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T HE ENTERPRISE Your Complete Source For Plainfield News Since 1887
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Volume 125 No. 19
www.enterprisepublications.com
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Raising the Grade Leaving ‘No Child’ behind in New Year will usher in new standards at local schools
H
ow do you know whether your children are getting what they need in school? Yearly, Illinois public schools are assessed against a set of standards set forth by the Illinois Board of Education, in line with federal mandates. The point of the system is to make certain all students are receiving adequate education regardless of circumstance. In 2013, that system of review will change, providing what educators, administrators, and many parents hope will be a clear, effective and accurate assessment of a school’s effectiveness. Illinois is one of 45 states that will implement the new national Common Core State Standards for learning next year, to replace the state learning standards. The Illinois State Board of Education has adopted new Math and English
Language Arts standards for K�12 education known as the “New Illinois State Learning Standards Incorporating the Common Core.” The goal is to better prepare Illinois students for success in college and the workforce in a competitive global economy. In Plainfield, District 202 schools will phase in the Common Core Standards over several years -- Math in 2013 and English Language Arts in 2014. A timeframe for Social Studies and Science Standards still are being determined. “The most important points for parents to understand (about the new standards) are that they are national expectations,” said district spokesman Tom Hernandez, “and they’re more challenging than the current state standards.” They apply to all students, and Hernandez warned there will be transition time. “We fully expect there to be lower standardized test scores, at first, as we transition to the new CCS,” Hernandez
INSIDE
By Sherri Dauskurdas Staff Reporter
“The most important points for parents to understand are that they are national expectations, and they’re more challenging than the current state standards.” Tom Hernandez, District 202 spokesman said. “Teachers are getting professional development (instruction), because the new CCSS will entail a new way of teaching.” The impetus behind the change came from ongoing troubles of the No Child Left Behind program, a cumbersome and often maligned set of standards for rating public school performance. Educators have long argued that the standards are ineffective, made little accommodation for students with language and learning disabilities, and resulted in school wide assessments that often portrayed schools
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as failing despite overall increases in test score and achievement. The idea behind NCLB was to make certain every child, regardless of race, economic status, or learning challenge, received the same standard of education. Good in theory, educators say, but not so effective in practice. “NCLB did some very important things right. Most especially, NCLB created an accountability system for every student and expectations for learning that didn’t See NCLB, page 5
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