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Opening the Common Core
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Opening the Common Core
How to Bring ALL Students to College and Career Readiness

First Edition


March 2012 | 192 pages | Corwin

The CCSS open the door to success

Do you wish you could leverage the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to equip all students—not just high achievers—with the higher-level thinking skills they need? You can, and this book will show you how. The authors helped lead their district—Rockville Centre in Long Island, New York—in closing achievement gaps and increasing the number of students who completed four-year college programs. The results of their efforts show a remarkable increase in both excellence and equity in English language arts, math, and science. This book outlines the authors' research-based ACES framework for instructional improvement to help achieve similar results:

  • Acceleration rather than remediation
  • Critical thinking
  • Equity in education for all students
  • Support

Educators will find practical strategies that are applied and developed in model lessons linked to the CCSS and KSUS (Knowledge and Skills for University Success) standards. Understanding why we need to prepare all children to be college and career ready is easy. Making it happen is not. Learn from those who have succeeded, and your students will reap the rewards.


 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
Foreword
 
Introduction
 
1. Becoming College and Career Ready
 
2. Accelerated Instruction for All Learners—the A in ACES
 
3. Critical Thinking Skills: the C in ACES
 
4. Equity-The E in ACES
 
5. Support – The S in ACES
 
6. Using ACES to Build Learning
 
References
 
Resource A
 
Index

"This book is perfectly timed for the release and implementation of the Common Core State Standards. This is exactly what a school needs to use the implementation of the CCSS as an opportunity to change its moral imperative to include a mission to prepare all students for post-secondary education."

Michael Horton, AVID Administrator
Riverside County Office of Education, CA

“The authors equip school and district leaders with a practical, research-based approach to providing an engaging, equitable learning experience for all students.”

Jeff Ronneberg, Superintendent
Spring Lake Park Schools, Minneapolis, MN

“Burris and Garrity use a combination of academic acceleration, equity results, critical thinking, and teacher support to paint a concrete picture of what it takes to get results. They provide both the framework and specifics to create a rich curriculum and instructional strategies that engage all students. The message of combining the CCSS with the recognition and enlistment of teacher talent and ideas is infectious. Engaging and persuasively written.”

Henry M. Levin, Founder of the Accelerated Schools Project
Teachers College, Columbia University

“The authors helped move their district toward national recognition for outstanding teaching and learning founded upon the development of teachers as knowledgeable, trusted professionals. Their book gives teachers and school leaders practical, useful tools grounded in experience and research—tools that help provide all students with excellent and challenging learning experiences that are deep, meaningful, preparatory and not driven by testing.”

Kevin G. Welner, Director, National Education Policy Center
University of Colorado, Boulder, School of Education

“At a time when testing pressures are narrowing the curriculum in too many schools, Burris and Garrity show readers how students can be led to college readiness through sound instructional practices that recognize research and honor good teaching. This book provides teachers and school leaders with clear examples of strategies and lessons that recognize that equitable access to rich learning experiences for all students is critical as we strive for excellence.”

Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education and Founding Director
Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, Stanford University
Key features
  • Uses the adoption of the Common Core Standards as a catalyst for promoting equity, rigor, engagement, and college-readiness for all students.
  • Features an original, research-based model to drive instructional improvement--the "Four ACES" -- Acceleration, Critical Thinking, Equitable Practices, and Support.
  • Filled with curricular perspectives, instructional strategies, and sample lesson plans tied to the Common Core Standards that provide examples of how to implement each of the components of the Four ACES model.
  • Grounded in the same principles that led to the well-documented success of the Rockland County School District in closing achievement gaps and increasing the number of students who completed 4-year college programs.

Select a Purchasing Option


Rent or Buy eBook
ISBN: 9781452284170

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ISBN: 9781452226231
$39.95

This title is also available on SAGE Knowledge, the ultimate social sciences online library. If your library doesn’t have access, ask your librarian to start a trial.