Principal Talks Common Core

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Created on Tuesday, 18 November 2014 17:14

Written by Yolanda Liang

ST. JOHNSBURY — It is the first year that Common Core assessment will be implemented in schools nationwide. Common Core is a set of clear college- and career- ready standards for K-12 in English language arts, Literacy and Mathematics, which is designed to ensure that students are well-prepared and get ready for the two- or four-year college programs or enter the workforce.

Principal of the St. Johnsbury School, Regina Quinn, went to the St. Johnsbury School Board Meeting on Monday night to give presentations on the different aspects of the Common Core. She believed that this would help people better understanding it.

“Some of the school departments have heard about the Common Core, but they do not have a full knowledge of it,” Quinn said. “We just start getting the information about what the assessment looks like, it will be a good opening for them to go in depth about the standards.”

At the presentations, Quinn went over the assessment process where students would take an online performance test at the end of their academic year. The results would then be used to help adjust programs for the following year.

Quinn also said that over the past couple years, it has been a transition between the Vermont standards and the national standards. She said that one of the difficulties is the mathematics, which is very challenging to use to reach the standards. Thus, some teachers are struggling with it. But, she said that once the teachers get more comfortable with it and find a way to balance both the current curriculum and the Common Core, they are getting better.

She didn’t really think that teachers against the Common Core. Although not everyone is in favor of the Common Core, Quinn has a positive attitude towards it.

“People have been kind of indicated with messages one way or the other, and I think people could take advantage of opportunities to learn more about it. I think it will get better after visiting the website, coming into schools and talking to people,” said Quinn.