For the second year in a row, the city education department will not recommend any Common Core-aligned learning materials for high schools, even though it has endorsed and helped pay for such curriculums for elementary and middle schools.
“After an extensive review of high school curriculum materials in English language arts and math, the NYCDOE has decided not to incorporate any high school curriculum materials into the Core Curriculum for the 2014–15 school year,” the department said in a weekly newsletter to principals that was sent Wednesday.
The city has some time to pick Common Core high school materials since the state has pushed back by several years the date by which high school students must meet the higher standards in order to graduate. (Though the graduation requirement is years away, some students will take the first two Common Core Regents tests this June.)
The lack of an endorsement also reflects the fact that many high school teachers create their own curriculums by pulling together materials that match the state standards. Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña noted that tendency in an interview with Chalkbeat New York in February when she was asked about the likelihood of a department-endorsed Common Core curriculum for high schools.
“A lot of the high school people did not want a curriculum,” she said. “They wanted to develop their own.”
She added that one idea is to help high schools share teacher-made materials with one another.