FLINT, MI – Officials with the Flint School District are working to ensure that teachers, administrators and parents understand the Common Core State Standards that have been adopted in Michigan.
The district approved a new education plan last month, which also outlines how the district will align to the common core, which are standards that ensure students learn the necessary skills at each grade level to be prepared for college or a career after high school.
In June, a poll from MSN/Wall Street Journal found that 47 percent of the 1,000 people questioned had never heard of the common core standards.
“Parents received CCSS updates at monthly district and building level meetings,” Shamarion Grace, acting executive director of curriculum and instruction for Flint schools, wrote in an email to The Flint Journal. “They received strategies to use with their children at home to prepare them for the content of the CCSS.”
The district said it is implementing the new standards into the curriculum:
- Elementary/secondary English language arts and math curriculum are aligned to the Common Core State Standards.
- Administrators/teachers are receiving ongoing professional development on how to teach the CCSS aligned curriculum.
- Administrators/teachers took the CCSS practice tests to heighten their awareness of the content of the CCSS curriculum.
- Some buildings and students participated in the pilot tests aligned to the CCSS.
Here is a parent’s guide to the standards from the National Parent Teachers’ Association.