Professional Development with the CCSS

Professional Development will be vital to the life and success of the Common Core Standards. Teachers who are exposed and trained in the right way will be more willing to implement the standards and be supportive. If teachers are not trained right, or the standards are just pushed upon them, there may be some harsh backlash.

Dream Scenario:

I am currently working in the middle school setting, where professional development may look very different than at the elementary school setting. But, my underlying point remains the same - teachers need time to absorb these standards. The CCSS should not be thown out to them the few days before school starts or at the end of the year with the expectation that teachers will implement them immediately.

I would recommend having someone from the State Department of Education of CCSD present an introduction of the CCSS standards and reasons for the switch in a staff meeting at the beginning of the school year, one year BEFORE the standards are implemented. With the idea of professional development for a middle school math department, the CCSS should be rolled out one strand at a time. For example, the 5 strands of standards for 6th grade math are Ratios & Proportional Relationships, The Number System, Expressions & Equations, Geometry, and Statistics and Probabilty. The math department should be presented with the Ratios & Proportional Relationships strand in January of the year before implementation. The department should meet and discuss the standards, look for similarities in the current standards(if possible, align them with the current standards), and look for where that standard is supported in the current curriculum. In February, teachers would receive the Number System strand, and so on. By May, teachers will have thoroughly investigated the new standards and will hopefully feel comfortable implementing them in the coming fall.  Ideally, teachers should be given staff development time to review the standards, and also be paid for afterschool or Saturday meetings. Also, teachers need to be able to ask questions about the standards with people in the Department of Education directly. In turn, the State Department of Ed should also be asking for feedback and willing to take suggestions about implementation.

Reality:

CCSD will inform the administration that they are working on a professional development plan and are working with the State Department of Education to roll one into place. About 4-6 months before the implementation date, administrators will be informed that it will be their responsibility to inform the staff and to provide professional development how they see fit. Administration will go back and forth trying to develop a plan. But ultimately, teachers will receive a fullday training of all of the standards all at once on the first staff development day of the new school year. (One of those 3 days before students arrive.) The next day, teachers will be able to develop lesson plans with these standards in grade-level or subject-level teams. The third day will be more of the same, and the teachers will be unhappy about the lack of time they have for setting up their room. Teachers will have questions that administration won't be prepared to answer. But administration will gladly do some research to answer those questions or concerns during the first staff development meeting after the students arrive.