Department of Defense Education Activity officials have begun putting in place national guidelines in math — based on Common Core State Standards — for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.
The process for implementing the national standards in math and literacy for all DoDEA grades, pre-K through 12, will continue over the next five years, said Thomas M. Brady, director of the school system, in an interview with Military Times on Tuesday.
"It's a deliberate attempt to do it over a period of time, properly resourced, with professional development and supplies and instructional materials to make it happen," Brady said, adding that to try and make it all happen simultaneously in all grade levels "would just be too much."
DoDEA is transitioning to what it calls College and Career Ready standards, which are based in large part on the Common Core standards adopted by 43 states and the District of Columbia.
The standards set grade-by-grade learning expectations for students in grades pre-K through 12. The Common Core initiative was led by the states in an effort to address the need for consistent learning goals.
Teachers, school chiefs, administrators and other experts have coordinated and designed the standards, which outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade.
After teachers implement the standards for math in pre-K through fifth grades this school year, they will begin next school year to implement standards for math and literacy for English, history, science and technical subjects for sixth through 12th grades. In school year 2017-18, they will start putting in place the literacy standards for pre-K through fifth grades.
"The standards are rigorous," Brady said. "They're based on 21st century learning standards. They are a very positive thing for our students. It's a great step forward."
Many concerns have been raised about Common Core, but Brady said he has heard support for DoDEA's new standards from parents and teachers.
"The groups I've talked to said this is long overdue. They're very excited," he said.
Without specifically defending or attacking Common Core, Brady said he thinks there have been some misconceptions among the general public about the concept — for example, that it was conceived and launched by the White House or the Education Department.
For military children, inconsistencies among states and school districts have led to a number of issues when they move to new schools as their parents are assigned to new duty stations.
"I think it's important to have national standards," said Brady, whose experience includes a career as an Army officer and top-level positions in public school districts. His five children and two of his seven grandchildren have attended DoD schools.
By the time he arrived at DoDEA 18 months ago, he said the agency had begun participating in aligning with the new standards.
"It was a good start, and we needed to begin work to implement," he said.
The system provides teachers with standards for what a child needs to know, he said, but it "doesn't direct the teacher on how to teach. ... It's not a rote implementation. The magic is still in the classroom."
He added that teachers still will be able to teach in a variety of ways to ensure students understand the concepts presented.
While some of the concerns about Common Core are related to the assessment system, Brady said he assures parents and teachers that "we're not going to create an environment here in DoDEA that has high-stakes assessments."
Such issues as promotions to higher grades, graduation and teacher evaluations "will not be tied to the results of a single test," he said, adding that the tests will one among multiple measures of success.
"Accountability is critical, assessments are critical, but implementation is going to be reasoned and good for the system," he said.
Within a year, DoDEA officials will select from among the many national assessments that are aligned to the national standards and develop policies to implement those tests for their system, Brady said.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
