Californians Together views the advent of the Common Core Standards as an opportunity to strengthen the schooling of English Learners. We also recognize that any reform that increases rigor and does not address how English Learners will be supported to master that rigor can exacerbate the barriers and achievement gaps that have characterized the education of English Learners for too long.
To ensure that the Common Core Standards are implemented in a way that fully includes English Learners and that meets their unique language development and access needs, we have published “Raise Your Voices for English Learners: The English Learners and Common Core Advocacy Toolkit”. This Advocacy Toolkit has prepared talking points for use by educators, policy makers, parents and community members in dialogues at the local, district and state levels – raising concerns, pushing for the supports needed to realize the Common Core for English learners, and advancing the vision of English Learner education that the Common Core can make possible.
The Toolkit includes:
- Background paper on the opportunities and challenges that the Common Core Standards present for curriculum, instruction and assessment of English Learners
- Talking points for policy makers, school site, district and count level educators to insert the needs of English Learners in Common Core Standards dialogues
- A palm card with key issues to be raised that can support the needs of ELs in any Common Core conversation
- Power point presentation to address the needs of English Learners which implementing the Common Core Standards
- A CD containing the PDFs of all the documents in the kit plus two resource articles
Background Paper Talking Points for Policy Makers and Community Members Palm Card Talking Points for Educators