Education Week Reports That Many Districts Lagging on Implementing Common Core

The most recent issue of Education Week has a good article written by Catherine Gewertz on the slow implementation of the Common Core.

According to the article, “the future of the common core remains uncertain at this important juncture because many districts still are not fully prepared to impart the new academic expectations in English/language arts and mathematics.”

The problem appears to be the time it takes to prepare teachers to inject common core teaching into their classes. A third of the superintendents say that they won’t be prepared for full implementation until the 2015-2016 academic year.

There is growing support at the superintendent level, however, for the common core standards. Over 90% say that the common core standards are higher than those required by their states. This is a significant increase over the past two years.

But 85% of the superintendents see that implementing the common core standards is and will continue to be hard work. Most welcome the standards, however, as being consistent with what they “want” to teach – not just what they are “required” to teach. Additionally, the hard work appears to be communicating with parents and local communities about the realities of the common core – against the misinformation many are receiving from staunch opponents.

But this looks like good progress!