This seminar presents findings on the early implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in California. Milbrey McLaughlin reports on interviews with educators in all regions of the state, and on their views of how implementation is proceeding in their schools and districts. She reviews some of the key challenges that local educators identify as they move forward with CCSS implementation, and highlights areas where districts, schools, and counties will require more or different support as they continue their implementation efforts.

School districts across California have begun working to implement the Common Core State Standards and to prepare for California’s new assessments. Policy Analysis for California Education and California County Superintendents Educational Services Association are pleased to sponsor six regional leadership sessions on CCSS Systems Implementation. These meetings will introduce you to a variety of strategies, tools and resources that your district can use to support successful implementation of the CCSS.

In this seminar, Svetlana Darche and David Stern focus on the practical question of how high schools might be held accountable for developing students' career readiness. Their goal is to propose a feasible indicator of high school students' career readiness that could be included among the measures used by states to hold schools accountable, and would complement and enhance the assessments of proficiency in academic subjects. Such an indicator could address the requirement for a career readiness measure as stated in a new provision of the California Education Code.

In this seminar Jorge Ruiz de Velasco and Milbrey McLaughlin will report findings from a statewide study of continuation high schools. Their study shows these are failing to provide the academic and critical support services that students need to succeed. They focus on schools that are performing well under state and federal accountability systems, in an effort to identify promising policy and practice interventions and develop recommendations for school, district, and state education officials that will lead to improved performance for continuation high schools and their students.

In this seminar, USC Assistant Professor Morgan Polikoff reviews the problems with the Academic Performance Index and offers a series of straightforward, concrete suggestions designed to improve the API and the identification of low performing schools in California. The suggestions, which include tracking the achievement of individual students, using multiple years of achievement data, measuring growth and level of student achievement, and accounting for school level and size, are drawn from his research on the design of accountability systems in the state and nationwide.

Bringing the Common Core to California: A Discussion Morning Presentations. Welcome and Overview by David N. Plank, Executive Director, PACE and Scott Hill, Compliance, Programs and Policy An Introduction to Common Core by Keith Gayler, Program Director, Council of Chief State School Officers The Common Core Standards English/Language Arts by Sue Pimentel, Co-Founder, StandardsWork The Common Core Standards Mathematics by Hung-Hsi Wu, Professor of Mathematics Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley Afternoon Panel Discussion. Implementing the Common Core in CA: Reflections on Standards