The new school year brings some changes

Next week, when students return to classes, they will be greeted by new teachers, meet some new classmates and may even notice the shiny floors and clean desks. What they probably won’t be aware of at first, but will learn more about as the school year progresses, are the host of new mandates for 2012-13, all of which are designed to improve their educational experience.

There are three major state and federal mandates being implemented in our local school districts this year: the Common Core Learning Standards, new teacher and principal evaluations and the Dignity for All Students Act. Behind the scenes and out of students’ view, educators have spent months preparing for these changes. We feel it is important to not only recognize the hard work that went into the planning, but to make students and their parents aware of these initiatives.

The Common Core Learning Standards, a mandate from the U.S. Department of Education, essentially nationalizes the curriculum. While there is nothing new about uniform learning standards, this is really the first time it has been done on the federal level. The goal is to ensure that all children in the U.S., regardless of where they live, get the same education, in order to someday be competitive in the global job market.

The Common Core standards are meant to challenge students and to provide a more practical, real-world approach to education. We hope they can improve student performance, but we don’t want to see them turn our schools into testing factories.

Teacher evaluations will be tied to student performance for the first time. Part of a teacher’s rating will be based on how well his or her students do on state tests. Over the summer, school districts had to submit their Annual Professional Performance Review — commonly known as APPR — plans to the state, detailing just how these evaluation systems would work.