As New York state continues to implement changes to public education standards under the Common Core State Standards Initiative, the Syracuse University School of Education is training its education majors to teach under the new curriculum.

Faculty has tailored upper-level teaching courses to educate students under the common core curriculum. While certain courses have changed to fit the Common Core Standards, teaching the new standards may not affect new teachers as drastically as those already employed.

“They haven’t taught before because they’re new,” said George Theoharis, an associate professor in the School of Education. “Sometimes these sorts of changes are not necessarily that threatening for brand new teachers because they’re learning how to teach.”

The Common Core Standards, which New York state adopted in July 2010, have gradually taken effect since the 2011-2012 school year, according to an EngageNY timeline. Changes in kindergarten to 12th grade public education range from encouraging more critical engagement with textbooks and stressing more rigorous course loads in multiple subject areas. Forty-five states have adopted the standards so far.

The New York state Education Department provides schools with modules to help implement the standards. Modules that detail the application of spring 2014 reforms should be available to schools in February, according to EngageNY.

The SU School of Education curriculum aims to ease the Common Core transition, which has proven difficult for many active teachers.

“They’re out in the field with some really unhappy teachers,” said Kelly Chandler-Olcott, chair of School of Education’s Reading and Language Arts Center, of the student teachers.

Teaching under the Common Core poses a challenge because much of the content is structured differently from when the teachers went through school, Theoharis said. The Common Core accelerates students’ coursework, sometimes to the point of learning topics years earlier than under the old standards.

Some teachers feel the Common Core is a stark change from the traditional curriculum, Chandler-Olcott said. But current SU education students have the benefit of learning teaching strategies in a Common Core context.

“Our students are learning about the Common Core as they learn about instructional approaches and classroom management strategies,” Joanna Masingila, interim-dean designate of the School of Education, said. “All of these things are new to novice teachers.”

Michael Collins, a senior selective studies and history major, came into the School of Education planning to teach in a traditional classroom setting. After taking multiple classes in teaching methods under the Common Core, he entered the more specialized selective studies major, aiming to work one-on-one with children with disabilities, he said.

While he doesn’t agree with many Common Core standards, including a continued emphasis on testing, Collins said the School of Education classes covered the Common Core well. Collins understood the Common Core’s characteristics while continuing to critique its merits, he said.

In preparing students to teach under the Common Core standards, education faculty encourage critical thinking, even when it comes to the standards themselves, Chandler-Olcott said. Though she encourages students to use available Common Core resources to familiarize themselves, Chandler-Olcott doesn’t want students to “drink the Kool-Aid.”

Preparing education students to teach a curriculum different from the one they learned remains a priority for educating teachers, she said.

Chandler-Olcott said to avoid feeling undermined by the Common Core like many current teachers, students need to learn what they’re teaching before entering the workforce.

Said Chandler-Olcott: “You can’t teach skills that you don’t have yourself.”

Published on January 28, 2014 at 1:42 am

Contact Jacob: jspramuk@syr.edu