21st-Century Skills and Common Core

I spent yesterday with about 40 teachers and much of our district leadership team as we began the planning for our transition to Common Core State Standards (CCSS). I have been talking about the Common Core with teachers since the beginning of this year, as I explained what my job is all about.  At CUE 2013 last week in Palm Springs, there were numerous sessions on Common Core standards, including one that I attended that emphasized the overlap between CCSS and 21st-century skills.  All this was re-emphasized for me during our session yesterday, and gives me an opportunity to republish one of my favorite diagrams:

So much of the emphasis in the CCSS fits in exactly with the student outcomes in this chart.  The 4 C's (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity) are what will be expected and assessed if we implement CCSS correctly.  Information and technical skills are interwoven throughout the CCSS, and the entire purpose of CCSS is for students to develop authentic life and career skills.

Teachers and administrators have chafed under the constraints of the standards and assessment system that is currently in place in California.  The adoption of CCSS gives us a chance to start fresh, in a sense, not just with curriculum but with instructional methods as well.