Great ideas so far... Some things that were not mentioned yet...

I LOVE that Schmoker says a focus on about half or less of the standards is ideal. Amanda, Becky, and I just worked on refining the Lit Studies curriculum for K. Learn. We used the Common Core to guide our work. We found that many times it is easy to create an assessment that matches several standards and many of the standards are similar. This is something I hope is looked at more closely at the district level.

I also appreciated the point made on page 11 and throughout about the ongoing focus. I think we could work on this by monitoring implementation a bit more. I think we started off last year doing this, but it eventually went away... :) Easy to do. I know several teachers who unfortunately were creating another assignment just for the purpose of data teams. They also were not implementing strategies with all classes. This needs to be monitored!

Clarity is another point he makes. I know we were all new at this last year, but I think the confusion that happened in the middle of the year was because we were not exactly clear on what we were doing. I am so excited to be in the second year of this knowing we are all much more experienced and ready. If I could make a suggestion, it would be that we need to create a plan of action (for at least the first quarter/semester) and STICK TO IT no matter what we come across thereafter.

Page 28 - "We need to reclaim the hundreds of hours each year that are now spent on nonacademic tasks. We need to redirect those hours toward the most simple, obvious tasks that prepare students for college, careers, and citizenship..." :) Yes, indeed! Amanda, Becky and I found this to be so true. Understanding By Design provides an awesome method of doing this. You really see the crap...and find that getting rid of it allows for much better teaching and learning. (Essential questions, Bloom's Tax.etc.)

Ya'll know I love the fact literacy is so huge. I think teachers are learning to face the fact that they must teaching reading, writing, and speaking. Page 34 under the first heading reassures that summaries are essential! They really allow for many other skills to be demonstrated.

Last thing, page 47 - I think this would be a good thing for the DRT to do in order to find the few writing/literacy standards we want to focus on as a staff.

Sorry if this is long... it is hard to tell. BTW - it would not let me comment on Eric's - only would let me create a new post. Sorry.

Anderson out.