On July 1, 2010, the Pennsylvania State Board of Education adopted the Common Core standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics (41 states have adopted them as of December 2010).

These standards establish a clear and consistent understanding of what students are expected to learn. They are internationally-benchmarked and designed to reflect the knowledge and skills that students need to succeed in college and career.

Pennsylvania, through Team Pennsylvania Foundation, has been awarded a half-million dollar grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to engage teachers in the implementation of the Common Core standards. This project puts the standards into action by focusing on advancing teachers’ understanding of how to develop college-ready writers.

This grant will be implemented statewide through the infrastructure of Pennsylvania’s Intermediate Units. While it directly involves 450 teachers and over 9,000 students, the grant will produce hundreds of high-quality lesson tasks (such as essays and project-based assignments) that will be placed on an interactive website so that all Pennsylvania teachers will be able to incorporate these high-quality, standards-based materials in their lessons as they implement the Common Core State standards in their classroom.

This effort is at the forefront of Pennsylvania’s implementation of the Common Core State standards, which is expected to be fully implemented by July 2013.

Here is an article that appeared in the Team PA newsletter concerning this initiative.