News
FOR NEW YORK STATE
CCLS-Based Curriculum Tool Designed to Tell
“A Story of Units”
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 4, 2012)—The New York State Education Department has awarded Common Core two contracts to develop Pre-Kindergarten-5th grade mathematics curriculum aligned to the NY State’s Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS). The contracts also call on Common Core to conduct curriculum-based professional development around the state.
“Common Core is gratified to be working with the New York State Education Department and the state’s public school teachers to effectively implement the Common Core Learning Standards in mathematics. We are eager to share our experience in developing high-quality, content-driven, CCSS-based curriculum materials and professional development—and to deepen our knowledge by working with and learning from Empire State teachers,” said Lynne Munson, Common Core President and Executive Director.
Common Core is a leader in the creation of CCSS-based curriculum materials. Common Core’s K-12 Curriculum Maps in English Language Arts have been in use by educators nation-wide since August 2010. The recipient of numerous accolades, the maps are currently being used by at least seven state departments of education, hundreds of districts, and countless teachers, all working to bring the standards to life. Usership includes rural and urban districts, charter networks, districts serving English language learners and both low and high-income populations. The organization has been in the field for more than a year conducting professional development and has learned a great deal about how to most effectively bring CCSS-based instruction into the classroom. Common Core is thrilled to continue this important work in the state of New York and collaborate with teachers to effectively implement the math maps.
Common Core, established in 2007, is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization formed to promote content-rich liberal arts and sciences education in America’s K–12 public schools. To improve education in America, Common Core creates curriculum tools and also promotes programs, policies, and initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels that provide students with challenging, rigorous instruction in the full range of liberal arts and sciences. Common Core is not affiliated with the Common Core State Standards.
Common Core’s trustees are Erik Berg, a second grade public school teacher in Boston; Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief academic and accountability officer of the Detroit Public Schools; Antonia Cortese, former secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers; Pascal Forgione, Jr., executive director of the Educational Testing Service’s Center on K–12 Assessment and Performance Management; Lorraine Griffith, a public school teacher in Asheville, North Carolina; Jason Griffiths, headmaster of the Brooklyn Latin School; Joy Hakim, author of A History of Us and The Story of Science; Bill Honig, former superintendent of public instruction for the state of California; Carol Jago, high school teacher and former president of the National Council of Teachers of English; Richard Kessler, dean of Mannes College The New School for Music; Lynne Munson, president and executive director of Common Core; and Juan Rangel, CEO of Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization.
Follow Common Core on Twitter: @common_core
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May 7 • Common Core receives glowing reviews for professional development offered in Beaufort County, NC. Read the full story in the Washington Daily News.
April 25 • Common Core’s Lynne Munson comments on the pressures of high stakes testing and the effect it can have on student learning in Roberta Munoz’s article “Make it of Break it: High Stakes Testing Pros and Cons” on Education.com
April 4 • Common Core has announced that the New York State Department of Education has awarded it two contracts to develop
Pre-Kindergarten-5th grade mathematics curriculum aligned to NY State’s Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS). News release.
April 3 • Common Core Creating Math Maps for New York State. News release.
March 27 • Common Core has announced that it is developing a series of CCSS-aligned K-8 curriculum maps in history and geography. News release.
March 21 • Check out Education Week’s coverage of Common Core’s “Truant From Schools: History, Science, and Art” event!
March 15 • Common Core releases data showing curriculum narrowing affecting all students.
March 9 • Common Core celebrates Virginia’s decision to abandon SB185, a bill that would have eliminated state mandated science and social studies testing for third graders. You can read more about this issue, and Common Core’s advocacy work, in this recent blog entry.
December 8 • Check out Education Week’s coverage of Common Core’s recent national survey of school teachers.
November 14 • Read Lynne Munson’s response to the latest NAEP results. Joanne Jacobs’s “Linking and Thinking on Education” and the Core Knowledge blog also highlighted her piece.
September 15 • A new Salon.com article highlights Common Core’s upcoming study on curriculum narrowing and quotes Executive Director Lynne Munson: “We were surprised at the extremity of the narrowing indicated by the teachers who took our survey.”
July 22 • Common Core releases new, second edition of its popular Curriculum Maps in English Language Arts. News Release
May 6 • Common Core's Curriculum Maps for ELA have exceeded 2 million page views.
February 24 • Common Core's Lynne Munson writes on "What Students Really Need to Learn" in the lastest issue of ASCD's Educational Leadership.
January 5 • Common Core’s Curriculum Maps for English Language Arts have exceeded one million views. See the press release here.
December 8 • Last week, the North Carolina State Board of Education approved revised social studies standards. Thanks to input from Common Core, among others, North Carolina's students will now take four social studies courses, including two US history courses covering the European exploration of the New World through contemporary time.
October 18 • Common Core’s Lynne Munson participates in a New America Foundation panel of leaders working to bring technology into classrooms in innovative ways. Watch a video of the discussion here.
October 11 • Common Core’s Lynne Munson gives Ed Week her perspective on 21st-century learning: "Twenty-first-century technology should be seen as an opportunity to acquire more knowledge, not an excuse to know less."
October 4 • California Governor vetoes curriculum narrowing bill. Opposed by Common Core, the bill would have effectively eliminated the state’s arts and foreign language high school graduation requirement. More...
Spring 2010 • The new issue of the AFT’s American Educator shines a light on 21st century skills, featuring contributions from Common Core’s Lynne Munson and Laura Bornfreund, eduwonk Andy Rotherham and UVA’s Dan Willingham, Diana Senechal, and Diane Ravitch.
December 4 • EdWeek profile questions motives of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 5
November 10 • You can now read Diane Ravitch’s op/ed on 21st century skills in the Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Metro West Daily News, Lowell Sun, and Quincy Patriot Ledger.
November 3 • Education Week highlights Common Core’s concerns about the appointment of a P21 leader to a key Dept. of Education post.
November • Lynne Munson and Richard Kessler explain why arts education is vital in the November 2009 issue of Parenting magazine.
October 10 • Diane Ravitch’s recent op/ed on 21st century skills has been reprinted in the Providence Journal.
September 16 • A group of prominent scholars, teachers, education reform advocates, and union leaders issued a statement today expressing concern about the program put forth by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) and calling for its revision. Press Advisory (pdf)
September 15 • Common Core’s Diane Ravitch shows how dated the idea of “21st century skills” really is in the Boston Globe
July 13 • Common Core’s Lynne Munson raises concerns about national standards at convention of the American Federation of Teachers. (PDF document)
July 9 • In USAToday Common Core’s Lynne Munson argues that a comprehensive education is more likely than a STEM education to produce new scientists.
July 2 • A USAToday editorial cites and links to Common Core’s “Still at Risk” study which showed how little our 17-year-olds know about history and literature.
June 2 • Common Core releases Why We’re Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don’t, a report showing that the nations that consistently outrank us on international comparison tests provide their students with a fulsome education in the liberal arts and sciences. Why is this news? Because the U.S. is moving further and further away from this model. Read brief excerpts from the documents featured in the report here.
