Review of System Capacity to Implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS): Diagnostic Tool for Schools, Districts, and Organizations
The purpose of this diagnostic tool is to help local education agencies (LEAs) and schools assess their current capacity to implement the CCSS. This tool has been adapted from the from the New Mexico Public Education Department’s version of the Achieve/EDI Common Core Implementation Workbook. Teams review their LEA’s/school’s CCSS implementation plan in accordance with this tool, which contains relevant questions and lays out guideposts for what “weak” and “strong” performance looks like. Teams then rate their plan and give evidence for that rating. The results of the assessment can help teams see where planning efforts are weaker and need additional support (p. 2). The document allows users to examine areas related to implementation of the CCSS: Organization, Alignment of Instructional Materials, Professional Development on CCSS & Related Assessments, and Monitoring Performance & Problem Solving.
As a stand-alone document, LEA planning teams may find this diagnostic tool confusing to fill out because some terms and certain criteria found in the resource are not made clear. However, if used with the longer document from which this resource was adapted (Implementing Common Core State Standards and Assessments by Achieve and EDI, see http://csai-online.org/resource/93 for more information), where terms and criteria are described at greater length, this tool may be a helpful resource for LEA leaders who would like to assess their schools and districts’ current capacity for implementing the new standards. This diagnostic tool is a more compact version of the longer tool found in the full resource, and it is also available electronically, which allows users to be able to download and type in their answers.