Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Department of Defense schools have adopted the Common Core State Standards. Adoption was only the first step. Ensuring that the standards will improve student learning will require new assessments, curriculums, instructional materials and resources, and professional development.…

Since 1990, when a Fort Meyers (Florida) school became the nation's first core-knowledge site, over 50 other schools have taken pioneering steps to teach this curriculum. Core-knowledge guidelines include school-community understanding, acceptance, and involvement; alignment of curriculum with local and state guidelines; and collaboration and…

One fifth-grade teacher feels it is unfair if some students learn one thing, while others learn something else. Teachers must agree on some core of specific content and resolve to teach it at appropriate levels. Core Knowledge Sequence for grades 1-6 provides model of grade-by-grade content including literature, U.S. and world civilization,…

Describes one district's struggle to implement Maine's Common Core of Learning, model of education that blurred subject area lines and moved toward integrated framework for curriculum and instruction. Common Core presented a set of outcomes divided into four interdisciplinary categories: human record, reasoning and problem solving, communication,…