Common Core State Standards: Overview

1. Common Core State Standards: Overview

2. Objectives • To review the rationale for the transition to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) • To develop a better understanding of the importance of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) • To provide parents with strategies and resources to support their children

3. What Do You Know About Standards? • Take a moment to think about what standards mean to you. • Share your thoughts with your neighbor.

4. Standards • Standards determine what students should learn at each grade level and for every subject. • California Department of Education (CDE) states that “standards define the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students should acquire at each grade level.”

5. California State Standards • Each state created its own standards. • Students were learning at different levels throughout the country. • These standards were not preparing students for the higher demands of college and careers of today and the future.

6. If, The California State Standards Didn’t Prepare Students, Then, How Do We? • By adopting standards that are internationally benchmarked to establish a set of clear, consistent ,educational standards in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics in Kindergarten through 12th grade to help close the achievement gap between various schools, states and countries.

7. What Have You Heard or Know About The Common Core State Standards?

8. Why Are We Transitioning To Common Core State Standards? • The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) allow for a student in Los Angeles and a student in Boston to receive the same high quality education to prepare them for college and careers in the 21stCentury. • The CCSS will support high school graduates to transition into college or career with the same skills and knowledge they need to be successful. • Rigor will be consistent throughout the states that have adopted the Common Core State Standards

9. Why Is It Important? • In the 2012 college freshmen class of 42,700 students in the California State University system, 27,300 of them required remedial courses in English, math or both. • Forty-five (45) states have joined in an effort to raise learning standards. • Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were designed and developed in collaboration with teachers, researchers, and leading experts across the country. • The CCSS were developed using the highest most effective models from states across the country and countries around the world.

10. The Common Core State Standards • All roads lead to students who: • can read, write, and think critically • are college and career ready College and Career Ready Critical Thinkers Critical Writers Critical Readers

11. Commitments To Our Kids! Students Must… Parents Can… • Learn vocabulary used in college and career • Make arguments in writing • Find evidence to support the argument • Compare multiple texts in writing • Read often and constantly with babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and children • Demand evidence in every day discussions and disagreements • Supply several non-fiction books on same topic and discuss details

12. Commitments To Our Kids! Parents Can… Students Must… • Apply math in real world situations • Know which math to use for which situation • Be able to use core math facts fast • Ask your child to do the math that comes up in your daily life • Make sure your child is thinking about math in real life • Make sure your child is practicing the math facts he/she struggles with

13. What New Understanding Did You Gain About Common Core State Standards?

14. Additional Resources • LAUSD Websites: http://ccss.lausd.net/ • CA: www.cde.ca.gov/re/cc • Nation-wide: www.corestandards.org • Council of Great City Schools: http://www.cgcs.org/domain/72 • PTA CCSS site: http://pta.org/parents/content.cfm?ItemNumber=2583/

15. Thank You! • While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about.  -William Saroyan