Implementation Of Common Core State Standards Research Articles

CCSS 개혁이 미국의 체육교과 교육과정에 미친 영향 : 교육과정 표준화 동향

This paper describes the development of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that has emerged in the backdrop of global educational governance, examining how CCSS influenced the school-based physical education (PE) curriculum in the United States (US). Since the new millennium, states have adopted CCSS as part of standards-based reform with the aim of offering local entities both educational flexibility and consistency. After the implementation of CCSS, however, the school curriculum in the US tends to be standardized focusing on the CCSS system due to an increased influence of the federal government. In this national context, the profession of PE has made multifaceted efforts to address this nationwide reform movement by establishing national standards and summative teacher guidelines, grade-level outcomes, and assessment systems, thereby building a unified common foundation in the field. Such system-wide change, however, does not necessarily signal total standardization for PE curricula. Expansive discourses and debates among professionals in the field have exerted significant limits on curriculum standardization. This implies that although policies for K-12 PE have been assembled focusing on the CCSS movement, the implementation in local programs remains distinct in form and scope due to multiple unique features of each program.

Activating the implementers: The role of organizational expectations, teacher beliefs, and motivation in bringing about reform

Internationally the research community has been seeking a deeper understanding about how to shape the work of educators over decades of educational reforms. This study attempts to contribute to this understanding by answering: “What motivates educators to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)?” Using data from all school educators in one highly diverse school district in California and structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships between teachers' CCSS-related action and associated organizational and individual factors, findings suggest both organizational (expectation) and intrinsic (motivations and beliefs) factors are directly and indirectly influencing teachers’ action towards CCSS implementation.

Understanding the Stages of Concerns


 
 
 
 This study investigated the initial implementation processes of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in public and private schools in a single Loui- siana district. Results suggested participants’ high level of concern in many aspects of the implementation of the CCSS in public schools related to the timeline and instability of curriculum decisions, which negatively affected teachers’ confidence levels. Private school teachers experienced greater stability in their curricula, a more feasible timeline of implementation, positive professional development, and positive experiences with CCSS implementation, affecting their teacher identity and impact on students. However, public school teachers reported instability in their curricula, difficult timelines of implementation, unsupportive professional development, and overall negative experiences, affecting their teacher identity and impact on students with the implementation of the CCSS.
 
 
 

Getting College-Ready during State Transition toward the Common Core State Standards

Background As of 2016, 42 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Tens of millions of students across the country completed high school before their schools were able to fully implement the CCSS. As with previous standards-based reforms, the transition to the CCSS-aligned state education standards has been accompanied by curriculum framework revisions, student assessment redesigns, and school accountability and educator evaluation system overhauls. Purpose Even if the new standards may improve student learning once they are fully implemented, the multitude of changes at the early implementation stage of the reform might disrupt student learning in the short run as teachers, schools, and communities acclimate to the new expectations and demands. The goal of this study is not to evaluate the merits and deficiencies of the CCSS per se, but rather to investigate whether college readiness improved among high school students affected by the early stages of the CCSS implementation, and whether students from different backgrounds and types of high schools were affected differently. Research Design We focus on three cohorts of 8theighth-grade students in Kentucky and follow them until the end of the 11th -grade, when they took the state mandatory ACT tests. The three successive cohorts—enrolled in the 8theighth -grade between 2008 and 2010—each experienced different levels of exposure to CCSS transition. Using ACT scores as proxy measures of college readiness, we estimate cohort fixed-effects models to investigate the transitional impact of standards reform on student performance on the ACT. To gauge the extent to which the implementation of CCSS is directly responsible for any estimated cross-cohort differences in student ACT performance, we conduct additional difference-in-differences analyses and a falsification test. Data Our data include the population of 3 three cohorts of 8theighth -graders enrolled in Kentucky public schools between 2008 and 2010. The total analytic sample size is 100,212. The data include student test scores, student background characteristics, and school characteristics. Findings In the case of the CCSS transition in Kentucky, our findings suggest that students continued to improve their college -readiness, as measured by ACT scores, during the early stages of CCSS implementation. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the positive gains students made during this period accrue to students in both high- and low-poverty schools. However, it is not conclusive that the progress made in student college -readiness is necessarily attributable to the new content standards. Conclusions As we seek to improve the education of our children through reforms and innovations, policymakers should be mindful about the potential risks of excessive changes. Transition issues during the early stages of major educational changes sometimes lead to short-term effects that are not necessarily indicative of the longer-term effects of a program or intervention. Nevertheless, standards-based reforms are fairly frequent, and each takes multiple years to be fully implemented, affecting millions of students. Therefore, we encourage researchers and policymakers to pay more attention to the importance of transitional impact of educational reforms.

Leading Common Core State Standards Implementation: Lessons From One Successful Superintendent

ABSTRACTThe Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are required in most of the nation’s public schools, and many superintendents have been tasked with implementing them in their school systems. Using leadership for learning as a conceptual framework, this case study examined the leadership behaviors of one superintendent in a Midwestern state, whose district was an early CCSS adopter. Findings revealed that the superintendent was successful in developing a shared CCSS vision; expanding district capacity through distributed leadership; providing professional development and instructional coaching supports; and responding to implementation challenges, which included maintaining open communications channels with stakeholders and managing teacher stress.

Questioning reform in the standards movement: professional development and implementation of common core across the rural South

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted in an effort to create a consistent set of standards across schools, districts, and states in order to ensure equality of educational opportunities for all students in the country. Educational reform through standardization implies that across thousands of miles and millions of students, individual classroom teachers are able to create equitable instruction based on policy and curriculum mandates. For such reform efforts to be successful, standards must be implemented with fidelity, thoroughness, and strong support from stakeholders. The present study examines the role of teacher preparation for CCSS implementation, notably in rural and economically depressed districts in the American South. Teachers were surveyed about their CCSS professional development experiences and needs, CCSS instructional and assessment practices, and perceptions of student learning related to new standards. The analysis reveals that teachers do not feel fully prepared to teach according to CCSS, and highlights areas of professional development where districts failed to support effective teacher implementation. Findings from this study illustrate inequitable professional development for teachers and provide implications for professional development types, content, and quality that teachers perceive as essential for CCSS success.

Adoption of the Six Traits Analytic Writing Model with a Low-Income Student Population

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have renewed attention on writing instruction. This study investigates the impact of teachers’ use of the Six Traits Analytic Writing model on random stratified samples of upper elementary students from a low-income population. All students, on average, made significant gains in each of the six traits during the school year. However, students in the Six Traits group made significantly greater gains in the trait of voice. The Six Traits Model showed some promise in improving the writing achievement of a low-income population, a critical concern in the current context of CCSS implementation.

Challenges to Common Core State Standards Implementation: Views From Six States

The implementation of the Common Core State Standards has posed a number of challenges for school leaders. This study applies a policy implementation conceptual framework to analyze data gathered f...

States’ Description of Common Core State Standards to Support Students with Severe Disabilities

A review of State Department of Education and school district websites was conducted to determine how policy related to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) was communicated to teachers of students with severe disabilities. Four states were selected: California, New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. State Department of Education websites and three local school districts within each state were chosen for review using locale codes to ensure representation of city, suburban, and rural districts. A total of 16 websites were analyzed using an original instrument designed to capture information about CCSS implementation efforts. Results indicate that there is little information about students with severe disabilities or instructional/pedagogical guidance for teachers in regard to the CCSS on these sites. Thus, it may be difficult for teachers, based on this sample of websites, to translate standards into educational programming for students.

A University and District ESOL Partnership: Collaboration Within the Context of Common Core State Standards Implementation

This article examines a pilot project that engaged a university-based teacher educator as a collaborating partner within a local school district. The partnership was established to provide English to Speakers of Other Languages teachers with professional development in a school district with a growing English learner population. The process for developing this innovative collaboration and teacher perceptions of this work are analyzed, with a focus on the specific demands and opportunities resulting from Common Core State Standards implementation. In particular, how this university and district collaboration provided opportunities to grapple with meeting the instructional needs of English learners within the context of Common Core State Standards implementation and teacher perceptions of engaging with a university-based partner are illuminated. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The social networks and paradoxes of the opt-out movement amid the Common Core State Standards implementation: The case of New York

Opting out of state standardized tests has recently become a movement—a series of grassroots, organized efforts to refuse to take high-stakes state standardized tests. In particular, the opt-out rates in the state of New York reached 20% in 2015 and 21% in 2016. This study aims to illustrate the social networks and examine the paradoxes that have propelled the opt-out movement in New York—the movement’s epicenter with the highest opt-out rate in the United States. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of social movement theory, social network theory, and policy paradox, this study compiled the opt-out corpus by using the data from 221 press-coverage and 30 archival documents. Social network analysis was performed by examining the relational data that suggest coalition ties between movement actors. Further, to explicate how the movement actors forged coalition ties, all data in the corpus were then coded by Stone’s framework of policy paradox regarding how the movement goals were articulated, how the movement was framed, and what policy solutions were mobilized. In addition to identifying the movement actors and two competing coalitions, it is found that to forge coalition ties, the movement actors in the opposing coalitions articulated contested goals of standardized testing, framed the movement via symbols, numbers, and interests, as well as mobilized policy solutions via inducements, rights, and power. The findings have important and timely implications for policymakers and movement actors as they seek and advance on common ground to make substantive changes in education policy.

Tied to the Common Core

Purpose: Researchers and scholars have called for greater attention to collaboration among and between educational leaders in districtwide reform. This work underlines the important social aspect of such collaboration and further investigates the type of professional interaction among/between district and school leaders particularly around the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and characterizes such interaction by key factors. Research Method: The work takes place in one school district of more than 30 schools serving students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds. Descriptive statistics, multilevel social network modeling, and network sociograms are used to understand the characteristics of professional interactions around CCSS implementation among district and site leaders. Findings: The findings indicate similarities and differences in characteristics of leaders who likely seek CCSS advice and leaders who likely provide that CCSS advice. Leader self-efficacy in implementing the CCSS positively explains the likelihood of both seeking and providing advice behaviors, and yet other factors (organizational learning, leadership, job satisfaction, and CCSS beliefs) each makes different contributions to the likelihood of seeking and/or providing the CCSS advice. Conclusion and Implications: This work suggests a discrepancy of leaders’ perceptions between advice seekers and providers, signaling a need for closing the perception gap between advice seekers and providers such that the leadership team could better craft coherent norms of collaboration in instructional improvement. Understanding the “why” of CCSS advice ties may help guide leaders toward the “how” to align professional and social aspects of change.

On the frontline of CCSS implementation: A national study of factors influencing teachers’ perceptions of teaching conditions and job satisfaction

AbstractThe Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent an unprecedented change in American education. As an increasingly integral part of the school accountability movement under No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, responsibility for implementing CCSS rests largely with school leadership. One important factor in the success or failure of these efforts is the perceptions and experiences of the teachers who will ultimately employ CCSS in the classroom. This survey study examined teachers’ views of CCSS implementation, teaching conditions, collaboration, and job satisfaction. Factor analysis revealed that the openness and activeness of school leadership had a significant effect on teachers’ perceptions of implementation, suggesting that attention to these aspects of leadership is an important consideration during transition to CCSS.

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Implementation of the Literacy Common Core State Standards for English Language Learners and Students With Disabilities

This qualitative study explored the experiences of U.S. teachers of English language learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities (SWDs) as they sought to align the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) with previously used standards and instructional approaches during the first year of CCSS implementation. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 20 ELL and SWD literacy teachers to investigate (1) the teachers’ experiences as they began the alignment of their curriculum and teaching methods with the CCSS, (2) the teachers’ perceptions of the support that they received and that they still require, and (3) the teachers’ perceptions of the challenges to and potential for implementation. Four themes emerged from analysis of the interview data: alignment to the CCSS, teacher comfort level, best teaching practices, and challenges of teaching literacy. The authors conclude that broad-based alliances across schools, districts, and communities are needed to support professional development that responds authentically to the challenges revealed, as well as understanding at all levels that time and support are critical for teachers of special needs students.

Developing and assessing educator beliefs about the common core

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) potentially shifts the way US schools approach teaching and learning. Research suggests that it is important to understand how educators view the CCSS and how they believe the CCSS may impact their practice. We developed and tested an instrument to investigate educator beliefs about the implementation of CCSS. We collected data from two samples of educators regarding their beliefs about the CCSS in mid-size school districts in California that had begun to introduce the CCSS. Our results indicate that the instrument consistently measured three interrelated, yet distinct, sub-constructs of educator beliefs about the CCSS implementation and that the sub-constructs are statistically significantly associated with trust, professional knowledge, and the pattern of CCSS-related professional interaction.

Common Core State Standards and Writing

AbstractThe Common Core State Standards (CCSS) provide a new and ambitious blueprint for the teaching of writing. They provide goals and expectations for the writing knowledge and skills students are expected to master as they move from kindergarten to grade 12. CCSS also places writing at the center of the educational reform movement in the United States, making writing a more integral part of the curriculum and learning. While these standards have generated considerable controversy within and outside the educational community, the benefits of CCSS for writing far outweigh any potential limitations. At the most basic level, the implementation of CCSS should result in more writing and writing instruction in schools. This is not a trivial accomplishment, as a majority of American students’ writing is in need of improvement.

Moving Forward with Common Core State Standards Implementation: Possibilities and Potential Problems

The standards-based education reform has reshaped curriculum in the United States. This reform came about in large part as a result of the 1983 report A Nation at Risk (U.S. Department of Education, 1983), which urgently warned that something needed to be done to fix failing schools across the nation. This report undoubtedly transformed teaching and learning in schools, despite the fact that almost three decades later our nation still faces the problem of poor student achievement (Dee & Jacob, 2010; Toch, 2012). The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was an attempt to use recommendations from the earlier report to reform education practices, but it had questionable success. The current attempt to address student achievement concerns written by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA) is the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative (NGA & CCSSO, 2010). Although not fully implemented yet, there are already foreseeable advantages and disadvantages to the new standards. This perspective piece examines the possibilities and potential problems of this newest reform effort as it relates to social justice and the skills required for current and future educators to implement it.