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Common Core

In the News: Harvard to help CPS with Common Core April 27, 2012 By: Cassandra West The Chicago School Board on Wednesday approved a partnership with the Harvard University Center for Applied Special Technology Institute, in an effort to ensure CPS schools are ready to meet Common Core State Standards in the fall. (CBS Chicago) Read More \| (6) Comments	Arts education essential for city's future April 09, 2012 By: Bruce Taylor In the recent series of neighborhood cultural conversations convened as part of the Chicago Cultural Plan 2012, the theme of “Ensuring K-12 Arts Education” was a dominant topic of discussion. Yet, the majority of attendees expressed their consensus regarding the dismal record of Chicago Public Schools in this area by giving it an overall grade of “D” in terms of its support of the arts for Chicago’s students. In spite of assertions made that the extended school day would result in expanded time for the arts, in reality it appears that the reverse is projected for the next school year. Read More \| (3) Comments
Testing and the Common Core March 19, 2012 By: Paul Zavitkovsky Everybody agrees: We need Common Core standards because “many 17-year-olds do not possess the higher order intellectual skills we should expect of them.” Read More \| (11) Comments	Ed Week: Common Core poses challenges for preschools December 06, 2011 By: Jaclyn Zubrzycki Although the common-core standards are calibrated to ensure that students leave K-12 schools ready for work and college, they are also posing challenges for the educators who work with children just starting out their school careers. Read More \| (0) Comments
In the News: City schools face Common Core struggle November 15, 2011 By: Cassandra West Some of the best Chicago public schools are struggling to measure up to the recently adopted tougher Common Core curriculum, according to the Tribune. Read More \| (5) Comments	New school reports show stark gaps in achievement November 08, 2011 By: Sarah Karp The marquee outside of Beidler Elementary School in East Garfield Park makes the bold statement: We are off of probation. But when parents trucked into the school last week to pick up first-quarter report cards, they got some sobering news from the district’s colorful new school progress report: Beidler is categorized as a mid-level school in terms of performance on state tests, but less than a quarter of students scored at or above grade level on a different, more rigorous test and only 7.5 percent of 8th-graders met college readiness benchmarks. Read More \| (7) Comments
Common Core: Caution on narrative writing November 07, 2011 By: Steve Zemelman There’s certainly a lot to like in the new Common Core State Standards embraced by the Chicago Public Schools – serious attention to writing, emphasis on reading non-fiction (which college students must study), and a focus on higher-level thinking. At the same time, teachers’ first obligation is to children’s learning, so they must apply these standards judiciously, not unthinkingly. And the standards have some limits. Read More \| (1) Comments	Brizard calls racial achievement gap 'unacceptable' October 24, 2011 By: Lorraine Forte CEO Jean-Claude Brizard challenged a Chicago Urban League audience on Monday to become more forceful advocates for better education, in order to close the widening achievement gap between minority and white students in CPS, especially African Americans. Read More \| (14) Comments
CPS announces Common Core early adopter schools October 03, 2011 By: Sarah Karp Chicago Public Schools announced the list Monday of the schools that will be the first to teach and test to the common core standards, a set of standards adopted by more than 40 states and seen to be more rigorous than the current state standards. Read More \| (1) Comments

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