The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) build on the foundation of individual states’ educational objectives and provide clear, consistent goals and a comprehensible understanding of high-level academic expectations for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics. Adopted in 2010, the Common Core Standards provide clarity and consistency and will help students develop and improve the skills they need to be successful in the global 21st Century in both post-secondary education and in their chosen careers. Supporting deeper learning, innovation, complex critical and creative thinking, communication, and problem-solving, teachers and administrators throughout our District are working diligently and collaboratively to prepare for the transition to the Common Core Standards. Covina-Valley educators have been creating tools to assist with the effective transition to the new standards, including pacing guides, benchmarks, lesson plans, assessments, and identifying supplemental materials, as well as a course of study materials.

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical subjects include:

• Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction
• Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational
• Regularly practicing with complex text and its academic language

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics include:

• Focus: strongly where the Standards focus
• Coherence: think across grades, and link to major topics within grades
• Rigor: In major topics pursuing conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application with equal intensity

In the area of state assessments, a greater emphasis is placed on applications requiring strategic and abstract thinking, deeper reasoning, and more complex inferences. Extended thinking that requires investigative tactics with the employment and application of analysis and synthesis across multiple contexts is incorporated in this assessment.

California Department of Education- Common Core State Standards

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