When teachers were preparing for the Common Core Standards awhile back it may have seemed daunting, however now many teachers say that using the "challenging" standards is working well for their lesson planning and assessment.
A recent survey, conducted by Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found that 79 percent of teachers say "they feel 'very' or 'somewhat' prepared to teach under the new standards, up from 71 percent last year," said an article in USA Today.
"Common Core' academic guidelines for public schools are sowing controversy as teachers implement them across the USA," the article begins. "Several states have balked at requiring them and even comedian Louis C.K. last May took to Twitter to complain, 'My kids used to love math. Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardized testing and common core!'"
"But teachers in states where the math and reading standards have been in place longest say that, in spite of the criticisms, Common Core is going well — and that most teachers feel prepared to teach new kinds of lessons," the article added.
About 68 percent of teachers, the article said, say "implementation is 'going well' in their schools, up from 62 percent last year." The survey, however, also found that 81 percent of teachers said Common Core is "challenging to implement, up from 73 percent last year."
"It's a big shift in the way that kids learn and the way that teachers teach, so it's going to take time for kids to kind of shift away from sitting in a row of desks and listening to a teacher lecture and taking notes and doing fill-in-the-blank," said Kathryn Casteel, a North Carolina middle school math and science teacher, in the article. "It's much more inquiry-based, and that's very new to the kids."
Read the full story.
Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor
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