Last fall we started a school-year long project to inform and educate the community about the new national Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for learning, which will be implemented starting next school year. The CCSS will be one of the most significant changes to public education in many years.
We will continue this important work by hosting four Community Forums in February, March and April. We invite all of our families to attend at least one of these forums, which will be held at:
- Drauden Point Middle School, 7 p.m., February 19, 2013
- Heritage Grove Middle School, 7 p.m., March 12, 2013
- John F. Kennedy Middle School, 7 p.m., March 19, 2013
- Indian Trail Middle School, 6:30 p.m. April 16, 2013.
At these Community Forums our Curriculum and Instruction department will present a general overview of the new CCSS, discuss what we’re doing to prepare both our teachers and students now, provide resources for families and answer questions.
Illinois is one of more than 45 states that have adopted and will implement the new CCSS, which are national learning expectations that align with international learning standards. The new national CCSS will replace the current state learning standards. This will be the largest education reform to happen in decades.
The CCSS emphasize developing critical thinking skills to help our students better compete and succeed in a global economy. District 202 will implement the new CCSS math standards in Fall 2013, and the CCSS English and Language Arts standards in the Fall of 2014 at all levels.
New standardized tests aligned to the CCSS will also begin in 2014-15. The new tests will be given several times a year to third through eleventh graders, to help teachers better gauge and adjust their instruction through the school year.
District 202 has been working hard for many months in anticipation of the change to CCSS. We already know that the CCSS will change not only what we teach, but how we teach in our classrooms.
So, while our own teachers and administrators work to align our curriculum to new CCSS, we are also making sure that our teachers are equally prepared for this change through proactive and carefully structured professional development.
Still, even if our teachers and students are completely ready for the new CCSS, it will be very important for our parents to know about this transition so that they can support their children’s classroom work.
Please plan to attend one or more of the Community Forums schedule in the coming months and please visit www.psd202.org/commoncore for more information now about the new CCSS.
Together to prepare learners for the future.
Dr. John Harper
Superintendent of Schools