What is this new curriculum in English classes and math classes called “Common Core?”
Parents are being introduced to the Common Core curriculum conversation, and, frankly, the Springdale School District’s educational team is as well.
For the last two years, Springdale teachers and principals have been students themselves about the new curriculum — both what it is and how best to teach it.
As the staff has gotten more comfortable with these new learning expectations, they are now engaging moms and dads and explaining to them how their classrooms will be different, how the instructional-delivery system will change, and most importantly, how our students will learn more and be better prepared for success in the future.
The new Arkansas Common Core State Standards in math and literacy represent world-class learning standards. They will compare with educational standards or expectations found anywhere in the world. As we do our work as teachers and administrators at a higher level, our students will learn more and be better prepared to enter the world of work or to continue their education at college.
The new learning standards are clearly the right thing. They engage students at a higher level. They are steeped in opportunities for real-life applications that will assure the learning is relevant.
As a result, our students will definitely be more engaged in their learning. Students will not have to search for ways to connect what they are being taught with real-life situations; the new Common Core learning is based on real-life situations.
The change in the classrooms will be evident for all to see. That change is for the better.
It is important that each parent continue to be a learner, a participant and an advocate for the proper implementation of the new Common Core State Standards. Talk with your student’s teacher, principal, fellow PTA members — or certainly with the Springdale School District’s administrative team.
We are all learners in this endeavor. Every question is a good question. Like always in this school system, we do our work better when we learn together, when we invest in the learning together and then contribute in our respective ways to get the learning right for all the children.
We are immersed in this process to better serve the children. There is no room for the status quo.
The Springdale School District is constantly “stretching to get better.” The successful implementation of the new Common Core State Standards in English classes and math classes is just the latest “best example” of the efforts of our school system to constantly improve — or as I enjoy saying, to “get better at getting better.”
JIM ROLLINS IS SUPERINTENDENT OF SPRINGDALE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. HE HAS SERVED IN THAT CAPACITY SINCE 1982.