Stanford University is joining with the state's largest teachers union to prepare schools for new learning goals that will change the way California students are taught and tested.
The project, which formally launches this week, initially involves training 160 teachers and 24 administrators, who, in turn, will reach about 50,000 educators over three years.
Organizers said Sunday that the collaboration, with the California Teachers Assn., is the largest training effort in the state.
Forty-three states have adopted the Common Core Learning Standards. They are not a curriculum, but a road map of English and math concepts that students are supposed to learn in each grade. The state also has adopted new science standards. It's up to instructors, schools and school districts to decide how to convey this material to students.
"This will help teachers identify good materials and will produce some good materials for them to use," said Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond. "This is also about how you teach."
To learn why Common Core is not good for our students or our country from a pedagogical view watch this one hour teacher created video. The hope is that the new standards will promote deeper thinking and improved writing and will better prepare students for higher-level math and for solving problems in and outside of school. In science, for example, instead of memorizing facts for a multiple-choice test, students would be expected to solve a scientific problem over a period of time, often working in a group, using laboratory materials as well as online resources.
See the full story in the Los Angeles Times.
Linda Darling-Hammond is Charles E. Ducommun Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education and Faculty Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.
© Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.
