Gov. Dannel Malloy recently launched the Connecticut Core Initiative, aimed at providing additional resources for public schools and keeping parents, teachers, administrators and students working together to meet the Common Core education standards.
The initiative is a series of steps the state will take to implement the final report from the Educators’ Common Core Implementation Task Force. The 25-member group of educators and parents was created by Malloy and tasked with identifying challenges and gaps in Common Core preparation. It also makes recommendations on how to successfully implement the standards.
The recommendations the task force presented will allow Malloy’s office to take “quick and deliberate action to improve support for teachers and ensure that Connecticut students succeed,” Malloy said in a statement.
The Common Core is a set of rigorous standards in math and English language arts applied universally in many states. The standards outline what students should be able to do by the end of each grade and are an attempt to ensure all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in college and a career.
Some of the task force’s recommendations and actions to be taken by the state include the following:
Recommendation: Fund more time for teachers to receive professional development training.
Action: Malloy instructed the state Department of Education to allocate at least $2 million to fund at least 1,000 professional training days for teachers. All districts are eligible to apply to receive training from Common Core coaches.
Recommendation: Include the voices of teachers and parents for the successful implementation of the new standards.
Action: Malloy instructed the state Department of Education to create a professional support grant advisory committee. The committee, which includes teachers recommended by community and state-level administrators, will recommend finalists for up to $1 million in mini-grants to get additional Common Core resources.
Recommendation: Focus on children who are English language learners and have special needs.
Action: Malloy has directed the state Department of Education to use $2 million for professional development in K-12 classrooms to focus on enhancing math and English instruction for students, including those with special needs. The state Department of Education also will add training for special-education and English as a second language teachers.
Recommendation: Provide financial support for districts as they make changes and upgrades to implement the new standards.
Action: Malloy’s capital budget for fiscal year 2015 authorizes $10 million to be used for school technology upgrades.
Recommendation: Engage all stakeholders in a dialogue to support the effective implementation of the new standards across the state.
Action: The state Department of Education will provide back-to-school kits to school leaders to support effective communication with parents and the community about changes taking place in districts as it relates to the new standards. The department will also provide webinars to principals on how to implement standards at the school level and reach out to district leaders to survey their needs.
From March to June, the task force engaged in weekly meetings designed to promote investigation, discussion, analysis and actionable plans. The task force hosted visiting school teams from four districts within the state to share best practices and better understand the challenges of implementing the new standards. The task force also sent visiting teams to three more districts within the state. The task force developed its recommendations after reviewing the data collected in surveys.
“While the work of the task force is complete, this is by no means the end of the conversation,” Malloy said in the statement. “The bottom line is this: We will provide additional resources to public schools, and we are committed to an ongoing dialogue with everyone over the coming months.”
Currently, 43 states, the District of Columbia, four territories and the Department of Defense Education Activity have adopted the Common Core.
