New Reports Show Local Districts and Teachers Leading Curriculum Development

Is Common Core really taking control away from teachers? According to a new report, the answer is no.

Latest research by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) finds that it is local teachers and districts that are leading the charge in creating Common Core State Standards-aligned curriculum for their classrooms, discrediting claims that the standards lead to nationalized curriculum.  The report is based on a survey of a “nationally representative sample of school districts in states that had adopted the Common Core in the spring of 2014.”

CEP reports that “in more than 80% of districts in CCSS-adopting states curricular materials aligned to the CCSS are being developed locally, often by teachers or school districts.”  They found professional development is also being delivered locally and “large proportions of districts also reported that teachers themselves are providing Common Core-related professional development.”

That leadership is on display here in Massachusetts, where Teach Plus has been conducting teacher-ledprofessional development sessions on the Common Core. Massachusetts teachers are also contributing to BetterLesson and ShareMyLesson, providing sample lesson plans written and developed by master teachers and made available to other educators. A Primary Sources poll released in early October found that the more training a teacher has the more likely they are to support the Common Core.

Localized curriculum aligned to the Common Core enables teachers to hold students to the same rigorous standards as their peers in other states while maintaining the Massachusetts tradition of high expectations. The right professional development, training, and support for teachers is the key to ensuring that the standards, reviewed and customized by dozens of local educators from K-12 and higher education, are brought to life in our public schools.