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CTE Finds Common Core Not So Different, but Deeper

In 1981 Barbara Mandrell released the song “I Was Country, When Country Wasn’t Cool.” In the song, Mandrell reflected on the things she did that were country before others found them to be “cool” and began to mimic those same things.  In many ways, Career and Technical Education teachers could make the same proclamation about…

Teacher Voice: Common Core Deserves the Support of the General Assembly

“Tell me the height of our school.” This is a seemingly easy question, yet one that requires the student to apply a variety of academic and critical-thinking skills. It’s also a very Common Core-driven question and one that I wouldn’t have been able to tackle in my classroom under the old Tennessee state math standards….

Teacher Voice: Common Core Standards Help Our Students Achieve More

They say the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing but expecting different results. Tennessee adopted the Common Core State Standards in 2010. Prior to this adoption we received an “F” for failing to give our students the knowledge and skills needed to compete in today’s workforce. I believe the Common Core…

Teacher Voice: How the Common Core State Standards Have Affected My Teaching

Over the past few years, I have heard a lot of discussion about Common Core State Standards, their roll out, and the assessment designed to measure CCSS. As an educator immersed in Common Core implementation, here are a few of my thoughts. New standards are not new. Standards change as we educators learn more about…

Teacher Voice: RTI² Helps Students Master Challenges of Common Core

There’s a young man at our school – let’s call him Dedric (his name has been changed for issues of privacy) – who has always been a good student. He made good grades in elementary and was proficient last year on the reading/language arts portion of TCAP. But he’s been struggling a little this year,…

Implementing the Common Core State Standards: Four Lessons from Kentucky

I’ve learned a lot over the last 18 months about what it takes to implement the Common Core State Standards in a state. Press around Common Core generally highlights the aspirational components of the standards. The fact that these standards, in comparison to the standards that many states had in place before, will make our…

SCORE Institute Focuses State Leaders on Common Core Standards

On Tuesday, leaders from across Tennessee gathered in Nashville to engage in a broad-ranging discussion about better preparing Tennessee’s students through the Common Core State Standards. Governor Bill Haslam, Tennessee Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman, and SCORE’s Founder and Chairman, Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, all led portions of the program. SCORE hosted…

Communicating Common Core

When policymakers and state leaders talk about implementing the Common Core State Standards, you often hear about the instructional shifts that will need to occur in classrooms to ensure that the standards have their intended impact: preparing all students for college and the workforce. The Common Core standards are drastically different from what we currently…

Common Core Equals Common Ground for Military-Connected Children

There has been a lot of buzz about the Common Core State Standards coming to schools in Tennessee and it is finally here. Over the next two years Tennessee will implement CCSS in public schools across the state, and this past July thousands of Tennessee teachers were trained on the higher standards and what the…

Senator Frist Video: Why We Need the Common Core State Standards

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is featured in a new video that explains the importance of Tennessee’s Common Core State Standards. Frist, founder and chairman of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), says in the two-minute video that higher standards in school provide a foundation for success throughout life. “Quite simply, the…

A+ for New Teacher Common Core Implementation

At 9:00 a.m. on a Monday morning, I find myself walking into a South Memphis classroom taught by a second-year middle school English teacher who is determined to “make a difference in the lives of children.” My initial thought was that within the fourth week of a new school year, I would hardly see any…

As Teacher, Student, Intern: Common Core State Standards Are Amazing, Vital

I have struggled to find the right words to convey how Common Core State Standards are both amazing and important. What lens do I view them through – as a Tennessean, a teacher, a Department of Education intern, or a graduate student?

The Most Necessary Ingredient for Successful Implementation of the Common Core Standards

There is a great deal of anxiety across the state as school districts begin implementing the Common Core State Standards. In Loudon County, we feel clear, concise communication will be the center of a successful implementation. This communication needs to include all stakeholders–administrators, teachers, students, and their families and communities. But how do we get…

Dr. Bob Kronick: Don’t Throw Away Progress Made via Common Core

Knoxville News Sentinel, September 7, 2013. Reprinted by permission. I am passionate about education, particularly breaking the cycle of poverty and low education rates of at-risk students and their families. I believe in and have invested a significant amount of my life’s work in the full-service community school model, which encourages collaboration and coordination of…

The Common Core State Standards for ELA Will Match College Rigor

74. That was the grade on my first college essay. I expected high standards from my Humanities professor (a.k.a., the infamous philosophy professor with a PhD from Harvard), but I graduated high school with all A’s in my English classes, including two AP subjects! I was mortified.

In the Common Core, Rigor is Precision

When I recently spoke to a group of high school juniors from East Tennessee about education reform, I asked a simple question: “How many of you have been consistently challenged academically throughout your schooling?” Not a single student raised her hand.

Common Core sets bar for achievement

This post originally appeared in the 12/12/12 Commercial Appeal. There I was. A former honor student who had graduated at the top of her class, gotten a 5 on four of the six Advanced Placement exams I had taken, been accepted to all 10 colleges I’d applied to, staring at words I had never seen…

VIDEO: Rural Education Network Common Core Convening

Last month, the Rural Education Network held its first in-person meeting in Nashville. During the meeting, more than 70 participants learned more about Common Core implementation efforts in partner states and had the opportunity to identify challenges to implementation efforts as well as innovative approaches, regional collaborations, and possible resources to advance implementation in rural…

Teachers Get Schooled in Common Core State Standards

They parked on curbs and grass islands. SUVs and minivans clogged bus lanes. They were teachers, administrators, librarians, and professors, and they had come to Freedom Middle School in Franklin on a midsummer’s day to participate in TNCore training. 

Recap Video: ‘A Common Cause: Better Preparing Tennessee’s Students through the Common Core’