The colleges, universities, and postsecondary career-preparation institutions of Indiana, and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (CHE) value the diversity of our students, their identities, their backgrounds, and their learning experiences. They are committed to helping them succeed and recognize that their success supports educational…

For schools to be successful in providing current and future students with the right support to rise to the level of expectations embodied by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS 2010), school librarians must lead the way to improving school environments using effective, theory-based design of problem-based instruction that includes acquisition…

Proficiency-based instruction focuses on what students know and can do. Proficiency-based teaching and learning is a teacher-led initiative in Oregon that began in the early 1990s with efforts to establish a proficiency-based admissions requirement system for Oregon's state colleges and universities. Meanwhile, many public alternative schools…

How can the use of the Standards for Mathematical Practice in the classroom be supported? Professional developers and teacher educators strive to support teachers as they seek to answer this question. When teachers personally and intentionally experience the practices and reflect on how the practices support and promote mathematical understanding,…

As teachers and leaders move forward in implementing the Common Core State Standards within classrooms across 46 states, it is essential to consider the question of what knowledge is included in the English Language Arts Standards, and what knowledge is not present. The authors of the Common Core delineate an increasingly complex body of knowledge…

Although many English language learners (ELLs) in the United States have knowledge gaps that make it hard for them to master high-level content and skills, ELLs also often have background knowledge relevant to school learning that teachers neglect to access, this author argues. In the Common Core era, with ELLs being the fastest growing population…

One of the rumors making the rounds of K-12 educators goes something like this: The Common Core State Standards do not allow "prereading"--the pedagogical practice meant to help students better understand a text they are about to read--or for that matter any classroom activities that contextualize a text through outside sources. The interesting…

The Common Core State Standards represent an ambitious effort to improve teaching and learning at an unprecedented scale. Adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia, these standards are an attempt to dramatically change what students and teachers do in school, by redefining high-level, thought-provoking instruction as the norm for all…

The Leading for Mathematical Proficiency (LMP) Framework (Bay-Williams et al.) has three components: (1) The Standards for Mathematical Practice; (2) Shifts in classroom practice; and (3) Teaching skills. This article briefly describes each component of the LMP framework and then focuses more in depth on the second component, the shifts in…

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) is different from the objectives that many teachers have previously experienced in their state frameworks. Although the mathematical topics of the two may be the same, the mathematical expectations within the Standards require a deeper understanding by teachers and students. In this article, the…

In this article the authors illustrate an instructional unit based on a Common Core grades 9-10 illustrative text--Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" from "The Joy Luck Club." They demonstrate how teachers can meet the new standards "and" respond to students' 21st-century needs by using this modern classic along with other traditional and new media resources.…

Using an article about labor leader Cesar Chavez's grape boycott and hunger strike, students at Stuart-Hobson Middle School in Washington, D.C., are doing a "close read," a skill prized by the new Common Core State Standards being put into practice in the District of Columbia. As an English/language arts teacher in the common-core era,…

With the assistance of four writers and dozens of expert reviewers, Lumina Foundation for Education offers the first step in creating a Degree Qualifications Profile for American higher education. The Degree Profile is a baseline set of reference points for what students should do to earn associate, bachelor's and master's degrees--regardless of…

This article analyses the specificity of the French accreditation system in higher education as regards lifelong learning. The changes in higher education may thus take on a new significance. The article describes the changes that could come from wider deployment of the system in higher education. The accreditation system introduced in France in…

In San Diego, California, 800 public school students from the inner city are attending a program called School in the Park (SITP), for approximately one-fourth of their 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-grade education. This unique program blends rigorous academic standards (formal learning) with hands-on, experiential curricula (informal learning), using…