Blog Posts

Written by Arun Ramanathan, CEO, Pivot Learning, featured in EdSource Since schools were closed two months ago to curb the spread of the coronavirus, changes have come so fast it has been difficult to get our bearings. But as the educational picture has come into focus, it is clear that students are losing critical months […]

Welcome to the Spring 2020 edition of the CORE Academic Quarterly newsletter! In this edition of the Academic Quarterly, the Reading Expert dives into the benefits of explicit spelling instruction and shares what that looks like in the practice. The Marvelous Mathematician shares six recommended approaches and some helpful resources to foster greater student engagement […]

Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) in Watsonville, CA wasted no time. In early January as concerns about COVID-19 were just beginning to surface in the United States, Superintendent Dr. Michelle Rodriguez moved quickly to implement a distance learning plan for the district in order to minimize the learning loss that would be unavoidable once […]

A systems approach offering intensive care for the most at-risk students and specialized attention for those with moderate literacy needs. Originally published in AASA’s The School Administrator, April 2006 Number 4, Vol. 63 Middle schools and high schools across the country face a literacy crisis of monumental proportions. Whether they are students from households where […]

The CORE Mathematics team has put together this list of free resources — covering lessons and activities, building fluency and number sense, and assessments —  to support remote math instruction. Even once classrooms open again, these will continue to be go-to resources to enhance your lessons. Lessons and Activities Mathematics Assessment Project (MARS Tasks): The […]

Here we are confined at home with our little darlings wanting attention while we want to keep their learning happening. One of the best ways to be close to our children and further their learning is through Read Alouds. A Read Aloud is exactly what it says: read a book aloud to your children. As […]

Reading is a complex process, but it can be explained through a simple equation built around five foundations of reading. It’s critical that educators understand the science behind how students learn to read and what skills they need to succeed in order to teach students to be skilled readers. At CORE, we care deeply about […]

Ann Leon, CORE consultant specialist in Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics and Sight words (SIPPS) reading foundational skills program, could not leave Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s primary grade teachers and children without resources. Even when she was to leave and the schools were closing, Ann worked tirelessly with the district personnel to ensure […]

by Susan Van Zant and Nancy Volpe, Educational Services Specialists, CORE What can be done to maximize the time that students are in school? There is no mystery about time. Students attend school a set number of hours each week and days each year. At each grade level they have a lot of skills and […]

COVID-19 is having a profound impact on our nation’s schools, students and educators. We are monitoring the situation closely and working with our school partners to be responsive to their unique needs. We are using technology where possible to continue to provide professional learning to the educators we serve. Free Professional Learning Resources We offer […]

Implementing a new curriculum is a challenging process. Often the organization, layout, and even the instructional approach can be drastically different from the previously used curriculum. Change takes time, especially if that change includes learning new instructional practices. Taguma and Barrera (2019) cite teacher commitment, beliefs, and content and pedagogical understanding of the new curriculum […]

Every day, we wake up to new stories about the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). More than a decade ago, there were similar headlines about another pandemic, the swine flu (H1N1), as it spread from Mexico into the United States. At that time, I oversaw student services, including nursing and medical services, for the San […]

CORE’s Director of Mathematics, Dean Ballard, was in Las Vegas Feb. 25 – 28 for this year’s NABE conference. If you missed his session or just missed getting the handouts, we’ve got them here for you! Twenty Techniques to Increase Access to Solving Math Word Problems Slide Deck Handouts

During the 2017–18 school year CORE provided professional development and technical assistance to elementary teachers and administrators in Pajaro Valley Unified School District implementing, in addition to their broader English Language Arts instruction, the Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics and Sight words (SIPPS) reading foundational skills program. SEG Measurement looked at the reading performance […]

By Dean Ballard, Director of Mathematics, CORE When I started teaching math 35 years ago, chapter tests were easy to grade. Typically, a test had 20–25 problems and I simply made each problem worth four or five points, whatever was needed to make the total 100 points. In many math curricula today, there may be […]