Just as states have established common standards, Rochester has created a districtwide common core. For example: ninth-grade algebra will be the same at Monroe and Charlotte high schools. And students in one city school will receive the same level of art and music instruction as students in another.
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RCSD adopting ‘common core’ curriculum
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While the New York City and Yonkers school districts have seen their graduation rates go up over the last few years, Rochester’s rate seems permanently stuck around 50 percent. And 27 of Rochester’s 60 city schools are among the lowest performing in the state. One reason for the gains in New York City and Yonkers, says Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas, is the implementation of what educators call the “common core curriculum.” Rochester is about four years behind New York City implementing the initiative, he says. It’s unclear why it’s taken the district so long. About 45 states have adopted the curriculum, including New York. The premise: a seventh grader in Rochester should be able to move to a public school in Massachusetts and demonstrate the same knowledge in math, for example, as the students in that school. “It’s a clear set of standards,” says Anita Murphy, Rochester’s deputy superintendent of operations. “The standards say ‘This is what children at this grade should know and be able to do.’” The curriculum gives teachers a road map, Murphy says, but it’s not prescriptive;
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it doesn’t tell teachers how to teach. Just as the states have established common standards, Rochester has created a districtwide common core. For example: ninth-grade Anita Murphy. algebra will be the FILE PHOTO same at Monroe and Charlotte high schools. And students in one city school will receive the same level of art and music instruction as students in another. Murphy says the district’s teachers fell into a habit of offering students an assortment of course levels instead of the appropriate level, based on what it seemed like students could handle. For example, students would receive seventh-grade math instead of eighthgrade math, or pre-algebra instead of algebra. Remedial instruction was taking place, Murphy says, instead of the appropriate course work.
The attorney for dissidents upset over the firing of Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra music director Arild Remmereit are preparing to head back to court after a ruling on Monday that sided with the RPO board. | Attorney Eileen Buholtz said Tuesday morning that she’s preparing a new filing, asking the court to void the RPO’s annual meeting, which was held on January 23. She says she will ask that the court order the RPO board to set a new annual meeting and permit write-in votes for alternate candidates to the board. | In an earlier filing, the dissidents had wanted the court to delay the January 23 meeting. They also wanted the court to order expiring board members’ terms extended, and order the board to permit write-in candidates in the board election. But the court refused to issue a temporary restraining order delaying the meeting. | On Monday of this week, State Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Fisher ruled that most of the other dissidents’ requests were moot, because the meeting was already held. He did not rule on the validity of the January 23 meeting, because the dissidents had not requested a ruling on that issue.
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