What Are Teachers' and School Leaders' Major Concerns About New K–12 State Tests?
The implementation of new consortia-based tests (Smarter Balanced and PARCC) has created concern among both educators and school leaders about increased test difficulty, score accuracy, technology, and educator readiness to prepare students for the new assessments. In this brief report, the authors...
Next Generation Science Standards: Considerations for Curricula, Assessments, Preparation, and Implementation
From the authors: "Many states’ science standards are based on guidance documents created by the National Research Council in 1996 that do not reflect the scientific advances and educational research findings that have since occurred. Among options for policymakers to consider to update existing...
Illustrations and Elaborations of Math Practice Standards
This section of the Illustrative Mathematics website helps teachers become more familiar with standards for mathematical practice in order to integrate these standards effectively into instructional planning at both the lesson and unit levels. The exemplars give teachers a clear sense of what the...
Instructional Practice Guide: Lesson Planning - Math
While this online tool is primarily designed for instructional planning at the lesson level, it also helps users think about design at the unit level, as it stresses coherence among clusters of standards. Through a series of guiding questions, it walks users through some of the key, conceptual...
BetterLesson
BetterLesson is an online site dedicated to providing educators with access to high-quality tools and resources that support implementation and alignment to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The site features lessons and resources from over 130 selected Master Teachers from across the country...
Independent Reviews of Instructional Materials
These reports were created as a resource for teachers, parents, state and district officials, and others with an interest in identifying Common Core–aligned instructional materials.
Illustrative Mathematics Task Review Criteria
This tool can be used to design lessons and tasks and to evaluate the alignment of existing ones. It was developed for use in vetting resources to be included in the Illustrative Mathematics task bank. Teachers, instructional coaches, and other educators will find it useful for classroom-level use...