Laying the Foundation Helps Secondary Teachers across the U.S. Implement Common Core State Standards

DALLAS, Nov. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Laying the Foundation (LTF) has recently stepped forward to become one of the leading providers of teacher lessons and activities aligned with the Common Core State Standards. With its ten-year record of providing results-driven, content-focused teacher training and classroom-ready resources, the nonprofit organization has taken its rigorous program to the next level to help middle school and high school teachers understand and implement the new standards in their classrooms.

"We didn't start out to create a program to meet Common Core State Standards—we created a program to build academic excellence in our teachers so that they could deliver challenging lessons to ensure that more students were college ready," said Dave Saba, CEO of Laying the Foundation. "With some incredible work by the teachers on our staff, we have aligned our goals to ensure that our LTF teachers can lead the way in Common Core State Standards implementation."

Math, science, and English teachers who are part of the LTF Training program have access to a discipline-specific suite of lessons in LTF's online library. To aid in planning, each of these lessons clearly indicates how its components meet the Common Core State Standards. Sample open source lessons are available for free on the LTF website for teachers and district administrators who have not yet participated in LTF Training but who want to learn more about the teacher professional development program.    

As school districts in the 47 states that have adopted the standards search for resources to execute Common Core, having a comprehensive, yet cost-effective, program is crucial. Because LTF is not a curriculum, LTF lessons can easily be integrated into existing curriculums to save time and money. Furthermore, LTF assists districts with limited staff resources by building a network of mentors who become certified to train other teachers the content and pedagogical knowledge and skills that they receive through LTF.

"Without the proper training and resources for teachers, the Common Core State Standards will never make it into the classroom—it will just become another program with promise but no follow-through," said Saba.

About Laying the Foundation
Laying the Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the best content-based, pedagogy-driven, teacher-to-teacher training, supported by rigorous classroom-ready lessons and web-based resources to improve the quality of English, mathematics, and science instruction. LTF has trained over 36,000 teachers to date and has demonstrated dramatic increases in Advanced Placement exam participation and success in STEM subjects. LTF believes that training, mentoring, and empowering the teacher corps will lead to high standards of academic excellence for all students. To learn more, visit www.ltftraining.org.

Contact:
Kaci Schack
[email protected]
214.525.3009
www.ltftraining.org

SOURCE Laying the Foundation