Staff continues to prepare for Common Core

Local school systems have been preparing for Common Core State and NC Essential Standards, something administrators say parents have and will be hearing about often in the next year.

In June 2010, North Carolina adopted the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted by 45 states and are meant to prepare students for college and the workforce, according to the website about the initiative.

“There is a strong push to have a national curriculum,” said Jason Van Heukelum, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Cabarrus County Schools. “You could argue this is stemming from the economic crisis, the perception that America is lacking behind other countries, especially in math and science.”

He added that, when Common Core is implemented, school systems will be able to compare their students to students from other states.

The first round of testing will not begin until 2014-15 academic year, but to prepare for that, North Carolina has developed Essential Standards that are similar to Common Core to test students during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years, Van Heukelum said.

While these tests are replacing and not adding to the ones students already take, there will be some changes, he said.

“It is a move toward conceptual understanding versus (memorization),” Van Heukelum said. “For example, in history, a traditional classroom had a lot of focus on dates and people, the memorization of facts. Under Common Core guidelines, we will now study concepts, such as human migration.”

He said that other key components are problem solving and critical thinking in science and math.

“We are recognizing a lot of times our children don’t want to push through problems,” Van Heukelum. “(This is about) having kids not give up and try different approaches, and kids will be assessed on the process, not the end result.”

Since the way of testing will change, school system staff members have had to prepare.

Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City school systems began training for the new academic standards at the beginning of the current school year. Both systems have had several professional development days devoted to training for Common Core, and they both have several more scheduled for the remainder of the academic year.

Much of the testing focuses primarily on math and English, but there are literacy and technology standards that are in every subject, Van Heukelum said, so all teachers have and will be trained. Kannapolis City Schools is also training all of its teachers.

Van Heukelum said that teachers are nervous but excited about the new standards. 

When Van Heukelum provided the Cabarrus County Board of Education with an update on Common Core at its work session in December, the board’s teacher liaison Janelle Patterson spoke about it. She said some of the anxiety had to do with the gaps because educators are teaching Common Core this year, but they did not last year.

“Common Core is really great, and I’m excited I get to speak about it,” Patterson said. 

Kelly Burgess, director of student assessment for Kannapolis City Schools, said the teachers seem to think the new curriculum makes sense because of the way it is set up.

“They recognize it’s going to be an improvement and better for our children,” Burgess said.

Both school systems said they are also making sure parents and members of the community are aware of the new assessments.

Cabarrus has a blog on the district’s website under the Curriculum and Instruction section and will have additional information in newsletters and videos, and schools in the Kannapolis system have hosted nights for parents to learn about Common Core, among other efforts.

“I think analytical skills and problem solving will be much more important, and having discussions at home about why things happen will help children,” Burgess said.

She and Van Heukelum agreed that students will be thinking more and improve their analytical skills because of these new standards.

“I want people to know I am excited about the change,” Van Heukelum said. “I think it is the right direction we need to be going to make our students competitive. … If our students aren’t competitive, they’ll be left behind.”

Contact reporter Jessica Groover: 704-789-9152