North Hill Elementary in Des Moines, Wash., has approached teaching Washington state's math and English language arts standards in a unique way, and the results are paying off in improved student learning.
"Our school approached the Common Core by selecting three standards, one for English language arts and two for math," said North Hill Principal Nancy Melius. "And then we really just dug in deeper to understand what did that standard say, what did that look like for kids."
This approach certainly factored in North Hill's impressive testing scores in spring 2015 on the first Smarter Balanced assessments in English language arts and math. North Hill students finished above the district averages in English language arts and math in grades 3-6, and above the state averages in grades 3-5.
Understanding Smarter Balanced Test Scores