Schools Open and Kids Return to 124 Long Island School Districts

Janet Joyce Tuesday, September 4, 2012

When the heat of summer begins to subside, and the calendar makes that harsh turn to September, the air rings with the bells of schools across the country. That is no different in Long Island's 124 school districts as they begin opening their doors within the next few days.

During this week, 400,000 students will begin to make their way back into their classrooms for another year of studying, reading, and hopefully passing the end of year exams. Starting Tuesday, 62 school districts opened their doors and welcomed their students in. Later in the week, the remainder of schools will fill their buildings with our next generation's leaders, doctors, teachers, and scientists. Let's hope that what they learn today will continue with them in the years to come.

For the many teachers that are going to work this will be a year of learning for themselves. This is the first year in which a state wide Common Curricula will be taught that was adopted by New York and 47 other states around the nation. Greta Villanueva, a third-grade teacher at New Visions Museum School of Exploration and Discovery stated what probably most of the other teachers around the state feel, "We're all a little bit nervous about it. It's all new to us." With the curricula there are teacher evaluations and student exams so that it can be evaluated where there needs to be improvement.

This particular curriculum is built around the premise of reading real world "original" documents. These documents range from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letters from Birningham Jail among many others. According to surveys of different districts around the nation this Common Core type of curriculum has students scoring higher than other types of standard curriculum.

janetj@longislandyellowpages.com

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