The Common Core State Standards Initiative

On October 22, 2015, Trustee Thelma Boac gave an excellent presentation about the origins and goals of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Since there is much confusion about CCSS, I thought it would be great to reproduce the key points of her presentation here. Thanks Thelma!

---------
The common core  is a state-led initiative effort. It is not part of No Child Left Behind or any other federal initiative. The federal government played no role in the development of the initiative.
In fact, the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Act forbids the federal government from intervening in school curriculum development.

State adoption of Common Core State Standards is in no way mandatory. States began the work to create clear consistent standards well before the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and even before the Elementary and Secondary Education Act blueprint was adopted.

In 2008-2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided $35M to a consortium of two non-governmental associations - the National Governors Associations and Council of Chief State School Officers Associations - for the purpose of developing and implementing a new education system in the United States. They called this The Common Core State Standards Initiative and published the plan in December of 2009. State leaders including governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states and two territories and the District of Columbia came together and decided to develop common college and career ready standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy.

The process included defining expectations for what every child should know and be able to do when they graduate from high school. The group set to work creating content standards for grades K-12 aligned with these expectations. States relied on workgroups of educators, representatives of higher education, and other experts to write the standards with significant input from the public in 2009 and 2010.  After this process, states appointed a validation committee to review the final standards. Final standards were published in 2010 and available for each state to review, consider, and voluntarily adopt.

The Common Core State Standards are internationally benchmarked—meaning standards from top performing countries played a significant role in the development of the math and English Language arts/literacy standards.

The Common Core State Standards are important for the following reasons:

• High Standards are consistent across states.
• Standards are aligned to the expectations of colleges, workforce, training programs and employers.
• CCSS promotes equity by ensuring all students are well prepared to collaborate and compete with their peers in the U.S. and abroad.
• Unlike the previous standards, which varied from state to state, this enables collaboration among states.

It is important to note that Common Core is not a curriculum—it is a clear set of shared goals and expectations for what knowledge and skills will help our students succeed.  Local teachers and administrators will decide how the standards are to be met.  Teachers will continue to devise lesson plans and tailor instructions to the individual needs of students.

Common Core is and will remain a state-led effort and individual states will drive its implementation. There are no data collection requirements for states adopting the standards.  Any data collected as a result of assessments are up to the discretion of each state. The standards are designed to build upon the most advanced current thinking about preparing all students for success in college, career and life.

Common core standards recognize that both content and skills are important. 

Berryessa School District is committed to the complete implementation of Common Core State Standards and heavily focused on professional development required to ensure that teachers have the tools they need to apply these standards in their classrooms.

Give budgetary control back to school boards

One of Governor Brown's main philosophies related to school funding is giving control and accountability to local school boards when it comes to budgetary decisions.  That is why last year's action to potentially cap local district reserves was so surprising. There is a bill in the legislature to modify the reserve limit. In the Aug. 27 Mercury News, I encouraged the state legislature to pass the legislation:

-------

As a school board member for nine years, I have pushed hard to spend every available resource on services for students. That includes fairly compensating our employees for the tremendous work they do every day.

We have an obligation to make sure that our spending is sustainable beyond the current year. Using one-time money, as Jan Frydendahl (Letter, Aug. 25) suggests, to provide employee salaries can put districts in a bind in future years. Negotiations and spending plans are driven by three-year budgets in order to guarantee a healthy reserve is maintained three years into the future.

Many school districts only survived the last recession by spending down reserves that were responsibly saved during stable times. The state must return budgetary control to local school boards by passing SB 799, which will allow school districts to do long-term planning as they prepare their budgets.

David Cohen
Trustee, Berryessa Union School District

Optimism Abounds as New School Year Approaches

Too many times in the past, I had written blog posts decrying the poor state of school funding in California, which required that we make tough choices as a school district and cut crucial programs. Fortunately, the economy has been improving for the past few years. Governor Brown and the legislature have shown a strong commitment to investing in public education. So I am optimistic that funding for schools will continue to grow as long as the economy remains healthy. (It is important to keep in mind that another recession could occur and that Prop. 30 is expiring over the next two years, so the state's continued general fund growth is not certain.)

California was 48th in the nation in per-pupil funding just a couple of years ago. It looks like we have moved up closer to the average. Average shouldn't be good enough - as the home of the 7th largest economy in the world, we should be in the top ranks of funding for schools. And while funding has grown significantly since the nadir of the Great Recession, being back at 2007 funding levels means that we haven't seen any growth in nearly a decade. The Governor's Local Control Funding Formula set a target for school funding that won't be reached until after 2020, even at projected funding growth rates.

Having said all that, this past year has finally put us in a position to invest in Berryessa Schools again. We are strategically adding services and restoring cuts, and there have been some exciting changes put in place for the upcoming school year. 

I am very pleased that we have made social emotional well being of our students a key element of our Strategic Plan. Last year, we invested in having a full time social worker at each of our middle schools. But success in this area starts with our elementary school students. So this year, we are funding 3 full time social workers for our elementary schools, which means that the baseline level of support at each of our 10 elementary schools is 1 1/2 days per week. We are also adding two part time English Language teachers to enhance service to our EL students.

As we add more and more technology at our school sites, there is a greater need for somebody at each site to manage and maintain the computers that our students use. We have added funding this year so that each site will have a Technology Champion on the staff. 

It has been nearly two decades since we have invested district money in new materials for our school libraries. This year, we have set aside $5000 for each school to buy new books and other instructional materials.

Other cuts that have stretched our staff are being reversed. All school clerks are now back to the number of hours they had before the recession. And this year, we are adding a new custodian, although we are still several positions below where we were in 2008.

Finally, I am very pleased that our growing resources have allowed us to provide financial rewards to our dedicated employees. They sacrificed so much during the difficult years. Over the past two school years, we have negotiated increase an increase in total compensation for each employee of about 12%. We are not yet where we want to be in terms of paying our employees, but we are closer to the target than we have been in a long time.

The district is working hard to be ready for the start of the school year. We look forward to seeing all the students back on campus on Monday, August 24.