and middle school teachers to find that amount of collaboration time.

Because of time constraints, Dahlquist said high school staff could realistically meet every two weeks for 75 minutes of collaboration, which could be difficult because of the after school commitments teachers make to coach and advise student organizations. To find the time, Dahlquist said the district could adopt a policy of late starts for the school day on those collaboration days. That poses some problems with teachers losing face time with their students those days, but Dahlquist said in the long run the teacher collaboration will be invaluable.

On late start days the buses would run a normal schedule and those students who ride the buses would meet for a study hall until classes begin. Periods that day would be shorter so school would dismiss on time, much in the same way schedules are set when there is a school-wide assembly.

Dstrict officials plan to and new language arts standards by 2014. Standards for science and social studies have yet to be developed.

One reason for the tight timeframe is the looming deadline for 100 percent compliance in the federal educational reform initiative No Child Left Behind. According to the current language of the legislation every student must meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards in reading and math set by the legislation. The legislation places students in various subgroups such as race, students on free or reduced lunch; students with disabilities, students with Individual Education Plans and students with limited English proficiency.

This year 85 percent of students in the tested grade levels were expected to meet standards, but in many schools they were unable to do so, including some schools in District 200. Next year the NCLB requirement is 2.5 percent and then full compliance by 2014. In Illinois, AYP is measured by the Illinois Student Achievement Tests.

The district already has a reputation as a high achieving district, despite some lower scores recorded this past school year defined by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Some of those schools, including the two high schools and , failed to meet AYP in one or more of the subgroups. If one subgroup fails to meet AYP then the whole school is considered failing according to NCLB.