A National Endeavor Coordinated by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Common Core Standards are internationally benchmarked and based on the most advanced evidence about college and career readiness in a global society. The goal is to ensure that K-12 students from school to school and state to state receive a consistently high-quality and challenging education.
Maryland: A Leader Maryland was among the first to adopt the standards for English/language arts and mathematics. In June 2009, Governor Martin O’Malley and former State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick signed on to the initiative along with representatives from 48 other states and two territories.
In June 2011, the Maryland State Department of Education adopted a state curriculum aligned with the new standards, creating the need for county school systems to correspondingly revise their curriculum resources. Since Common Core State Standards did not include preK, Maryland educators created standards and developed the essential skills and knowledge to serve these students.
Frederick County Public Schools: Ready to Transition In early 2011, FCPS staff began collaboratively revising local curriculum, instruction and assessments to transition to the state standards starting in 2011-12 in grades preK-2 and fully through grade 12 by 2014-15.
As part of this grassroots effort, teacher-leaders throughout the county are developing content, skill and knowledge-based resources to familiarize their colleagues with the new expectations. Professional development will inform and support teachers and administrators in all grades as they embark on what promises to be an exciting time for public education across the nation.
FCPS will continually update students and their families about forthcoming changes in the content, rigor and sequencing of courses.
Community Members are invited to attend the Frederick County Public Schools Common Core Series. This will be a monthly community night held some place around the county providing families and community members with specific information pertaining to the curriculum, assessment and instructional resources to support our students and teachers.
National Testing Program A consortium of 25 states including Maryland – the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers – is developing new assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards. The assessments will afford comparability across states and assess higher-order skills such as critical thinking, communication and problem solving. They will replace the Maryland School Assessments starting in the 2014-15 school year.
