SIMONE JOHNSON, MA DESE: Massachusetts
sets high expectations for all students,
regardless of the school district that they live in.
MAGGIE SANCHEZ GLEASON, PRINCIPAL:
Massachusetts is a very innovative state
because we have standards that go above and beyond what
the norm is.
We've always really pushed our own thinking
into deciding what is the end goal for all of our students,
where do we want them to be.
CLIFF CHUANG, MA DESE: We want to make
sure all of our students are really prepared for the jobs
and careers that the 21st century has to offer,
and what our world needs.
And our new standards are really supporting the development
of students in terms of their skills
that can really be applied in the workplace.
JOHNSON: Our hope with these standards
is that the students will take the knowledge
and skills learned in the classroom,
and take it beyond there, for instance, in everyday life
and society.
LAURA RICHARDSON, TEACHER: Students in mathematics
should engage with meaningful real-world problems
every single day.
MICHELLE PETTY, TEACHER: Teaching math
as real-world problems, not just as numbers, sets them up
to look at a problem that they are facing and have skills,
have a toolbox of strategies they've
used to solve something before.
CHUANG: The way that they learn best is if they're really
actively sort of involved in the learning process
and really seeing how it applies to their own lives
and our new standards are really designed
to make sure that students are grappling with real stuff.
RICHARDSON: I need to have the carpeting fit the room,
I need to figure out the tip for my restaurant bill.
For children, they need to understand that math is really
a part of real-world life and is a way
that we solve problems as children and of course
as adults too.
MARY MEADE-MONTAQUE: Once you learn
the things that they value, and the things that they
do every day, and become a part of their world that way,
you're able to develop real-world problems that
relate, that are relevant to their everyday life.
STEPHANIE BURUCA, TEACHER: If I come up
with this great problem, but the students have
no idea of the background of the problem,
that real-world problem will actually
get in the way of them understanding the mathematics.
MEADE-MONTAQUE: Part of learning is around
being able to take academic risk.
If we stay safe, we don't learn as much.
You have to be able to go beyond to be
able to look at that next step, which is really
about confidence.
MELISSA CULKIN, TEACHER: The kids need the academic skills
that we teach through the standards,
but they also need the soft people
skills that just make you a nice whole person
and can really interact well with other people
and have meaningful relationships in your life.
SANCHEZ-GLEASON: When you invest in students'
social emotional learning, you invest in them
as learners for life.
CHUANG: Social emotional learning
is actually one of the key parts of what educators
need to attend to in order to actually teach math, science
or English.
PETTY: My goal for students in the classroom
is for them to be able to think for themselves
and make decisions on their own and feel confident about it.
CHUANG: I hope that these new standards help to raise
the bar for our students.
That students will be even better
prepared for the rest of their life
and to make sure that when they graduate
from our wonderful public high schools
that they are ready for whatever the next step is
right for them.
JOHNSON: A classroom that is aligned to these standards
is a classroom that is in a position
to better prepare their students for the goal for that grade
level.
MEADE-MONTAQUE: A classroom that is aligned to these standards
is a classroom that's teaching students how to persevere.