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When meeting with politicians and business people, they all say businesses are looking to settle in places with good schools that graduate students who are ready for jobs, said Robert Corcoran, president and chairman of the GE Foundation.
Towns with school systems that are not up to par will lose jobs, Corcoran said.
The new Common Core State Standards headed to the Stamford schools were designed in 2010 by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to help prepare all students for college and the work force. The standards are designed to teach fewer topics while helping students to understand them at a deeper level and to be able to apply them.
“These standards are higher because all students can reach them,” said Racehl Etienne, of Student Achievement Partners.
Stamford Public Schools are ahead of other districts in implementing concepts similar to the common core standards, said Mona Hanna, chief academic officer for the schools. The district also has a three-year plan to implement the standards in English and math and has the technology needed, she said.
“We brought the common core to Stamford before the common core existed,” Hanna said during the Stamford Achieves' symposium.
The state will help all districts institute the standards by adding technology, communicating best practices and organizing resources as needed, said Dianna Roberge-Wentzell, chief academic officer for the state Department of Education.
For more information about the standards, visit the public school system's website.
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