Opening the Common Core
How to Bring ALL Students to College and Career Readiness
- Carol Corbett Burris - Rockville Centre School District, NY
- Delia T. Garrity - Educational Consultant, Texas
The CCSS open the door to success
Do you wish you could leverage the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to equip all students—not just high achievers—with the higher-level thinking skills they need? You can, and this book will show you how. The authors helped lead their district—Rockville Centre in Long Island, New York—in closing achievement gaps and increasing the number of students who completed four-year college programs. The results of their efforts show a remarkable increase in both excellence and equity in English language arts, math, and science. This book outlines the authors' research-based ACES framework for instructional improvement to help achieve similar results:
- Acceleration rather than remediation
- Critical thinking
- Equity in education for all students
- Support
Educators will find practical strategies that are applied and developed in model lessons linked to the CCSS and KSUS (Knowledge and Skills for University Success) standards. Understanding why we need to prepare all children to be college and career ready is easy. Making it happen is not. Learn from those who have succeeded, and your students will reap the rewards.
"This book is perfectly timed for the release and implementation of the Common Core State Standards. This is exactly what a school needs to use the implementation of the CCSS as an opportunity to change its moral imperative to include a mission to prepare all students for post-secondary education."
“The authors equip school and district leaders with a practical, research-based approach to providing an engaging, equitable learning experience for all students.”
“Burris and Garrity use a combination of academic acceleration, equity results, critical thinking, and teacher support to paint a concrete picture of what it takes to get results. They provide both the framework and specifics to create a rich curriculum and instructional strategies that engage all students. The message of combining the CCSS with the recognition and enlistment of teacher talent and ideas is infectious. Engaging and persuasively written.”
“The authors helped move their district toward national recognition for outstanding teaching and learning founded upon the development of teachers as knowledgeable, trusted professionals. Their book gives teachers and school leaders practical, useful tools grounded in experience and research—tools that help provide all students with excellent and challenging learning experiences that are deep, meaningful, preparatory and not driven by testing.”
“At a time when testing pressures are narrowing the curriculum in too many schools, Burris and Garrity show readers how students can be led to college readiness through sound instructional practices that recognize research and honor good teaching. This book provides teachers and school leaders with clear examples of strategies and lessons that recognize that equitable access to rich learning experiences for all students is critical as we strive for excellence.”
