Kansas College and Career Readiness Standards

New curricular standards were approved by the Kansas State Board of Education (KSBE) in December of 2012 that set the course for where the state should go in curriculum and other educational standards to prepare our students for their future. Your question might be..."I thought we just did that recently in adopting the common core standards" and you would be correct. Essentially, they are the same thing. Each state that adopted common core had the flexibility to adopt a small percentage of their own local standards and to make them their own state standards. Kansas adopted common core standards in that way back in 2010 and has made progress in adapting them to tie into college and career readiness (also defined in December of 2012 by KSBE) and the expectations of the "No Child Left Behind" waiver.

Recently, the Kansas Commissioner of Education, Dr. Diane DeBacker developed a video found at the link included below or on the Kansas State Department of Education website under common core standards that provides an explanation of the progress being made in the implementation of the Kansas Common Core Standards, or what we refer to as Kansas’ College and Career Ready Standards.  This is the Commissioner’s second message related to implementation of the College and Career Ready Standards  and it addresses questions about the value of assessments that are not yet aligned to our new standards. 

http://mediastream.ksde.org/media/liveremote/kccr/collegecareerready2.wmv 

I hope the video addresses questions regarding the new Kansas standards, but if you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact your building principal, the director of curriculum, or the superintendent. The new standards have more academic rigor, but also address the soft skills such as work ethic, attendance, etc. We at USD 331 are working to fully implement the new standards at all grade levels by next school year and tie those standards into the various career pathways that interest your child. We hope to prepare all of our students for post-secondary education (65% of Kansas jobs will require some type of post-secondary education) or to enter a career with the skills necessary to be successful.