To be recognized and adopted, the promise and potential of national standards must validate the instructional role of the school librarian and build formative knowledge through authentic process and products. Inquiry is a direct link to those dimensions. Standards that are rigorous and relevant optimize the developing brain's affinity for building…

"College readiness" means that a student can enter a college classroom without remediation and successfully complete entry-level college requirements (Conley, 2012). In order for students to be considered college ready, they must acquire skills, content knowledge, and behaviors before leaving high school. Research on high-school performance…

The term "college and career ready" has become widely used as a result of the proposed Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization and Common Core State Standards movement. As schools move toward what may be considered a moral and economic imperative for the nation's students, it is essential that they first identify the gaps of…

For the first time in the nation's history 46 States and the District of Columbia have agreed that all K-12 students will be educated along a common continuum of high academic expectations known as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Having clear, consistent standards in English language arts/literacy and mathematics will help ensure that all…