The Chamber of Commerce and the Fuquay-Varina Education Council are sponsoring an information meeting about the new North Carolina Common Core and Essential Standards curriculum during this month’s Wake Up Fuquay-Varina Breakfast.

All schools in North Carolina, including Wake County schools, have undergone curriculum changes effective during the 2012-13 school year due to the state’s adoption of the new Common Core and N.C. Essential Standards. With the adoption of these new standards, North Carolina is in the first group of states to embrace clear and consistent goals for learning to prepare children for success in college and the workplace. The new guidelines describe the essential skills and knowledge that students will master annually, and they provide parents with a clear and common understanding of what their child is expected to learn and know. The standards define how students should progress in their knowledge and skills as they move through each grade level from kindergarten to 12^th grade.

The new curriculum includes both content and practice standards. The content standards are focused on what students are responsible for learning at each grade level. The practice standards explain how students engage in the content to solve problems. Reading assignments under the new standards are more challenging, and students are expected to read and work with more complex texts. In mathematics, students are expected to explore mathematics at deeper levels, as they’re encouraged to use multiple representations and methods to solve problems. Additionally, students are expected to explain and justify the processes used to solve problems as one way to demonstrate mastery of mathematical understandings.

If you would like more information about the new curriculum, you are invited to attend the Chamber of Commerce’s Wake Up Fuquay-Varina Breakfast on Friday, Sept. 28 from 8-9 a.m. The meeting will be held at the Golden Corral located at 1420 East Broad St. Principals from area schools will be in attendance to provide more detailed information regarding the new curriculum and explain how the changes will impact elementary, middle, and high school teaching and learning.