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Your source of K-12 educational resources--for educators, by educators

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More Common Core links from the Teaching Channel

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183 Common Core aligned video lessons for parents and teachers

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The best Common Core app for Apple, Android, or Windows

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Features Plans & Pricing Goodies Webinars Contact Blog Join for Free Login

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Educational Apps for Teachers & Schools | MasteryConnect

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MasteryConnect provides formative assessment and competency-based learning solutions to over 2 million and 21 million students worldwide. The web-based platform, which includes Socrative, helps teachers drive student outcomes and personalize learning.

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NJDOE's main page for exploring the Common Core

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A presentation at Richard Stockton College on shifts in ELA literacy

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Thousands of resources to explain and support the Common Core

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LearnZillion is now Imagine Learning Classroom! By bringing together our products under one brand, united by a shared mission, we have taken the next step on our journey to empower more educators, engage more students, and connect more families to learning!

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Empowering teachers to provide the education every student deserves.

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Most teachers endorse new learning standards being rolled out by states

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Most teachers endorse new learning standards being rolled out by states, a survey of about 20,000 teachers finds.

A large majority of K-12 teachers say that new learning standards now being implemented in most states will improve students' thinking skills, a new survey suggests.

A poll of more than 20,000 teachers, out today from the children's publisher Scholastic Inc., finds that about three-fourths of teachers think the standards known as Common Core will improve students' abilities to reason and think critically. Only 8% say Common Core will have a negative impact on the classroom as schools retool to comply with the new standards.

Common Core is designed to replace the USA's patchwork of state standards in math and reading, with goals that emphasize critical thinking and a more thorough understanding of a few key topics.

The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in 2009 launched the effort. All states except for Alaska, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia quickly signed on, helped in part by President Obama, who tied "college and career-ready standards" to billions of dollars in federal grants.

Conservatives such as Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said this made Common Core all but obligatory. Haley last year said the state should not "relinquish control of education to the federal government, neither should we cede it to the consensus of other states." On the left, education historian Diane Ravitch said the standards weren't adequately field-tested.

Since then, several states, including Michigan, Indiana and Pennsylvania, have put the effort on hold. Last month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, said he'd withdraw from a national consortium that is creating Common Core tests.

Margery Mayer, Scholastic's president of education, said, "I think that teachers see this as a moment of renewal. They like what the Common Core is asking them to do in the classroom."

The new survey is underwritten by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which also has supported efforts to implement Common Core. The findings are based on a national online survey conducted by Harrison Group of 20,157 public school classroom teachers conducted between July 1 and July 22.

While the new survey shows that teachers have a more positive outlook on Common Core than many other Americans, it matches others conducted recently.

A September survey of 3,077 educators by the School Improvement Network, a Utah-based teacher-training company, found that 81% said Common Core will have "an overall positive impact on student preparation toward college and career." And 79% said the issue had "become overly politicized and that they do not support efforts by political groups" to remove the standards.

"When you get down to what's happening in the classroom, the teachers support it," Mayer says. "And without the teachers, Common Core cannot happen."

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1a6a9yi

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Teachers praise new standards for classroom learning

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Most teachers endorse new learning standards being rolled out by states, a survey of about 20,000 teachers finds. A large majority of K-12 teachers say that new learning standards now being implemented in most states will improve students' thinking skills, a new survey suggests.

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Student Achievement Partners offers resources to support the Common Core

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The Core Advocates Program engages educators with the content knowledge and resources they need to support teachers and students in the transition towards a college and career ready education.

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A map detailing Common Core adoption

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An explanation by EngageNY of how parents can help students understand the Core

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A concise overview by the California Department of Education

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7 initial stories about the Common Core from the teaching trenches

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The Common Core lays out what students should know in English and math and was intended to transform American education. But as the standards have rolled out in more than 40 states, they've sparked controversy. Our coverage goes beyond politics to show how the standards are affecting kids and impacting learning.

OECD study of 64 countries and regions finds significant rich-poor divide on math instruction

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Common Core Archives - The Hechinger Report

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The Common Core lays out what students should know in English and math and was intended to transform American education. But as the standards have rolled out in more than 40 states, they've sparked controversy. Our coverage goes beyond politics to show how the standards are affecting kids and impacting learning.

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Resources for Understanding the Common Core

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Resources for Understanding the Common Core

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An educator's guide to the CCSS by Edutopia

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With rumors about the CCSS swirling, it can be difficult to sort out fact from fiction. This article from Common Sense Media includes links to resources that can help you understand the supporting and opposing arguments. Smithsonian's What to Make of the Debate Over Common Core, by Stephen Sawchuk, is another good read. Several CCSS endorsers have put effort into debunking myths - ASCD Policy Points: Common Core State Standards, Myths and Facts is one of those efforts. For more updates from around the nation as events take place, take a look at ASCD's Core Connection Newsletter and Education Week's ongoing Common Standards coverage. Finally, The Hechinger Report's in-depth coverage of CCSS implementation is a good source of stories "from the trenches" and more detailed information about CCSS intricacies and controversies.

Getting Started

Common Core State Standards Initiative

First, go straight to the source. The Common Core State Standards Initiative website is comprehensive and well organized. You can download PDFs of the English Language Arts Standards and the Mathematics Standards, see an interactive map of which states have adopted the standards, read a list of myths about the standards, and check out a FAQ that addresses many questions about them. A Teachers Guide to the Common Core State Standards from the USC Rossier School of Education provides a survey of the standards and includes guidance on helping community members and parents, as well. You can also sign up for a a bi-weekly newsletter with Common Core updates from the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Videos on the Common Core

Teaching Channel offers more than 240 useful videos about Common Core implementation, from broad overviews to lesson ideas for specific standards. They've also developed additional videos and resources, including demonstrations of Common Core-aligned lessons, in partnership with leading nonprofits and teachers' unions focused on implementing the Common Core. And if you're looking for short, accessible videos to explain the Common Core Standards to parents or colleagues, check out Hunt Institute's YouTube channel. There you will find more than 30 videos, from brief animated overviews to details on the standards' specifics to Spanish translations. "Shaping rigorous, world-class education standards" is one of the Hunt Institute's key initiatives, so it has done great work making the Common Core understandable.

Implementation

ASCD's Common Core Resources

ASCD received a $3 million grant from the Gates Foundation to support implementation of Common Core State Standards over a three-year period, and it has become an endorsing partner in the initiative. ASCD has developed a Common Core resource page with a wealth of information, and created a website called EduCore: Tools for Teaching the Common Core. The organization has a twice-monthly, topic-based newsletter, Core Connection (mentioned above), that you can subscribe to.

Common Core Toolkit from the Partnership for 21st Century Learning

Among all the great resources offered by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21), you can find the Common Core Toolkit, a 48-page guide as a free PDF download or in hard copy for a nominal fee. This resource helps map the CCSS to P21's comprehensive Framework for 21st Century Learning. It includes lesson vignettes to show what such alignment looks like in action, resources and links for states and districts working to put the standards into place, and information about assessment.

Achieving the Common Core

As an independent, nonprofit, education-reform organization, Achieve has a mission of supporting standards-based education reform, and it offers both content and policy resources. The best place to start is the Achieving the Common Core page, where you will find a PowerPoint presentation, fact sheets, side-by-side comparisons of the CCSS and other respected benchmarks, videos, and lesson plans. The "On the Road to Implementation" guide is useful and well organized, and Achieve has also developed a Toolkit for Evaluating the Alignment of Instructional and Assessment Materials.

Achieve the Core

Achieve the Core, an initiative of Student Achievement Partners and nonprofit founded by the lead writers of the Common Core, is a website that shares free, open-source resources to support Common Core implementation. Available resources include tools and resources that educators can use in ELA classrooms and mathematics classrooms, information about shifts in instruction related to the Common Core, and guidance and tools to help evaluate alignment of instruction, assessment, and materials to CCSS shifts. New for 2015, a Teaching the Core Video Library includes a collection of classroom videos and lesson materials intended to help K-12 educators align their lessons to the standards.

Lesson Planning

Share My Lesson Common Core Information Center

Ready to start thinking about classroom implementation? Share My Lesson is a fantastic free platform where teachers can exchange lesson plans and ideas, developed by the American Federation of Teachers and TES Connect. Their Common Core State Standards Information Center is a hub for lesson plans and advice. The Share My Lesson team did the legwork of digging through more than 250,000 user-uploaded and -rated resources on the site to find the most relevant ones for teaching with the Common Core Standards -- check out the K - 8 Math Index and the 6-12 English Language Arts Index for lessons mapped to specific standards. They also host a Common Core Forum so that you can join the discussion.

LearnZillion Common Core Lesson Plans

Another place to look for high-quality, teacher-produced lesson plans that align to the CCSS is LearnZillion, a learning platform that combines video lessons, assessments, and progress reporting. In addition to sortable Math and ELA video lessons, they offer a handy Common Core navigator. This organization has a great backstory -- started by a public school in Washington D.C. as a home-grown repository for screencast lessons made by their teachers, they caught the attention of edtech funders and ended up with seed money to take their idea to a national level. Watch a video or read a blog and hear a podcast from Marketplace about LearnZillion.

Khan Academy Practice Problems

Looking for resources to support math instruction? Khan Academy has created thousands of CCSS-aligned math problems, created and reviewed by math educators. Check out the Common Core map on their website to browse skills and related math exercises by grade and relevant standard. Adaptive software helps to identify gaps and show progress on each student's learning dashboard, and real-time tracking data is available to teachers.

BetterLesson Common Core Lesson Plans

In partnership with the National Education Association, BetterLesson launched a new website in January 2014, featuring over 10,000 CCSS-aligned lessons for math and ELA/literacy. Developed by over 130 current, experienced teachers for every grade level, the featured lessons include the teachers' reflections and insights, student work examples, and an array of other supporting materials.

Assessment

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)

As one of the two state-led collaboratives developing new assessments that align with the Common Core Standards, PARCC received a $186 million Race to the Top grant. You will find a solid implementation page on its website with guides, webinars, workbooks, and more resources for the transition period. PARCC also offers a page called For Educators, designed specifically for teachers in the trenches. PARCC is a consortium of states, and 13 states are participating in administration of the PARCC tests during the 2014-15 school year.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

The other group that received a comparable sum in federal funding to create next-generation K-12 assessments is the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Since we first published this article, Smarter Balanced launched a permanent website with a much heartier resource page, with various articles and links, and information about Race to the Top. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium consists of 22 governing and five advisory states, and it's on a timeline similar to PARCC's.

Educational Testing Service's Center for K-12 Assessment and Performance Management

Educational Testing Service (ETS) is now working with Smarter Balanced and PARCC on the new systems of assessment through its Center for K-12 Assessment and Performance Management. The K-12 center has created graphic illustrations to explain each of the two systems. (Download the PDF for PARCC or the PDF for Smarter Balanced.) The center also publishes webinars, reports, PowerPoint presentations, and a PDF guide on its work with PARCC and SBAC.

Research

Center on Education Policy's Compendium of Research on the Common Core State Standards

This compendium of 85 research studies from the Center on Education Policy (CEP) was last updated in February 2015 and includes summaries of studies across nine different topic areas. The full compendium is available for download; each of the topic areas is also available to download separately.

Research File: Common Core State Standards by the American Educational Research Association

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) website houses a collection of journal articles published since 2009 on topics related to the Common Core. Some topics include differences between the new and previous standards, the adoption process, underlying assumptions, and whether or not the standards represent an improvement.

More Edutopia Resources About the Common Core State Standards

The Common Core and Curriculum Planning

The Common Core and Assessment

The Common Core and Project-Based Learning

The Common Core and Social and Emotional Learning

The Common Core and Integrated Studies

The Common Core and Brain-Based Learning

The Common Core and Game-Based Learning

The Common Core and Home-to-School Connections

Breaking Down Silos: Career Technical Education in the Era of Common Core by Anne O'Brien, March 2015

How the Common Core Supports Deeper Learning by Bob Lenz, January 2015

When Teachers and Administrators Collaborate by Anne O'Brien, November 2014

Teacher Leadership and the Common Core State Standards? by Jose Vilson, October 2014

The Shift: Media Specialists and the Common Core by Josh Work, March 2014

Teaching Students Not Standards by Rebecca Alber, February 2014

Recent Polls: Do Educators Support the Common Core? by Anne O'Brien, January 2014

From Coverate to 'Uncoverage' by Andrew Miller, August 2013

Five-Minute Film Festival: Digging Into the Common Core by Amy Erin Borovoy, August 2013

The Common Core: Haven't We Been Here Before? by Dr. Allen Mendler, June 2013

Two Paths: How Will You See the Common Core? by Bob Lenz and Ken Kay, April 2013

How Will Common Core Change What We Do? by Erin Powers, February 2013

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Resources for Understanding the Common Core State Standards | Edutopia

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With rumors about the CCSS swirling, it can be difficult to sort out fact from fiction. This article from Common Sense Media includes links to resources that can help you understand the supporting and opposing arguments. Smithsonian's What to Make of the Debate Over Common Core, by Stephen Sawchuk, is another good read.

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The English Language Arts Standards: Key Changes and their Evidence

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The English Language Arts Standards: Key Changes and their Evidence

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A video detailing the English Common Core Standards

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The English Language Arts Standards: Key Changes and their Evidence

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Historical context of the need for change in ELA Standards * Five critical shifts from earlier standards: text complexity; analysis, inference and evidence; writing to sources; mastery of writing and speaking; academic vocabulary * Importance of academic vocabulary, especially for English Learners

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Key Takeaways from the Language Arts Standards

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Key Takeaways from the Language Arts Standards

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An explanation of what makes the Common Core different

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Presentation giving an overview of the Common Core initiative

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Here are the links to both English and Math Common Core Standards

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Building on the best of existing state standards, the Common Core State Standards provide clear and consistent learning goals to help prepare students for college, career, and life. The standards clearly demonstrate what students are expected to learn at each grade level, so that every parent and teacher can understand and support their learning.
The standards are:

1. Research and evidence based

2. Clear, understandable, and consistent

3. Aligned with college and career expectations

4. Based on rigorous content and the application of knowledge through higher-order thinking skills

5. Built upon the strengths and lessons of current state standards

6. Informed by other top-performing countries to prepare all students for success in our global economy and society

According to the best available evidence, the mastery of each standard is essential for success in college, career, and life in today's global economy.

With students, parents, and teachers all on the same page and working together toward shared goals, we can ensure that students make progress each year and graduate from high school prepared to succeed in college, career, and life.

The standards focus on core concepts and procedures starting in the early grades, which gives teachers the time needed to teach them and gives students the time needed to master them.

The standards draw on the most important international models, as well as research and input from numerous sources, including educators from kindergarten through college, state departments of education, scholars, assessment developers, professional organizations, parents and students, and members of the public.

Because their design and content have been refined through successive drafts and numerous rounds of state feedback, the standards represent a synthesis of the best elements of standards-related work in all states and other countries to date.

For grades K-8, grade-by-grade standards exist in English language arts/literacy and mathematics. For grades 9-12, the standards are grouped into grade bands of 9-10 grade standards and 11-12 grade standards.

While the standards set grade-specific goals, they do not define how the standards should be taught or which materials should be used to support students. States and districts recognize that there will need to be a range of supports in place to ensure that all students, including those with special needs and English language learners, can master the standards. It is up to the states to define the full range of supports appropriate for these students.

No set of grade-specific standards can fully reflect the great variety of abilities, needs, learning rates, and achievement levels of students in any given classroom. Importantly, the standards provide clear signposts along the way to the goal of college and career readiness for all students.

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Building on the best of existing state standards, the Common Core State Standards provide clear and consistent learning goals to help prepare students for college, career, and life. The standards clearly demonstrate what students are expected to learn at each grade level, so that every parent and teacher can understand and support their learning.

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Here is the homepage for the Common Core Standards

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Disclaimer: On this page you can find the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts. The standards are temporarily located on this page while we work to address technical challenges with CoreStandards.org. Thank you for your patience and we will share an update on CoreStandards.org when we have one.
English Language Arts Standards English Language Arts Standards (ADA Compliant) Mathematics Standards Mathematics Standards (ADA Compliant)

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Disclaimer: On this page you can find the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts. The standards are temporarily located on this page while we work to address technical challenges with CoreStandards.org. Thank you for your patience and we will share an update on CoreStandards.org when we have one.