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Although the Washington Elementary School District began introducing the Common Core teaching standards ahead of the state’s suggested schedule, full implementation at all grade levels has proved to be a bit of a moving target.

The 141-student, rural, isolated Topock Elementary School District has been preparing for and implementing new and potentially expensive teaching methods and a computer-based assessment. The keys have been collaboration paired with some timely technology grants.

The state’s largest school district has been preparing to teach the Common Core standards in much the same way that smaller districts have – with several consecutive years of teacher training, millions of dollars in technology upgrades and parent education. However, despite a successful 2012 bond election, money is still tight.

With one wary eye cast down the road at PARCC testing, Cave Creek Unified School District tested its ability a couple of years ago to have a massive amount of students using its computer network all at the same time. And the result was a failure.

As a small charter school without the ability to ask voters for bond overrides, Arizona College Prep Academy has to be judicious with its spending decisions. But like every other Arizona school, it still has to train its teachers to implement the state’s Common Core standards and eventually test students on them.