America’s school principals overwhelmingly have put the rollout of the Common Core State Standards at the top of their agenda, but the vast majority also say they are not adequately prepared to manage both the budgeting and the overall shift in instruction that is demanded by the new learning goals in English/language arts and mathematics.
Those findings on the common core are captured in a new survey that polled some 1,000 principals in 14 states. The results were released last month by the National Association of Elementary School Principals, or NAESP.
More than 80 percent of the principals queried by NAESP report that they are “prioritizing” the new standards both for school improvement and their own learning.
That proportion was even higher among principals in urban districts, who also generally reported having received more professional development around the common core than their non-urban peers.
Among all principals who responded, more than 80 percent said the standards have the potential to provide students with deeper learning and more meaningful assessments of their knowledge and skills, but that percentage was slightly lower among urban principals.
