Education First releases series of briefs on PD for Common Core

The Common Core is now front and center in classrooms across the country, and educators and policymakers are focused on getting implementation right. Education First has released a series of briefing papers and a short executive summary that offer guidance for how professional development needs to change to help educators succeed with the standards. The series:

• Identifies the new essential elements of professional learning (brief #1);
• Spotlights three different approaches to how districts have organized themselves to support teachers using these elements (brief #2); and
• Recommends what policymakers can do to advance high quality Common Core-aligned professional development at scale (brief #3).

Common Core promises to help more students gain the skills and knowledge they need to succeed after high school. But too few educators have received meaningful support to make the transitions needed in their practice. Professional development must change dramatically to reflect the standards’ clear focus on content and the instructional shifts that support delivery of that content.