National Association of State Boards of Education and Hope Street Group partner to develop online toolkit, best practices on CCSS implementation

(March 6, 2013) – Hope Street Group and the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) have released a Common Core Playbook-Toolkit that both offers specific recommendations for state boards of education and highlights areas of potential concern that may require attention in coming months and years. This resource was created to provide additional support and guidance for state boards of education as they implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Among the recommendations, the Playbook-Toolkit suggests:

  • State boards of education focus their role in CCSS implementation on ensuring that supportive board policies are in place and that state board policies which impede or complicate CCSS implementation are eliminated or changed;
  • State boards should work to communicate to the public and educators what CCSS implementation means and how they plan to support implementation, alignment of other key areas, and address the issues that arise as a result of implementation;
  • To help with the transition, state boards should work with their departments to ensure that the state has an up-to-date technology plan and policy;
  • State boards should consider teacher input in planning and decisionmaking for educators’ professional learning.

“The critical role of state boards of education around CCSS becomes even more important as we move forward,” said NASBE Deputy Executive Director Brad Hull. “We know the standards by themselves are not likely to result in higher student achievement without concurrent state efforts that include improved teacher development, induction, and evaluation processes, aligned instructional materials, and robust student intervention systems for those struggling to meet standards. At NASBE we are committed to ensuring policymakers have the best resources available to help them in CCSS implementation, and we are pleased to join Hope Street Group in working to fulfill that goal.”

The Playbook-Toolkit developed by Hope Street Group and NASBE helps state boards of education think about how state board policy can help educators and administrators prepare students for college and careers. Using research, best practices, and lessons learned from across the country, this online toolkit, found on both the Hope Street Group Teacher Evaluation Playbook and the NASBE Common Core State Standards website, provides resources for implementation and promising practices from around the country.

The Common Core State Standards are based on research thoroughly vetted by a host of educators. They indicate what is expected of students at each grade level and advocate teaching core concepts beginning in kindergarten. Forty-five states, five territories, and the Department of Defense Education Agency have adopted both the English language arts (ELA) and math CCSS.  The state boards of education played a significant role in the adoption, or recommendation of adoption, in all of these states. With the adoption and implementation of these research-and-evidence based, internationally benchmarked standards, states nationwide have taken the necessary steps that will better prepare students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in college and the workforce in this 21st century global economy.

Says Dan Cruce, Vice President of Education, Hope Street Group, “Partnering with NASBE to bring the CCSS Playbook-Toolkit allows us to take the best practices and lessons learned which Hope Street Group offers in teacher evaluation implementation and extend it to Common Core.  CCSS is an education reform that will dramatically impact every facet of teaching and learning, and state boards need to be informed, engaged and at the table every step of the way. This toolkit will help make board members more educated participants.”

Hope Street Group has identified CCSS implementation and effective teacher supports as its next areas of work after extensive conversation with a wide variety of stakeholders. It was through these conversations that the enormous impact of CCSS on public education was better understood, as well a clear connection between CCSS implementation and the need to ensure that teacher supports are developed and refined in regard to these issues. National Association of State Boards of Education has long been studying CCSS implementation and its effects on students, educators and policymakers. In “Implementing the Common Core,” the September 2012 issue of NASBE’s award winning journal, The State Education Standard, the organization looked at how states are moving from adoption to implementation. Now, partnering with Hope Street Group on the Playbook-Toolkit, they are able to offer tools, techniques and best practices for implementation.

Hope Street Group works to strengthen the foundational underpinnings of our economy—education, healthcare and jobs—by identifying and promoting rational methods of incentivizing better outcomes. We are fiercely bipartisan and relentlessly results-oriented. We bring together a variety of experienced practitioners, including creative business minds, nonprofit leaders and visionaries in government of all political stripes to collaborate in the pursuit of policy innovation. We then use our findings as a megaphone to influence and inform policy, and help to implement and spread the ideas that are working on the ground. www.hopestreetgroup.org

The National Association of State Boards of Education represents America’s state and territorial boards of education. NASBE exists to strengthen State Boards as the preeminent educational policymaking bodies for citizens and students. For more, visit www.nasbe.org.