Common Core State Standards: Ready or Not

Common Core State Standards:

Ready or Not

Dee Dee

Introduction

All across America, schools are preparing to adopt the Common Core State Standards, and educational leaders will play an essential role in this effort. Cynthia B. Schmeiser, Chief Operative Officer of American College Testing (2010), embraced this national focus which was established on decades of researched based data on student learning outcomes and academic preparation to succeed after high school. The State of California will phase out current curriculum standards with new national academic standards to prepare students to compete with the same requirements as other children in states who have elected to participate in this endeavor. The new standards are expected to be in place by the 2013-2014 school year, according to Bonnie Reiss, California Secretary of Education (Call to Action, 2011). This is a rigorous timeline, which requires the adoption of new textbooks, professional development for staff and to figure out how to fund this project given the current fiscal crisis faced by districts across the state. Educational organizations are depending upon institutes of higher education to prepare future practitioners with the readiness to implement the Common Core State Standards. As a member of the school of education's leadership team, for a private university, we are developing professional development models to share with districts and meeting with key personnel to conduct round table discussions focused on the successful implementation of the core standards. Institutes of higher education will assist in various capacities to ensure the accomplishments and implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

Challenges to Becoming a Transformational Leader

Educational standards are nothing new to the profession and have been adopted as benchmarks to ensure that students acquire designated skills and knowledge to reach established learning outcome goals. Standards are a key building block in providing a high-quality educational learning environment dedicated to accessibility to rigorous academic expectations for students. The aim of the Common Core State Standards is to expand academic expectations to a national level, which allow for common comparisons in a standardized test. As of this date, the national standardized test, known as the SMARTER Balanced Assessment (2012), is currently under construction. The Common Core State Standards will build upon California's rigorous standards with other states and high-performing countries recognized for relevant global knowledge and skills required to ensure students are prepared for success in college and the workforce. Institutes of higher education must begin to strengthen, revise, rewrite and align curriculum and instruction for teacher credentialing programs to instruct new teachers in the content knowledge and teaching methods needed to teach the Common Core State Standards.

Innovative educational leaders, assigned to schools, districts, institutes of higher education, and other agencies, will be faced with changing the status quo of California's current curriculum requirements, which have been considered best instructional practices for over thirteen years and adopt the national standards that need to sync with schools across the country. This has provided the opportunity to personally step into the role of a transformational leader to establish an action plan to revise and update the credential preparation curriculum to include the essential core standards. This is an occasion for educational teams to examine the components of action research as a contributing effective research method to transform educational organizational practices. Author Donaldson (2007), views the requirements of action research as a venue for the educational leaders to "critically reflect, clearly define problems of practice, have the knowledge for transformative practices