Education Week - February 27, 2013 - 12

EDUCATION WEEK

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

www.edweek.org

Teachers Feel Unprepared for the Common Standards
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

asked to rate their preparedness on
a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being “very
prepared” and 1 “not at all prepared.” When asked how prepared
they were to teach the common core
to their own students as a whole, 49
percent rated themselves a 1, 2, or 3.
More than two-thirds said they
were not well enough prepared to
teach the standards to Englishlanguage learners or students with
disabilities. More than half said they
were not yet ready to teach them to
low-income students or those considered at risk of academic failure.
Another survey, released last
week, however, found teachers
feeling confident about their readiness to teach the new standards.
(See related story, Page 9.)

The Neediest Students
The epe study, based on an online survey conducted in October,
is not nationally representative of
U.S. teachers. It is drawn from 600
K-12 educators who are registered
users of edweek.org.
But the sample is quite diverse,
drawing on K-12 teachers, schoolbased curriculum coordinators,
instructional coaches, content specialists, and department leaders in
cities, suburbs, small towns, and
rural areas, and in schools of all
sizes, serving students of varying
income levels. As such, it is one notable gauge of how the precollegiate
world is responding to the expectations of the common standards,
which have been adopted by 46
states and the District of Columbia.
And that gauge shows pronounced worry that teachers, students, districts, and states are far
from ready to make the common
core a success in the classroom, a
little more than two years from
when the first tests on the standards are scheduled to be given.
Students with special challenges,
such as learning disabilities or limited English proficiency, appear to
be particularly at risk of not being
well served, since educators said
they were the least prepared to
teach those students. Even teachers who have had more rather than
less professional development in
the common standards reported
that they were the least ready for
those subgroups of students.
Three-quarters of those who
have had more than five days of
training said they felt prepared
to teach their own students as a
whole, compared with one-third of
those who had had less than one
day of professional development.
Six in 10 of those with more than
five days of preparation felt ready
to teach low-income students or
those academically at risk, compared with about one-quarter of
those who had had less than a day
of professional development.
Students with disabilities and
English-learners posed the greatest challenges: Only four in 10 of
the teachers who have had more
than five days of professional development in the common core felt
prepared to teach the standards to
such students. Fewer than 14 per-

QUESTION: To what extent have you
incorporated the Common Core State
Standards into your teaching practice?

QUESTION: Approximately how much
time have you spent in training and
professional development for the
Common Core State Standards?

5%
12%

12%

28%

Less than
1 day

21%

1 day

13%

31%

4 to 5
days

2 to 3
days

420 RESPONDENTS

61%

Schools, Districts, States

QUESTION: On a 5-point scale, how prepared do you personally feel to
teach the Common Core State Standards to the following groups?
n Don’t know n 1 Not at all prepared n 2 n 3

n 4 n 5 Very prepared
578 RESPONDENTS

Your students as a 2
whole

20%
576

English-language
learners

Students with
disabilities

Low-income
students

Academically at-risk
students

9%
575

22
16

29
27

25
28

10%
575

16%

576

13%

NOTE: Numbers may not add up to 100 because of rounding.
SOURCE: EPE Research Center, 2012

cent of those with less than a day of
training said they felt ready.
While teachers’ sense of readiness to teach the common core
tracks with how much professional development they’ve had,
the survey shows nearly three in
10 have not had any such training
at all. Of the 70 percent who have,
41 percent have had four days or
more. Three in 10 have had only
one day or less. Thirty-one percent
reported having had two to three
days of professional development.
Many in education contend that
the common standards demand
significant changes in pedagogy,
and, in some cases, teachers’ content knowledge. In math, for instance, students are being asked
to demonstrate their understanding not only of procedures, but
also of their conceptual underpinnings. In English/language arts,
they’re expected to marshal evidence from what they read to support arguments and build their
muscle with informational texts.

Quick-Hit Training
The most frequently addressed
subject of professional develop-

In an online survey on edweek.
org, conducted by the EPE
Research Center, teachers were
asked for their views on how
ready they and their schools
are for the common core.

Funding and capacity problems
complicate the provision of goodquality professional development,
said Ms. Britt. Without a “strong,
clear vision and support” for ongoing, consultative professional
development, teachers get quickhit sessions that don’t really build
their collective capacity to improve instruction, she said.
573 RESPONDENTS
“That’s pretty much in line with
what teachers have been getting
n Not at all incorporated into my teaching
in previous years,” said Ms. Britt.
n Incorporated into some areas of my teaching, “But the common core compounds
the problem because there’s a sense
but not others
n Fully incorporated into all areas of my teaching of urgency. [The common assessments] are coming [in 2014-15], so
n Don’t know
people are really scrambling.”

More than
5 days

16%

GETTING READY

ment was English/language arts,
followed by math and a comparison of the common standards with
states’ previous standards. Curriculum resources and collaboration
with colleagues to teach the standards were also popular topics of
professional development.
The least-frequent topic of professional development was how to
teach the standards to subgroups
of students. Only 18 percent of
those who have had some training
said it explored that area.
That’s a worrisome sign for
some of the neediest students,
said Sherida Britt, who oversees
some of the professional-development activities conducted by the
Alexandria, Va.-based group ascd.
“We have to look at what teachers
are saying and give them opportunities to engage in professional
learning that addresses these issues and the needs of those particular students,” she said.
Although research has shown
that job-embedded professional
development is the most effective
kind, only three in 10 educators
who had received some training for
the common core said that was the
way it had been given.

“Due to resources, professional
development is still the drive-by”
variety in most districts, said the
aft’s Ms. Dickinson.
More typically, professional development was provided through
seminars, lectures or conferences,
or collaborative planning time
with colleagues.
The most frequent providers of
that training are staff members
from the teachers’ schools or district central offices. One-third reported getting it from outside professionals; one-quarter received it
from the state department of education; and 15 percent got it from
a professional association.
What teachers really need, Ms.
Dickinson said, is time to collaborate during the school day, when
they can “really unpack the standards and look at lessons and understand what it looks like for student learning.
“Teachers need time to collaborate [not only] within their grade,
but across grades,” she said, “so
they can understand the progression of the standards, what’s come
before, and where they’re going.
This is very complex work, and the
time is just not built in for them.”

In addition to being asked about
their own sense of preparedness
for the common standards, educators answering the epe Research
Center survey were also asked
to size up the readiness of their
schools, districts, and states for
the new standards. On the whole,
they had more confidence in their
own readiness than in that of the
systems in which they function.
Fewer than one-third said their
schools were well prepared or very
well prepared for the standards,
and more than two-thirds said their
schools were not well prepared.
Confidence dropped as the locus of
authority moved even further from
the classroom: Only 27 percent of
the educators said their districts
were up to the task, and only two
in 10 said their states were.
Turning their eyes to their own
students, teachers showed grave
concerns about the children’s prospects for mastering the standards.
Asked to rate how well prepared
their students are for that task on
the 1-to-5 scale, with 5 being very
prepared, only 23 percent of the educators gave the students 4’s or 5’s.
Thirty-seven percent gave them 1’s
and 2’s, and one-third gave them 3’s.
Teachers gave a mix of responses
when asked about the standards’
quality and their potential to improve their practice. About 37 percent said the common standards
are about as good as their own
states’ previous standards, and 41
percent said the common standards
were better. But even with that
mixture of views, two-thirds said
they thought the new standards
would improve their teaching.
The EPE Research Center’s survey of
educators’ views on the common core
was funded by the Hewlett Foundation.
Scan this tag with
your smartphone for
a link to the survey.
www.edweek.org/links.

http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org/links

Education Week - February 27, 2013

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