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California high school introduced elements of the CCSS years ago

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2012 16:25 PM



Once school districts fully implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), 70 percent of the reading materials twelfth-graders are exposed to will be comprised of nonfiction works, The Huffington Post recently reported. Naturally, this has many educators concerned about what will be read in their classrooms.

However, those who are worried about what the future will hold may want to turn to California's South Tahoe High School, where students began to read more nonfiction works almost a decade ago, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reported. The institution made this decision after the California State University system informed South Tahoe officials that more than 60 percent of the state's high school graduates needed to take remedial classes.

South Tahoe High School officials decided to introduce students in the 11th and 12th grades to more nonfiction material so they could enhance their critical reading skills before graduating and going off to college.

"As an English teacher it was tough to make the switch to nonfiction, but because we kept part of the fiction piece, it was a little easier," Bridey Heidel, South Tahoe High School's English department chairwoman, told the news source. "My love as an English teacher is for literature, but we understand that we're preparing them for college, and much of what they'll read is nonfiction."


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