Common Core Implementation

Over 150 professionals met in November for these one-day sessions, a full day on Math in Chester and another day in Brattleboro for English Language Arts. Thanks to Vermont Department of Education staff and other presenters, we were all introduced to issues of text complexity in ELA, along with the need to focus on skills related to informational text.

In math, there was attention to problem solving skills and the need to be attentive to the impressive Standards for Mathematical Practice that appear at the beginning of the Math Common Core State Standards.

The hope of DOE staff is that participants have returned to their schools with new information and enthusiasm -- eager to share with colleagues. This would be ideal, but we need to involve more schools in the process as a whole. In the math session, for example, slightly less than half of the schools in our southeast region had even one staff member at the meeting, while a couple of schools had five or six participants. More on this soon, as we work to reach as many professionals as possible!

Educators in this image were working on math implementation issues at the Newsbank Conference Center in Chester.