Drilling Down

There is no doubt that the Common Core State Standards will significantly change teaching and learning. Their emphasis on English Language Arts and Mathematics will place a distinct focus on teaching those skills in preparation for large-scale tests.

It’s equally if not more important to focus on local assessments. These are the assessments that take place minute by minute in the classroom and are used on a daily basis to uncover and display learning. They are embedded in instruction and shared between grade level and content teachers. These are the assessments that guide lesson plans, teaching strategies, selection of resources, and instructional responses.

 Developers of the Common Core say that the new standards will require substantial changes in curriculum and instruction. Few are saying that they will also require changes to everyday assessment. The importance of identifying the gap between the standards and their assessment is as important as closing the gap between socioeconomic groups.

Changes in the classroom will include reading textual material and then demonstrating learning through solving problems, conducting debates, and infusing digital literacy. It is in the classroom with formative assessments, checklists, learning logs, and rubrics that teachers engage students in assessment and use this information to improvement learning outcomes. It’s too late to wait for the standardized test results.