Rural educators in the Northeast Region are beginning to implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. The Standards' emphasis on conceptual understanding, coherence among topics, abstract reasoning, and problem solving represents a major shift in content and pedagogy from existing state standards, which focus on mastering discrete skills and procedures.

Members of the Northeast Rural Districts Research Alliance (NRDRA), who are committed to sup porting rural educators’ effectiveness, expressed interest in learning about rural schools’ and districts’ most pressing needs in implementing the Standards; what states and districts are doing to prepare for and address these needs; what curricular and professional development opportunities are available and being developed; and how online technology, in particular, can be used to expand access to resources. In response to this interest, Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands researchers, in collaboration with the NRDRA, designed a needs assessment of rural Northeast Region educators who are preparing or have begun to implement the Standards.

Key Findings

To address the ongoing challenges and needs for rural educators. state and district administrators and teachers identified the following needs:

• Time to review the standards and plan instruction
• Support for changing instructional practices
• Access to quality resources and materials