I hope each of you had a great Spring Break and are ready to get back to teaching and learning!

I had some minor surgery to remove the metal in my hip and was able to rest and recuperate and am doing fine. Kathy and I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Allie, our granddaughter, along with Sam, our dog. Spring Break is always a great time to spend with family, but now it’s time to hit the books again!

We only have a couple of weeks left before CATS testing begins. There has been a lot of discussion about CATS recently. There was a bill in the state Senate that basically would have removed CATS and replaced it with a nationally normed test. Although I know the CATS assessment needs changes, I also know that throwing it out would lower our standards and hurt our kids. Throwing it out probably would make us look better, but overall, our kids would not learn at levels as high as they are now.

Many of the state superintendents have joined together and developed a white paper indicating what we believe needs to be changed on the current assessment. A state committee will review the needs for adjustments to CATS for future years, and that is good. The key to all of this is to make sure that whatever assessment is used, it’s what is best for kids!

Sometimes people ask us if we are teaching to the test. What is actually happening is that our teachers are teaching to strong core content. That core content is what is tested -- and tested at the higher thinking levels. Our students are required not only to memorize but also to apply what they learned to real-life situations.

It is important that we continue to teach our kids to think at high levels to strong core content because when they are proficient across the board, they will be able to compete with anyone -- and the competition gets tougher every day.

I hope this explains, to some degree, what it means to be teaching to the core content.