From Theory to Practice
Implementation of Common Core at
MS/HS 223
Context
• South Bronx middle school located in the
poorest congressional school district
• 450 students, Title I 95%
• Average teacher experience is about 4 years
• 50% teachers are alternatively licensed in BX
• 40% of principals with 3 years or less in BX
• No book stores, lack of parks, lack of mixed
housing, lack of extracurricular activities
• D7 proficiency rates 20% ELA and Math
First Year
Understanding Common Core
• Reevaluated what we had been doing
• Aligned with District 2
• We had already initiated several of the “shifts”
to common core in ELA and Mathematics
– Connected Math school on the 6th and 7th grade
– Coherence, Fluency, and Application was taking
place. Conceptual understanding was a struggle
– Literacy instruction in all areas
• Context of prepping students for college and
career success
Challenging All Student-Rigor
• Instructional practices were inconsistent
– Turn and talks were more spontaneous and less
planned
– Turn and talk with staff- critical friends
• Assessment did not line up with these practices
• Too many alternative licensed teachers without the
content knowledge base meant our teachers are
learning both content and instruction.
Second Year
Focus on Professional Development
• Uniting professional development around
common language with a common purpose
• Teachers started to practice performance tasks
• PD focused on English Language Learners and
most restricted special education
• PD focused on expanding practices to the content
areas
• Developing Common writing rubrics for
Narrative, Information, and Argument writing.
• Finding experts outside the school
Struggles for Year 2
• Lack of CCLS real world performance tasks in
existence.
– Created our own database.
• Unpacking the standards
– Lots of details in a general format-few examples
• So many initiatives at once-assessment,
curriculum, certification, and evaluation
• Alternatively licensed teachers
• Expecting rather than requiring
• Balancing differentation w/grade level texts
What do you Need to do to Make
Common Core a Reality
•
•
•
•
Passionate people
Common planning time
Content knowledge and experience
Resources to support people-More
examples of tasks.
• Monitoring and accountability
• Quality of experiences for all kids