Message to staff regarding News Article

Superintendent's Letter

On March 19 the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce sponsored the annual "State of Education" event, presented by Dr. Joe Ovick, Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools; Bob Kratochvil, President of Los Medanos Community College, and myself.  I have chosen to share the PowerPoint presentation that I gave as the focus for this web letter.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will be fully implemented in the 2014-2015 school year.  These national standards are the skills and knowledge young people need for academic and career success.  College and career readiness means the ability to enter college without remediation, or to enter a job with future opportunity, or enroll in a training program.

The goal is student learning and acquisition of the knowledge and skills identified in the CCSS.  Districts and schools will determine which instructional strategies best promote learning and use data to inform re-teaching and acceleration.  Although the standards layout what is to be taught by grade level and course, they do not tell educators how to teach the standards.  Clearly, our focus on research based instructional practices, lesson study, common assessments, data protocols, and teacher collaboration position us for a successful transition to Common Core State Standards. .

Click on the link below to view the slides from the State of Education presentation.  Note the rigor of the example test items, constructed responses, and performance tasks. .

The topic of Common Core State Standards will be front and center well into the future.

Linda K. Rondeau

Superintendent