Fewer, Clearer, Higher
How the Common Core State Standards Can Change Classroom Practice
Robert Rothman
ebook
Pub. Date: October 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1-61250-621-0
paper, 192 Pages
Pub. Date: October 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1-61250-619-7
Price: $28.00
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Look Inside the Book
In clear and concise language, veteran education writer Robert Rothman identifies nine instructional “shifts” encouraged by the new Common Core State Standards and provides examples of how teachers and school districts are overcoming challenges in implementation.
He presents the research and rationale behind each change and provides examples of teachers making the shifts as well as sample test questions that could be used to gauge student progress in the future. Rothman also addresses major challenges that are emerging as districts and schools move to implement the standards and highlights the ways leading school districts are working to overcome them.
Fewer, Clearer, Higher—the mantra adopted by the writers of the Common Core to emphasize the difference between existing state standards and the new ones needed to truly prepare all students for college or careers—is an indispensable guide for educators and anyone else seeking a better understanding of this major new development in education policy.
Praise
Rothman slashes through the veritable jungle of data and commentary surrounding the new standards to give us—in terse but highly accessible prose—a set of key principles that drive both the math and ELA standards and the early attempts to implement them.
— P. David Pearson, Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley
At last, Rothman cuts through the hype and confusion surrounding Common Core State Standards to offer a clear-eyed, practical assessment of how they impact classroom practice. Fewer, Clearer, Higher is a must-read for any educator grappling with this major shift in schools today.
— Jo Ann D. Bartoletti, executive director, National Association of Secondary School Principals
The volume is easy to read and will be very persuasive to doubters who contend that the standards will leave America’s children bored and unprepared to live fulfilling, productive lives. A good, informative book about America’s schools in the future.
— J.D. Neal, CHOICE
In concise and clear-eyed prose, the Alliance for Excellent Education’s Robert Rothman lays out exactly how the new standards could change current instructional practices--and aims to speak directly to educators, whose efforts will determine whether or not these changes will occur.
— Melissa Reynolds, Education Gadfly Weekly
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About the Author
Robert Rothman is a senior fellow at the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, D.C.–based policy and advocacy organization. Previously he was a senior editor at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, where he edited the Institute’s quarterly magazine, Voices in Urban Education. He was also a study director at the National Research Council, where he led a committee on testing and assessment in the federal Title I program, which produced the report Testing, Teaching, and Learning (edited with Richard F. Elmore), as well as a committee on teacher testing. A nationally known education writer and editor, Mr. Rothman has also worked with Achieve and the National Center on Education and the Economy, and was a reporter and editor for Education Week. He has written numerous reports and articles on a wide range of education issues. He is the author of Something in Common: The Common Core Standards and the Next Chapter in American Education (2011) and Measuring Up: Standards, Assessments and School Reform (1995), and he is the editor of City Schools (2007). He is also a frequent contributor to Harvard Education Letter. Mr. Rothman holds a degree in political science from Yale University.