Eric.ed.gov – Getting Ready for the Common Core State Standards: Experiences of CPS Teachers and Administrators Preparing for the New Standards. Research Report

The success of any education reform depends on many factors. A critical component is whether school staff are supportive of the initiative and view it as likely to improve educational outcomes. Equally important is whether school staff have the professional development opportunities they need to ensure their practice is aligned with the goals of the initiative. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has been preparing to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) since 2011-12. Teachers were expected to teach the new English and Language Arts (ELA) standards by 2013-14 and the new math standards one year later, in 2014-15. This report describes teachers’ and administrators’ experiences preparing for this transition, using survey responses from the spring of 2014 and the spring of 2015. Survey questions focused on four areas: attitudes about the kind of impact the new standards will have and how challenging they are; experiences with formal professional development on the new standards; opportunities outside of formal training to learn about the new standards; and how prepared teachers feel to teach the new standards. Key findings include: (1) Elementary teachers were much more optimistic about the impact that the new standards would have on teaching and learning than high school teachers; (2) Both elementary and high school teachers felt the impact of the new standards on student achievement would be less than their impact on teaching; (3) There was wide variation in teachers’ reports about the frequency of CCSS-related professional development and, on average, elementary teachers reported participating in more sessions than high school teachers; (4) Many teachers reported frequent interactions with colleagues around the new standards; (5) Many teachers reported feeling very prepared on several dimensions related to teaching the standards; (6) Administrators did not report feeling as prepared as teachers in their ability to support implementation of the new standards; (7) Teachers in schools with high levels of organizational capacity reported significantly more extensive standards-related professional development than schools with low levels of organizational capacity; and (8) Teachers in schools with high levels of organizational capacity also reported feeling more prepared to teach the standards, even after taking into account their more extensive professional development.