New Mexico Preps for Common Core Adoption with New Professional Development Service
As part of the New Mexico Public Education Department's (NMPED) four-year plan to adopt Common Core State Standards across all its districts and schools, the organization has chosen a service provider for Common Core-specific professional development for its educators.
The Common Core State Standards are being adopted by 45 other states and the District of Columbia. New Mexico's plan to implement the standards for public schooling began in the 2011-12 school year and will achieve full implementation by the end of the 2014-15 school year, according to NMPED Web site.
For these targeted professional development services NMPED selected the collaborative pairing of Solution Tree and Knowledge Delivery Systems. The team's proposal was chosen for its scope of work, combining various types of professional development to provide continuous support, along with integration of components such as personal on-site training, quantitative and qualitative program evaluation, online courses in core content areas, and interactive webinars, according to a release.
"Preparing educators statewide for the transition to the Common Core State Standards requires a consistent and sustained professional development effort in every school," said Alvin Crawford, CEO of Knowledge Delivery Systems, in a release. "Through our partnership with the New Mexico Public Education Department, we have the opportunity to provide comprehensive professional learning to help educators prepare for the new standards and support student achievement."
In NMPED's transition timeline, the current school year is still an introductory phase in terms of teacher development, with the stated intent of preparing teachers to understand the design and structure of the standards themselves and how the standards affect the planning and delivery of instruction and assessment. The timeline also marks this year as a time for teachers to deepen their understanding of differentiated instruction for students with disabilities, English language learners, and culturally or linguistically diverse students, including use of tools such as the Response to Intervention framework.
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Kevin Hudson is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached at [email protected].