A Message from Dr. Lowery to Maryland State Department of Education Staff As we embark on the full statewide implementation of the Common Core State Standards this year, we are providing communication resources to support outreach to various audiences. The higher academic expectations of the Common Core Standards will bring a number of changes to our classrooms. To help prepare our stakeholders to address the questions of parents, teachers, and others, we prepared flash drives containing a variety of materials to communicate those changes. The flash drives were mailed to every school Principal, Superintendent, Local Board President, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Public Information Officer, and major education organizations such as the Maryland State Education Association, Baltimore Teachers Union, Maryland Association of Boards of Education, higher education officials, and others. These resources will also be posted to our website. It is our hope that these resources will assist educators in their efforts to engage and inform their school communities. We wanted to provide all staff with these resources as well. Here is the link to our Common Core Resources Guide: msde.state.md.us/cc/CommonCoreResourcesGuide.pdf. When you open the link, you will find a picture of each document, a brief description of its content, and links to additional resources. A document can be opened by selecting the title of the document in the Resource Guide. We ask that you share the Guide with your constituents who would also benefit from these Common Core Resources. We have also provided copies of The Top Ten Things Parents Need to Know About the Common Core to every principal for distribution at back-to-school events. We shared a copy of The Top Ten with you several weeks ago. Additionally, this document has been translated into Spanish, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, Amharic, and Korean. The translated versions are now available at marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/programs/ccss/translations. Again, I ask that you share this link with your constituents as you deem appropriate. I also want to highlight our new Back to School Common Core video, which features the Governor, teachers, a principal, and State Board member, Dr. James Gates, providing key messages to parents on the Common Core. The video is less than five minutes in length, and explains what will be happening in classrooms as we open the school year. Here are links to the video: media.msde.state.md.us/2013/BACK.mov or media.msde.state.md.us/2013/BACK.wmv Finally, I want to share with you that the Council of Chief State School Officers recently highlighted the National Public Radio (NPR) story by Cory Turner on our summer Educator Effectiveness Academies. Mr. Turner personally attended an Academy and in "Teachers Hit the Books to Master New Education Standards," he outlines how the Academies help teachers share best practices to ensure their students are ready for Common Core. You can find the NPR story at npr.org/2013/07/23/204516709/teachers-hit-the-books-to-master-new-education-standards. Thank you for your continued support as the new school year begins.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 20:44:29 +0000
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