North Dakota's Superintendent of Public Instruction says for the most part, teachers in the state are embracing Common Core Standards.
Kirsten Baesler has been traveling around the state speaking with educators and getting feedback on common core. DPI also recently wrapped up a survey of educators in North Dakota concerning common core standards, and Baesler says there were over 2-thousand responses, which she says is a remarkable turnout.
"We asked questions about how they were feeling about, in general, the common core, and what they needed to do to better support the common core, and what they needed in order to better implement the common core."
Baesler says teachers were asked if the new standards would help them improve student learning, and says only 15 percent disagreed with that. She says another 67 percent say the new standards will raise expectations for student learning. Baesler says they were also asked what needs to be done to help teachers implement common core better, and what needs to be done to help them do their jobs better?
"They said professional development, support from their school districts, and being able to communicate with other teachers and share about assessment ideas, and on how they are implementing things in their classrooms. 61 percent of our teachers said they feel somewhat prepared, and 15 percent said they felt very prepared. So we are looking at about 76 percent of teachers feeling prepared."
Baesler says North Dakota is having a much more favorable roll-out of common core standards than several other states in the country. She says North Dakota is not working to implement common core with high-risk accountability for teachers that could cost them their jobs, and says the focus is solely on helping teachers best understand the practices.
