Blogs on Teacher Leadership

A billboard at the entrance to Bertie County, North Carolina, reads, "Design. Build. Transform." That's exactly what's been happening in this rural community for the past year. Thanks to an innovative curriculum called Studio H, high school students here have stepped into the role of designers

As many of my readers know, my classes are currently mimicking a TED conference by writing Advocacy/Memoir speeches of their own as a means to learn a more real-world version persuasive writing. That is, they are studying the structure of many of the TED speeches online

At a small school district, I faced the challenge as an administrator of diminishing the achievement gap in the student scores, especially in math and science. For example, we noticed that in science there was a 40-point gap between Hispanic students passing the test versus the number of white students passing. Having been in the classrooms and having observed teachers teaching, I knew that they were not treating Hispanic students any differently than the white students. So why was there an achievement gap?

Brenda Overturf is a member of the International Reading Association's Board of Directors. You can reach her at boverturf[AT]reading[DOT]org.

This is the final post in a three-part series that examines the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Part one introduced CCSS and provided context for those new to the standards. Part two reviewed the key features that offer opportunities for educators to transform their teaching. In part three, we will take a look at how various states are starting to implement the standards.