Teachers Get Assistance With Common Core From Professor At Fairfield's SHU

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Bridgeport teachers are getting a boost from a program at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield designed to assist teachers as they try to navigate through the demands of the Common Core standards.

Sacred Heart University Professor Karen Waters conducts a professional development workshop with Bridgeport teachers.
Photo Credit: *Tracy Deer-Mirek*

by Rob Sullivan

12/08/2014 5:00 a.m.

So to help neighboring schools in Bridgeport, SHU’s Connecticut Literacy Specialist Program recently hosted an interactive staff-development event aimed at closing gaps and helping teachers enhance their skills.

The program was under the guidance of Karen Waters, director of the Advanced Reading Certification Program.

Called “Navigating the Common Core: The Shifts, Text Complexity and Close Reading,” the workshop has been designed to help teachers better understand the standards and use specific strategies that address student needs.

The Common Core standards were adopted by 44 states, including Connecticut, are part of a national movement to provide a framework for what students should know at the end of every grade level in English, language arts and math. This common learning helps better prepare them for college and for entering the workforce.

The six-hour training included 30 teachers from Columbus School in Bridgeport’s Hollow and their principal, Steven Douglas.

The event established the beginning of a formal partnership between Bridgeport Public Schools and Sacred Heart, Waters said. Earlier in the spring of 2014, Columbus School applied for and was awarded a School Improvement Grant from the state Department of Education. The grant proposal identified specific areas of professional development required by the staff as part of the overall initiative to advance student reading achievement at Columbus School.

Waters was a Bridgeport teacher for 31 years and was an elementary school principal before becoming Director of Literacy for Bridgeport.

“Within the next year all students at the elementary and secondary levels across the country will be assessed on the extent to which they have demonstrated mastery over rigorous national standards,” said Waters. “Bridgeport is in our own backyard and is a district in need of resource personnel and support. I will always feel loyal to the school district in which I spent much of my educational career.”

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