While each new school year is filled with great expectations, this will be even more so  for students across Mississippi in the 2014-15 academic year due to the statewide implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

    “Our teachers and leaders are motivated, we have our game plan in place, we have our resources and our materials, and we’re ready to go,” said Meridian Public School District Superintendent Dr. Alvin Taylor.

    “We have accepted the challenge as a district, and we have prepared to be ready for it this year. I think we will be and I think we will do very well, ” said Lauderdale County School District Superintendent Randy Hodges.

    The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics. The standards are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit-bearing entry courses in two-year or four-year college programs or enter the workforce.

    With Common Core, students are required to be more analytical with math problems and more expressive in writing. For example, a math problem may have more than one answer and the student will be required to explain the answer in writing.

    In 2010, Mississippi was among 45 states and Washington, D.C., to voluntarily adopt Common Core State Standards. During a presentation at Business Before Hours in May, Mississippi’s new State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carey M. Wright said she believes Common Core can be a game-changer for children across the nation, and especially those in Mississippi.

    “These standards are very clear and they are focused on college- and career-preparedness,” Wright said.

    “It not only helps students to be prepared for college and careers, but also makes them highly competitive – not only globally, but also within their own state,” she said.

    Although voluntarily adopted by the majority of the United States, Common Core has not been without opposition (on both the state and national levels), sparking debates between special interest groups and political parties, and even the creation of several opposing websites and Facebook pages (i.e. Stop Common Core in Mississippi, Mississippi Against Common Core).

    Nonetheless, the Common Core State Standards is set to begin in Mississippi schools in the 2014-15 academic year. Meridian and Lauderdale County school officials and students have been preparing for the new standards since last year and school officials say they are ready to get started when the new school year begins Wednesday.

    While MPSD began transitioning for CCSS in 2013, a team of MPSD teachers – consisting of the district’s top performing teachers – have worked throughout the summer preparing a Common Core curriculum and assessments for the school district.

    “We have a universal pacing guide, which is like a road map to keep our teachers on track as far as delivering the instructional content to our students and making sure they are keeping pace with other districts and other states around the country,” Taylor said.

    Universal lesson plans also have been constructed for the district’s teachers.

    “This is a resource for our teachers to help them in being more effective on delivering Common Core level instruction in the classroom,” Taylor said.

    Meridian Public School District also will implement a new assessment to track student performance.

    “We’re still going to implement the common assessment we have used to track the performance of our students, teachers and schools, however we’re going to use a totally new common assessment geared toward Common Core,” he said.

    “It’s still business as usual, we’re just changing the instruction and assessment that we’ve normally done to better reflect Common Core so that our children will be ready in the areas of language arts and math,” Taylor said.

    Lauderdale County School District also began its CCSS transition last year. Not only did it include training teachers and inclusion in the school’s curriculum, but also a major purchase of Common Core-related textbooks and other resources.

    “Last year, we invested $700,000 in textbooks, $600,000 preparing for the online assessments,” Hodges said. “And we’ve budgeted another $600,000 for this school year to get ready for the technology and online assessments … We feel that we have certainly taken a big step in the right direction and we’re going to be prepared for it this year.”

    Additionally, LCSD teachers have undergone extensive training through staff development, including work shops and conferences.

    “We’re all committed to Common Core … We’ve got to move forward in a very positive way and make it work,” Hodges said. “I think the big majority of Lauderdale County teachers understand that it’s going to be a challenge, but we’re going to be better in the end.”