By Kara Nitta

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Students should get ready to buckle down this year, as the new Common Core standards are taking effect. These are consistent national-based standards that determine what will be taught in U.S. classrooms.

“If you were to pick up and leave Hawaii and move to any other state except, as I understand it, Alaska and Texas, you would be held accountable for the same standard,” said Math Department Head Donna Ross.

The benefits of these standards extend to after high school,  “College and career ready is the big push and that’s through common core, higher expectations, being better prepared for college and (a) career after you’re done with high school,” said Curriculum Coordinator Robin Miller.

Currently only the Math and English departments are using these standards. One of the changes to Math is the new Algebra 2 books.  For English the changes are more subtle.

“The difference (the standards bring) is not really that much of a difference, so what it does is that it gives us the ability to tell parents, every class is a college prep class, not only AP kids get a college prep education,” explained English Department Head Lisa Tsuruda. Even though at this point only two departments are using these standards the others will be soon to follow.

All of this progress is funded by the Race to the Top grant that Hawaii was awarded last year.  This grant gives the state approximately $75 million to spend over the course of four years to help stimulate educational reforms.  This includes teacher and staff training, school budgets and incentive programs to encourage progress.

Next school year, the state will be testing for 90 percent of students meeting the standards for English, and 82 percent for Math.  “(On) the Hawaii State Assesment (HSA) we already meet 85 percent, or 86 percent and I think that for like a school like MHS we can hit that goal,” said Tsuruda.

However a new assessment is being created to replace the HSA.  “States who have adopted (the Common Core standards) all get the same assessment and that’s the idea behind it,” said Miller.   This assessment is estimated to be ready for use sometime between the 2014 and 2015 school years.

“(The students) have to get ready to work hard,” Miller said.  Despite these oncoming challenges everyone is looking forward to the change. “I think with (the standards), it can only make us better,” said Tsuruda. “I think we’re off to a really good start,” agreed Ross.

The staff of MHS looks forward to seeing better prepared students  in the oncoming years through the use of the Common Core standards.