Huntington Schools 'Off and Running' On New Common Core Standards

Dr. Kenneth A. Card Jr. told the Huntington UFSD Board of Education Monday night that the district’s schools have "hit the ground running" when it comes to incorporating Common Core State Standards into teaching methodologies.

Card's comment came as part of an extensive briefing before a regularly scheduled meeting of the board.

The core standards, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction  said, constitute an “essential, irreducible set of knowledge and skills” upon which school systems provide a foundation for their curricula. He explained that the movement came as a response to a national trend in which statistics for high school graduation rates were rising, but "college and career ready" statistics were declining.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a nationwide movement a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices  and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The standards, adopted by 46 of the 50 states, were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare children for college and the workforce.

The goal? To have school systems tailor their curricula to an agreed-upon body of knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs.

Common Core State Standards focus on core conceptual understandings and procedures starting in the early grades, enabling teachers to take the time needed to teach core concepts and procedures well—and to give students the opportunity to master them.

In July 2010, the New York State Board of Regents adopted the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects and the CCSS for Mathematics as new learning standards for New York State, with the understanding that the state might add additional K-12 expectations (up to 15 percent, as necessary) and adopt aligned Pre-Kindergarten standards.

Huntington schools are deep in the process of aligning to the Common Core standards, Card said. Among the recent actions has been staff attendance at training seminars, professional development sessions, workshops and institutes on the standards.

According to Card, the school district should be fully in line with the standards in 2015. As a focus district for the Common Core standards, he noted, Huntington schools will be part of an early assessment of the results of participation as early as this semester.