The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of class size reduction (CSR) on student performance while implementing Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The researcher sought to examine test scores specifically in 1st grade classrooms during the 1st year implementation of CCSS. Additionally, the researcher wanted to assist school leaders in identifying ways to motivate teachers to perform at the highest level and focus on student outcomes. The results indicated that students in the CSR classes had higher scores than the students in the non-CSR classes in some subjects. The findings from this study were consistent with the studies in the literature. There was a difference in the pre-test scores and the post-test scores of the CSR and non-CSR. The post-test scores were higher for the students enrolled in the reduction classes. School leaders should consider reducing class size and find a balance between CCSS and the Mississippi frameworks. This challenge will require the support and understanding of the entire learning community and other key members of the educational community. School leaders will be primarily responsible for ensuring this new initiative is put into practice at a high level of rigor to ensure that students are prepared for college and/or a career.

At one local school site in Georgia, a subgroup of students did not achieve a score of at least 800 on the state's Criterion Referenced Competency Test in math. To improve student success, the local site implemented professional development (PD) for teachers. Successful PD has been shown to promote effective teaching practices, which in turn, have resulted in improved student learning. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore 5th grade teachers' lived experiences of PD and its influence on their application of the Common Core state standards. Bandura's social cognitive theory of self-efficacy guided the study. In-depth interview data were gathered from 5 teachers who taught 5th grade and experienced at least 3 PD sessions. Data from the interviews were transcribed, open coded, and then analyzed with the interpretive model in search of common themes. The 5 teachers' narratives identified ineffective and irrelevant PD and insufficient math resources for teaching the state's math standards. Based on the findings, 3 original PD sessions on the planning and implementation of the state standards were created and additional training and resources were recommended to the local site. This study may promote positive social change by helping local teachers improve their instruction of the state's mathematics standards, thereby improving the mathematics education of students.

The problem that anchored this study was district leaders' and administrators' lack of clarity regarding teacher concerns about the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) implementation in high school math. The purposes of the study were to (a) examine the perception of high school math teachers regarding the barriers for successfully implementing the CCSSM, and (b) to elicit recommendations for teacher preparation. Ely's theory of change was utilized to relate the entity of the CCSSM to this new shift in education. To better understand this phenomenon, 2 research questions accompanied this study. The research questions were geared to not only understanding teacher perceptions but also discovering strategies to assist educators with implementing the new CCSSM. Using purposeful sampling, 5 participants participated in this case study; the data collection components were an open-ended survey, interviews, and field notes. Data were analyzed by hand, using inductive reasoning and the process of coding to determine themes. The results indicated that teachers needed to know more about the standards and needed the time to gain this efficacy. Based on the themes of the study, a professional development was chosen to represent the project. Implications for positive social change are to bring awareness to teachers who are implementing the CCSSM in secondary schools, by ensuring teachers articulate consistent conversations with stakeholders, gain a form of self-efficacy, and think not only procedurally but conceptually to implement the standards. Teachers will acquire knowledge and skills to effectively educate students to become thinkers and problem solvers. This outcome will contribute to the development of college and career ready individuals.

No description available.

With the transition to Common Core, school librarians are called to collaborate with teachers as well as to provide library media instruction for the preparation of our students in college and career readiness. How do we assist our teachers with Common Core instruction while preserving our love of fiction? How do we achieve Common Core Standards in our own instruction while sharing our treasured stories? Although Common Core focuses on informational text, there are numerous ways in which we can incorporate fiction as well as nonfiction into the curriculum.

Researchers have found considerable evidence that information about school performance affects people's choices about which schools to send their children to and even where to live. In contrast, little attention has been paid to the effects of school performance information on people's political behavior. Yet Hirschman (1970) famously highlighted the importance of taking seriously not only economic forces, but also the role of "political mechanisms", that is, "non-market forces" or "voice", in analyzing people's responses to school performance and the implications of these responses for school outcomes. This dissertation explores the effect of information about student and school performance on people's political attitudes and behavior. I first present findings from an original dataset of school board elections in Florida that indicate that voters fail to punish school board incumbents in response to information signaling poor school performance. There is even evidence that voters sometimes reward incumbents for failure. I next analyze a dataset that links student test scores in England to a subsequent survey, and find that that informational signals about individual student performance can have long−lasting effects on parental behavior. Finally, I analyze the results of a survey experiment administered to a nationally representative sample of Americans, and find that information about the relative performance of local schools depresses average perceptions of local school quality and increases support for school reforms. / Government

With the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in over forty states, teachers are putting into practice the CCSS text exemplars of text complexity. Of particular concern for the purpose of this research are the kindergarten and first grade (K-1) read aloud and independent text exemplar lists. While not intended as core reading lists, many schools are using these lists as mandated texts. A fundamental goal of primary school education is to help facilitate readers and one way is through the use of interesting and engaging books to motivate students as readers. At the initial stage of the reading process, selecting quality books for a specific group of students or an individual student constitutes an important aspect in engaging young readers. When a story provides a young reader with a material that encourages connections, their motivation to read increases. Research shows that motivation to read increases if a student identifies with elements of the story such as the characters or the setting. This research takes a close look at the kindergarten and first grade read aloud and independent texts through both a descriptive and a critical analysis to evaluate power dynamics and representations in the texts. The research questions used for this research were: (1) What are the characteristics of the CCSS K-1 text exemplars? and (2) What representations of people of color and women are present in the CCSS K-1 exemplars? The first research question was answered with information gathered from the descriptive analysis. The second question was primarily answered with information gathered from the critical analysis though the descriptive analysis also provided insight. Findings from the analyses provided data when viewed collectively that have implications for teacher educators, classroom teachers, and policy makers.

Implementation of previous U.S. standards-based education initiatives has been challenging due to, among other issues, the lack of common and consistent meaning of ‘proficiency’ among states. Implementing new education standards for educators means undertaking actions to understand the skills to be taught, develop curriculum, make curriculum more accessible to students, and effectively assess the skills being taught. This single-site qualitative collective case study investigated how three secondary in-service teachers and one secondary student teacher navigated implementation of the Common Core State Standards in a Midwestern rural secondary school.

No description available.

After implementing the Common Core Standards in 2012, local school districts faced additional costs in their annual budgets to train staff how to teach using these standards. One of the problems that faced the school district under study was whether to retain the Common Core Standards and to continue to fund the expense of training teachers . The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of the Common Core Standards on student achievement in a local Pennsylvania school district using scores from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments (PSSA) for Grades 3 through 8. The research question addressed whether there were differences in the students' learning as measured by the PSSAs for the years before and after implementation of the Common Core Standards. The theoretical framework of the study was based on Piaget's constructivist theory of knowing, which explains how students know what they have learned in the active process of learning. A causal-comparative design was used for this study with extant test data drawn from 2 years before and 2 years after implementation. The total sample size was 27,605. A MANOVA was used for all grades' scale and raw scores to discern if a main effect could detect student achievement measured after the implementation of the Common Core Standards was lower than that reported before implementation and the standards had a mixed influence on student learning. This study has an implication for positive change. If educators have a better understanding of the effect of the Common Core Standards on student learning than they would be able to justify additional training.