Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, were designed to prepare students for college and workplace readiness. Although the CCSS ensure that K-12 students across the country study the same rigorous curricula, states have the option to implement the curriculum of their choice.
President Obama has made it clear that every American needs to “get more than a high school diploma.” Enter the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Educators concur with the CCSS and its mission that students must develop specific skills and background knowledge in preparation for the task of getting more.
I’m always reaching to see the ‘intertwingled’ — a term coined by computer scientist Theodor Nelson to describe knowledge that is related and is often connected by cause and effect. The intertwingled nature of human knowledge represents a primary frontier of scientific inquiry in the 21st century, as scientists increasingly examine the nature of interdependent social and natural systems.
It is a new school year and I still find myself instinctively gearing up for the pace and rigor of starting a new year. Until a few years ago, my work was in California public schools, coordinating state-level student assessments, managing textbook adoptions and related professional learning, as well as building library and media services across K-12 schools and districts.
(more…)