Educator Cadres Formed to Support Common Assessments

Chicago

One of the groups designing tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards has launched a major effort to help state teams of educators understand—and be able to translate for their peers—what the new assessments will entail for classroom instruction.

The Educator Leader Cadres, as the initiative is known, is effectively a nod by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers to respond to the concerns of scholars and practitioners . They say that teachers' practices are unlikely to change without widespread understanding of the standards' new academic demands, as well as how those demands will be measured.

"Teachers are the first and probably the most important group to reach, but building principals are second—they are the keepers of the change," said Doug C. Sovde, the director of instructional support and educator engagement for Achieve, the Washington-based nonprofit that serves as the...