Sweet Sixteen Announced 03/06/2010
 March Madness usually refers to NCAA Basketball, office tournament bracket pools, the race to the Final Four and the highlight film which is called One Shining Moment. On March 4, the U.S. Department of Education announced that 15 states and the District of Columbia will advance as finalists for phase 1 of the Race to the Top competition. The Sweet Sixteen Includes: Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Unlike the NCAA Basketball Tournament, states not qualifying for the Sweet Sixteen are eligible to reapply for Race to The Top Funding. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, said "I salute all of the finalists for their hard work. And I encourage non-finalists to reapply for Phase 2 in June—along with the states that did not apply in the first Phase and the finalists who ultimately do not win." The sixteen finalists are not guaranteed funding, so it is too early to cut the nets and celebrate. While every college basketball coach creates a game plan for the next round of the tournament, the sixteen finalists will spend the upcoming weeks preparing for a team presentation in Washington, D.C. The finalists will be invited to DC in mid-March to present their proposals to the panel that reviewed their applications in depth during the initial stage, and to engage in Q&A discussions with the reviewers. The purpose of the finalist stage is to allow reviewers to ensure that each state has the understanding, knowledge, capacity, and the will to truly deliver on what is proposed. The presentations will be videotaped and posted for viewing on the Department's website at the end of Phase 1. Winners for phase 1 will be chosen from among the 16 finalists and announced in April. Applications for phase 2 will be due on June 1 of this year, with finalists announced in August and winners in September. The only states prohibited from applying in phase 2 are those that receive awards in phase 1. Click here to view Arne Duncan's official announcement of the Race to the Top Finalists (Sweet Sixteen). (Length: 48 seconds) Through Race to the Top, the U.S. Department of Education is asking States to advance reforms around four specific areas:
National Standards Update 07/03/2009
Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class A New Day For Education in the United States 06/01/2009
 46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards The Washington Post By Maria Glod, Washington Post Staff Writer June 1, 2009 On June 1, forty-six states and the District of Columbia announced an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was quoted in The Washington Post as saying, "This is the beginning of a new day for education in our country." Influential Organizations: National Governors Association Achieve - American Diploma Project Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Center for Civic Education Council of Chief State School Officers International Technology Education Association National Council for the Social Studies National Council of Teachers of English National Council of Teachers of Mathematics National Education Association National Science Teachers Association The American Federation of Teachers The Partnership for Twenty-First Century Learning Skills and others....... Important Documents: Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education Common Core Standards Initiative Why Is the Common Core Standards Initiatieve Important for the Country? Council of Chief State School Officers The Case for National Standards The Washington Post By Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers A Call for National Standards The American Federation of Teachers The Partnership’s Statement on President Barack Obama’s Education Plan The Partnership for Twenty-First Century Skills March 11, 2009 The Unfinished Work of the Standards Movement By Michael Cohen, President Achieve Governor Hunt Testifies Before U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor James B. Hunt Institue for Educational Leadership and Policy April 29, 2009 Additional information on National Standards may be found by clicking on National Standards. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the press release announcing the creation of Common Education Standards. What is the Purpose of Your K-12 Curriculum? 05/13/2009
 Smedley said, "A speech without a purpose is like a journey without a destination" (as cited by Koegel, 2007, p. 34). The same can be said about curriculum development. A curriculum without a purpose is like a journey without a destination. Do the teachers and administrators in your school system have agreed upon learning outcomes for students at the end of each grade level? Do teachers and administrators have time scheduled throughout the school year to discuss which instructional strategies are working with certain grade levels or even with individual students? The list below contains several of the skills and understandings that most teachers and parents would agree students should develop during the K-12 experience(s). If a parent moved from another state or country and asked teachers in your school district which skills and understandings are taught in the seventh grade, would the parent receive the same answer from teachers at three different middle schools? Using the list below, add skills and understandings that you feel are missing. Are some of the identified skills more essential than others? Should some of the skills be taught in each grade, K-12? Should some of the skills be deemphasized due to the skills required by a changing workforce? Most importantly, what is the purpose for including each of these skills or understandings in the K-12 curriculum? Is your district's current curriculum meeting its intended purpose? What can be done to realign the district's curiculum in order to meet the agreed upon purposes during the 2009-2010 school year? 1. Citizenship 2. Geographic Awareness 3. Decoding Skills 4. 21st Century Learning Skills 5. Presentation Skills 6. Writing Skills 7. Problem Solving Skills 8. World Languages 9. Literacy Skills 10. Self-Awareness 11. Character Education 12. Healthful Living 13. Personal Financial Literacy 14. Apply Mathematics in a variety of settings 15. Communication Skills 16. The Arts 17. Career Development 18. Interview Skills 19. Critical Thinking Skills 20. How to Apply Skills and Understandings "All learners benefit from and should receive instruction that reflects clarity about purposes and priorities of content." - Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe References: Koegel, T.J. (2007). The exceptional presenter. Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group Press. Tomlinson, C.A., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction and understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Standards and Accountability 03/21/2009
Testing Our Schools explores the closely intertwined issues of Standards and Accountability. Standards are necessary, of course, and so is accountability, but are schools being backed into a corner? If they continue to live by test results, will they die that way? 'High stakes tests,' 'multiple test measures,' multiple opportunities to take tests– How these issues are resolved will shape the future of American public education. This site shares multiple perspectives and views education policy from the presidential administrations of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. On March 10, President Barack Obama spoke at the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Conference in Washington, D.C. To view a full transcript of his remarks, provided by the White House, visit Education Reform. Since this site is designed for educators in the United States and abroad to discuss K-12 Curriculum Development, please share your thoughts on state standards versus national standards and on the President's recent remarks regarding education reform. 50 States - Is Alignment Possible? 03/01/2009
 Are schools in the United States preparing students for life and work in the 21st century? If schools within a state have a difficult time aligning their local curriculum to the state standards, then how aligned are the fifty states? Are some students receiving a more rigorous second grade curriculum than their peers in other states? Does an A+ in Algebra I mean the same in Massachussetts as it does in Mississippi? Should the United States adopt national standards, or should states continue to develop the standards and objectives for public schools? National Standards 02/20/2009
President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have recently shared their thoughts on national standards for K-12 education in the United States. On February 16, Randi Weingarten wrote an Op-Ed article in The Washington Post. Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, wrote "The countries that consistently outperform the United States on international assessments all have national standards, with core curriculum, assessments and time for professional development for teachers based on those standards." | AuthorSteven Weber is the Director of Secondary Instruction for Orange County Schools in Hillsborough, NC. Weber has served as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, and state department of education consultant in Arkansas and North Carolina. He consults school systems in aligning their curriculum and in unpacking curriculum standards.  ArchivesMarch 2010 CategoriesAll |
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