Common Core State Standards Leadership Team
Overview
As part of the Common Core State Standards Local Leadership Team we were charged with the task of designing and facilitating professional developments on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The 
primary objective was to help familiarize the faculty with the standards. The teachers are all at varying levels of familiarity and expertise regarding the standards. By the end of the year, the desired outcome was that all of the teachers would deepen their knowledge about the CCSS, become more adept at accessing information about the CCSS, and be able to plan for the continued implementation of the Common Core in the 2014-2015 academic school year.
Responsibilities
- Attend professional developments provided by my school district on the Common Core Assessments in Math and English Language Arts as part of my school’s Leadership Team one to two times per month.
- Meet with the Leadership Team to debrief and plan out professional developments to share with the staff the knowledge acquired at the district PDs.
- Present the material shared with us at the district professional developments to our staff at our local Tuesday professional developments as scheduled by the Common Core Leadership Team.
Reflection
Planning and facilitating professional development around the Common Core State Standard was an extremely meaningful process. I had to deepen my own knowledge of the CCSS in order to plan the professional development sessions and facilitate the conversations. Fortunately, as part of the leadership team, I had the opportunity to attend District led workshops to help deepen my understanding.
The professional developments I helped prepare were a big success as measured by evaluations teachers filled out after the PDs. More importantly though, the PDs were a big success as measured by the evidence
teachers presented in follow-up sessions. In the follow-up sessions teachers would be asked to bring samples of what they were doing in the classroom as a result of the PDs we provided, and the work samples they brought showed they had bought into what was presented to them enough to implement this new learning into their classroom instruction.
While I feel confident that I accomplished the task of assisting our faculty in deepening their own knowledge of the CCSS, I have many concerns about the overall readiness of the district to support teachers to teach in a way that is demanded by these standards. I am concerned that there will not be sufficient professional development opportunities or funding for teachers to implement the standards with integrity. My fear is that school leaders, including myself, will be too reactive when test scores initially decline.
My hope though, is that educators will take advantage of the opportunities that the CCSS present, one of which is to utilize a Project Based Learning approach that allows for integrated, student-inquiry driven units of study that facilitate learning across the curriculum.
Connection to CPSELs
- CPSEL #1 – In planning our professional developments, we made sure we presented the CCSS to teachers in a way that was meaningful. We also wanted to provide strategies they could immediately implement in their classroom that would help students access the CCSS.
- CPSEL #2 - As educators it is critical that we engage in ongoing professional development. I extended my learning by taking a leadership role in facilitating the professional development of fellow teachers.
- CPSEL #5 - My work in planning together with my colleagues specifically addresses standard 5. We would analyze data, including the feedback teachers would provide after every professional development to inform changes to our next professional development.
