Newark mom Kelli Ransco’s change of heart from initial hesitation to belief in the value of Common Core learning practices being taught to her daughter Alana at Lincoln School last year _ chronicled in a video shot at the school last June when Alana was a student in Megan Conaway’s second grade class_ has made news.

Big time.It has been a featured video since December on the New York State Education

Department’s EngageNY.org website  https://www.engageny.org that provides resources for educators and parents and highlights best educational practices across the state.

Even more notably, it has been included in Commissioner John King’s !nal News & Notes newsletter sent January 2 to about 250,000 educators before he becomes senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan later this month.

It has also been shared on YouTube and on various other NYSE social media platforms.

After doing her homework on what the Common Core Learning Standards are about, Ransco believes the transition to higher standards is bene!cial for she and her husband, Mark’s three children.

Alana and twin sister, Ava, who was also brie"y in the video, are third grade pupils at Kelley School this year where brother, Alexander, is a fourth grade pupil.

See the video here: https://www.engageny.org/resource/hesitation-turns-belief-common-core

Bright spots.

NCSD Superintendent Matt Cook is also featured in the video.In his segment, he noted how there had been a “tremendous change” in feedback from parents from what it had been at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, shortly after he became superintendent. “ere had been a lot of trepidation and now we are starting to hear ‘okay, I see where we’re going. I see what is happening and I like what I’m seeing,’ ” he said. Both last year and this, Lincoln, Perkins and Kelley Schools have held parent meetings to explain what children, during a typical day, are learning under the new standards. e meetings, at which parents have been provided with some

resources to use with their children at home, have also provided ample opportunity for parents to ask questions. e NYSED team, that included Jennifer Cleghorn, a senior NYSED fellow and Regents fellow and video

producer Beth Wurtmann _ and who were accompanied last June by Cheri Modeen, Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES staff development trainer and WFLB District Superintendent Scott Bischoping _ came to Lincoln School last year to !lm “Bright Spot” segments with Lincoln second grade teachers Megan Conaway and Rhonda Precourt and !rst grade teacher Tiffany LaPrade and parents. Unfortunately, a tight time frame didn’t allow for !lming in Precourt’s class. Another video, produced after the June 5 visit by NYSED team, that brie"y features Lincoln parent Phanessa Terwillegar, mother of Riley, now a second grader and Alannah, now a !rst grader _ and other parents throughout the state was put up on EngageNY http://is.gd/kwY3g7 and YouTube in September. Lincoln School Principal Jeff Hamelinck is pleased Newark was chosen as a “Bright Spot” by the NYSED. “Even more pleasing to me is how our staff and families have collaborated with each other across the elementary level to deepen our own learning and the learning of our students,” he said. “It has taken a lot of hard work by staff, parents, and students with more work to do, but when we continue to team together, I am con!dent student learning will bene!t.” Cook agrees. "We are very proud of the hard work that our teachers have put into learning this new content and in their efforts to help parents understand. But we have more work to do in helping our community and this is no time to rest on our laurels. We need to keep working, re!ning our practice and continuing our communication."