New Common Core standards set for Washington schools

Washington State Legislature and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) have created new Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Designed to improve education in areas currently deemed to be lacking, the standards are in computer science, Washington state tribal history, physical education/health, and financial education.

The necessity for the computer science standards, to be released in July or August, is supported by the void between the amount of computer science jobs available and the amount of competent workers able to occupy them.

Christopher Mims reports in an article for the Wall Street Journal, “There is an enormous mismatch between supply and demand for computer programmers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2020, one million programming jobs will go unfilled.”

Consequently, OSPI is revising new Computer Science Teachers Association Learning Standards, to meet four objectives to “Introduce fundamental concepts of computer science to all students, beginning at the elementary school level.

“Present computer science at the secondary school level in a way that can fulfill a computer science, math, or science graduation credit.

“Allow interested students to study facets of computer science in more depth and prepare them for entry into the work force or college… <And to> increase the availability of rigorous computer science for all groups.”

Regarding education on tribal history and culture, Substitute Senate Bill (SSB) 5433 passed in April of last year “requires, rather than encourages school districts to incorporate the history, culture, and of the nearest federally recognized Indian tribe(s) into the social studies curriculum.”

The tribal history curriculum, titled “Since Time Immemorial”, will be released along with the computer science curriculum this spring.

The requirement for financial education standards was also passed by Washington legislature last April through SSB 5202.

An article from the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions explains the bill “requires integration of financial education skills and content knowledge into the state learning standards.”

The motivation, the Department of Financial Institutions continues, comes from “Cambridge University research [which] indicates our money habits are set by age seven—the earlier students can get access to financial education information, the better for all future generations.”

The OSPI’s upcoming release of financial education curriculum along with updated PE/Health curriculum will help districts assist students to meet the array of new standards.

“The addition of standards and the changes to the standards (to stay current) is important work,” explained Lind-Ritzville Schools Superintendent Rob Roettger.

“However,” he continued, “the issue becomes where to fit new standards into the current curriculum. There are only so many days in the school year and so for everything that is added we must either find a way to integrate the changes or find content that can be replaced. We cannot just continue to add.”

Some of the standards will be easier to integrate than others.

Roettger said, “For example, adding Washington’s Tribal History, Culture, and Government into our middle school and high school social studies curriculum should not be difficult. We already teach Washington State and United States History. It is just a matter of finding where this content best fits within the curriculum.”

“Adding financial education standards or computer science standards is another story,” he explained. “Elementary teachers already feel overwhelmed with the current mathematics, science, and ELA standards that are in place.

“Is computer science and financial literacy important? Absolutely. However… adding these items at the elementary level while continuing our emphasis on ELA, mathematics, and science will be difficult.”

Roettger asked, “Which items are most important? Do we create stand alone courses or incorporate changes into our current courses?”

Collaboration will be critical in incorporating the new curriculums.

Roettger envisions the staff “working together to review the new standards, identifying which standards will be taught… and creating a yearlong curriculum map that matches the standards we deem most important.”