Afternoon Announcements: Common Core Updates from Tennessee, California, and Colorado

One thing that won’t be furloughed during the government shutdown: school lunches. The US Department of Agriculture notified states last week that free and reduced price lunches for students will continue “for several months,” if the shutdown lasts that long. The Washington Post

Cicely Woodard, an eight-grade teacher in Tennessee, says she’s excited about the rollout of the Common Core State Standards in the state. “I am definitely a fan,” said Woodard, who has been teaching for 11 years. “I am so excited by the thinking and the learning that kids are doing now, and the way that they are able to express themselves in the classroom. It’s really exciting to hear them talk and use all of the math terms to explain their thinking and construct arguments.” The Tennessean

California has the money to implement the Common Core State Standards; the question is how they’ll allocate it. “The thing about this work is that no one here has done it before, so we don’t know exactly what we’ll need,” said David Christiansen, Fresno’s associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction, on spending for the Common Core. “Frankly, every district is trying to figure it out. We want to make the right investment around our goals.” The Hechinger Report

Thirteen districts in Colorado rolled out the Common Core State Standards early, and so far the implementation has been smooth. The rest of the state’s districts have transitioned more gradually to new standards or continued teaching previous versions of the state’s standards until this year, the deadline for all districts to switch. The Denver Post