Settler-colonial narratives permeate the social studies curriculum. This qualitative study engages the experiences and reflections of three teacher-participants as well as the researcher as an additional teacher-participant to explore how and why practicing teachers teach against settler colonial narratives. The study is framed through a…

Guidelines for teaching California's students have changed dramatically in recent years, as state leaders have adopted new academic standards, curriculum frameworks, and instructional materials lists in an attempt to better prepare students for college and career. However, adopting high-quality standards and curriculum materials does not guarantee…

The Common Core State Standards bring the importance of connecting texts to the forefront by sharing that students must be able to "analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches authors take" (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council…

From comics to cathedrals, pie charts to power ballads, fashion to Facebook . . . students need help navigating today's mediarich world. And educators need help teaching today's new media literacy. To be "literate" now means being able to read, write, listen, speak, view, and represent across all media--including both print and nonprint…

The need for a shared vision concerning exemplary curricula for academically advanced learners must be a priority in the field of education. With the advent of the Common Core State Standards adoption in many states, a new conversation has been ignited over meeting the needs of students with gifts and talents for whom the "standard"…

Prior studies portray support for the Common Core in California (Finkelstein et al. 2018; Jochim and Lavery 2015) as well as support for other significant reforms, like the change in California's school finance system (Koppich and Humphrey 2018). Along with enthusiasm for California's policy changes over the past decade have come calls to…

Since the adoption of CCSS by 43 states, there has been growing concern regarding teacher training and preparation of state standards for students with disabilities. Through a better understanding of the kinds of support and training needed for teachers to apply the CCSS, the educational system may offer students with disabilities the experience…

The purpose of this annotated bibliography was to inform an effort to create instruments that would yield indicators of the extent to which the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics or similar standards are implemented in classroom instruction. Reviewed here are instruments reflecting: coverage of classroom content, use of specific…

This report describes the alignment of the Common Core State Standards to the math curriculum at DC Bilingual Elementary Charter School in Washington, D.C., which educates all students in English and Spanish. The alignment of the curriculum has been a multiyear, iterative process. School administrators, as well as the school's instructional…

The integration of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and 21st century skills in the curriculum is not only beneficial to students and teachers, but also necessary to prepare our youth for their future careers. In an age of education where standardized tests determine the success of our schools, it is important to allow students the creativity and…

This paper describes a study conducted to investigate the impact of Common Core (CC) integration on early literacy curriculum systems. Specifically, this study examined perceptions of K-3 teachers and principals regarding extent to which CC integration has changed early literacy curriculum systems and the benefit related to these changes. Also,…

The major challenge with time is finding it. Current school-day schedules and school-year calendars are leaner than ever because of budget reductions. States and districts have implemented furlough days to balance lean-and-mean budgets that show no sign of improving. Few are willing to take the leap toward reducing instructional time to improve…

We examine the distinction between teaching and teachers as it relates to instructional improvement. Drawing from work outside of education on improvement systems and from analyzing the Japanese system of lesson study, we contend that a focus on teaching can shape a coordinated system for improvement whereas a focus on teachers, common in the…

The impetus for this report is new evidence that state department of education work to align instruction with standards may make a difference for teachers' practices and understanding about their state standards. Using data from the RAND American Teacher Panel, the authors found that Louisiana teachers were more likely than other teachers to…

The implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) across the country necessitates revising the English curriculum, asking teachers to incorporate and analyze more perspectives in the classroom as society becomes more diverse. The authors wondered if this reform might provide an opportunity to examine social equity by studying an anchor…