Common Core - Our Picks

While there is much about the current state of education in America to cause concern, there are also bright spots.

Some people are making a difference by creating and promoting outstanding curricula. Others are operating exemplary schools. And still more are improving the classroom experience in a variety of ways.

State Standards

California State Board of Education lists academic content standards for social science, K–12.

Massachusetts Department of Education outlines curriculum frameworks for history and English.

Publications

The Concord Review is the only quarterly journal in the world to publish the academic research papers of secondary education students.

Curricula

Calvert School combines early skill building with classical knowledge.

Chandler Preparatory Academy, Phoenix, AZ.

Core Knowledge Resources provides a guide to shared content for greater excellence and fairness in education.

International Baccalaureate offers three programs of international education for ages 3 to 19. To learn about the International Baccalaureate in action, visit Rufus King High School’s website. Rufus King is a public school in Milwaukee, WI, with one of the oldest International Baccalaureate programs in the nation.

K12 works to enable mastery of core concepts and skills for all kinds of children’s minds.

Programs

Education Through Music integrates music into the curricula of disadvantaged schools to enhance academic performance and general development.

Junior Great Books program helps develop essential literacy skills.

NEH’s Picturing America allows people of all ages to learn about our nation’s heritage through some of our greatest works of art.

Our Picks Image

Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program brings Shakespeare alive to more than 40,000 students and teachers each year.

Siskiyou County History Day has local 4th to 12th graders compete in various categories based on themes that change yearly. Winners go on to compete in California’s State History Day.

Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning provides drama, music, and movement education for children 3–5 and their teachers and families.

Earlier this year, Common Core's report shows a nation STILL AT RISK. Nearly a quarter of students polled could not identify Adolf Hitler and half had no idea what the Renaissance was. To learn more read the report, press release or stories at ABC News, CBS News, The New York Times, and USA TODAY. Or take the test yourself.

FROM THE BENCH: "One unintended effect of the No Child Left Behind Act, …, is that it has effectively squeezed out civics education because there is no testing for that anymore and no funding for that. And at least half of the states no longer make the teaching of civics and government a requirement for high school graduation. This leaves a huge gap, and we can't forget that the primary purpose of public schools in America has always been to help produce citizens who have the knowledge and the skills and the values to sustain our republic as a nation, our democratic form of government," former justice Sandra Day O'Connor said. (cont'd)

CAMPAIGN FILE: Sen. John McCain recalls his English teacher: “There was one friendship that enriched my life at Episcopal High School beyond measure... Mr. Ravenel was head of the English Department... He loved English literature, and taught us to love it as well... He made us appreciate how profound were the emotions that animated the characters in Shakespeare's tragedies. MacBeth and Hamlet in his care were as compelling to boys as they were to the most learned scholar.” (cont'd)

CAMPAIGN FILE: Sen. Barack Obama said “One of the problems with No Child Left Behind is that it has become so reliant on a standardized test model that—first of all—subjects like history and social studies have gotten pushed aside. Arts and music time is no longer there. So the child is not having the well-rounded educational experience I benefited from and most in my generation benefited from.” (cont'd)