Council of Chief State School Officers Releases Core Teaching Standards for Public Comment

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) recently released for public comment new draft core teaching standards. The release of the standards signals the beginning of the public comment period which will run until 15 October 2010, during which time CCSSO seeks broad input from the education community and the public at large.

The Model Core Teaching Standards: A Resource for State Dialogue (Draft for Public Comment) was developed by a committee of the Interstate Teacher and Assessment Support Consortium convened by CCSSO. This committee included practicing teachers, teacher educators, and state education agency staff. These standards comprise a set of principles of effective teaching, revised from the 1992 model standards, and designed to demonstrate a new vision for teaching. The 2010 model core teaching standards are intended to help policymakers and educators achieve their education reform goals.

In updating the model core teaching standards, efforts were made to ensure they align with other national and state standards documents that were recently revised or released. Specifically, these standards have been reviewed to ensure compatibility with the recently-released Common Core State Standards for students in mathematics and English language arts, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards accomplished teaching core principles, the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education accreditation standards, the National Staff Development Council professional development standards, and the Interstate School Leader Licensure Consortium 2008 Policy Standards and CCSSO's companion document Performance Expectations and Indicators for Educational Leaders.

Consistency among all these professional standards is meant to ensure an orderly, logical, continuous set of expectations for teachers from beginning through accomplished practice, as well as the conditions necessary to support professional growth along this continuum. It also is designed to increase the probability of building systems of teacher development and support that begin with recruitment and preparation and run through all of the different levels of teaching, as well as related leadership roles.

"I hope that members the professional education community will take the time to critically review these draft standards and provide input so they truly reflect what teachers should know and so policymakers will know what needs to change in order for teachers to be supported in their quest to reach the new vision laid out in the standards," Gene Wilhoit, CCSSO Executive Director, said in a prepared statement.

The draft standards will be circulated until 15 October 2010 to gather comments and feedback which will be used to refine and finalize the standards. Individual and focus group feedback is planned.

To download and review the document and to submit comments, please visit: 

CCSSO: Model Core Teaching Standards

To view a video webcast of the release, please visit:

Model Core Teaching Standards Webcast