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New York City principals are getting a jump start on the new national standards for math and literacy supported by the Obama administration. Training sessions are taking place this summer even though the changes won't be rolled out until 2012.

Deputy Chancellor Shael Polakow-Suransky says the new standards mean students will eventually do more writing. “The kinds of writing that they're going to need to do will be less around sort of personal narrative and much more around the kinds of writing you need to do in college,” he explains, “such as being able to marshal evidence and defend an argument.”

For example, students might be asked to “delineate and evaluate the argument that Thomas Jefferson makes in the Declaration of Independence,” according to a document prepared by the city’s Department of Education, or Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Suransky says teachers may also put less focus on pure literature in order to get students reading more for information because that's what they’ll need when they graduate. “A lot of our kids get into high school and struggle with the academic language in science or social studies because they haven't had opportunities to work with developing their literacy in those areas,” he says.

In math, changes are being made to give students a more solid foundation in the early grades. There will be fewer topics with more generalizing and linking of concepts. The department expects more hands-on learning as students master more complex topics such as algebra and geometry.

A hundred city schools will take part in a standards pilot program this coming year. New York State adopted the new common core standards last week, joining more than 25 other states across the country that have already done so. States are scrambling to do so by August in order to qualify for the Obama administration’s Race to the Top education grants.

The state Board of Regents also voted to adopt new tests that are supposed to be much more rigorous and which are aligned with the new standards. The state’s education department has acknowledged that its tests had gotten too easy and has said this year’s exams in grades 3-8 were already tougher to pass. Those scores will be released this week.