Educators throughout the United States are now called upon to teach K-12 level students mathematics, science and language arts related subjects according to predetermined criteria known as the Common Core State Standards. The United States grants each state the right to govern how they will educate their young people. Although an admirable feature of states’ rights, this type of independence causes inequities in the education quality that students receive depending upon where they live. This educational disparity among states affects students who want to pursue higher education as well as those who decide to compete for jobs in the work force. The Common Core State Standards seek to narrow the gap of educational inequality among states, and today’s teachers are expected to be the primary promoters of these standards. Here is a look at how modern education degree programs prepare teachers to fulfill their commitment to instruct primary and secondary school students based upon the Common Core State Standards.
Continuing Education and Professional Development
Although the issue of educational disparity among states has been recognized for decades, it was only until the Common Core State Standards Initiative was proposed in 2009 that state educators had a real chance at fixing the problem. Today at least 45 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to adopt Common Core State Standards, but many of the states have hit roadblocks when it comes to implementing the initiatives. State education advocates, private training organizations and state universities are working together to quickly bring current teachers up to speed on how to prepare students to meet the Common Core State Standards through intensive professional development training programs.
Updating University Education Degree Program Curricula
The Common Core State Standards represent a complete paradigm shift in the education of K-12 students and requires significant changes to Education degree program curricula for effective implementation. However, strained state budgets have slowed progress toward preparing current teachers to help students meet the new standards. Currently, states have liaised with higher education policy makers and curriculum development teams to make sure Education degree program curricula aligns with Common Core State Standards. Incorporating curricula changes of this magnitude requires sufficient time and money, but the updates are in work among the various public universities.
Evaluating Impact of New Initiatives Over Time
While considering necessary Common Core State Standards curricula changes, universities also have committed to coming up with ways to evaluate the return on investment for these updates. University administrators can quantitatively determine via certain factors like student test scores and the need for remedial coursework for first year students whether their teacher training programs are effective. If these evaluations are constructed properly, state education advocates will be able to determine the weak areas in high school college preparation coursework. Education administrators have the opportunity to incorporate the results of this feedback into their Common Core State Standards aligned teaching programs. The ideal result is to make the transition from high school to college as smooth as possible for students without lowering academic standards.
Conclusion
It appears that state education administrators and advocates favor an incremental approach when it comes to marrying Common Core State Standardss to university Education degree programs. Like many worthwhile organizational changes, the Common Core State Standards are costly, challenging and have the potential for a big pay off for the nation’s K-12 students.
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