Evaluating educational change There is always change within the education system. Schools must meet high standards to raise test scores. This thought is very unstable but it is true. With the implementation of the new Common Core standards, many districts struggle to find a way to complete the rigorous standards effectively and on time. In order to use instructional time, many schools must change their teaching methods. Elementary schools are departmentalizing, teaching in one or more concentrated subjects, to help teachers use instructional time. In addition to departmentalization, schools are also implementing having teachers integrate lessons as much as possible. About two years ago the school where I teach chose to departmentalize to relieve the stress of scheduling and increase standardized test scores. This decision was a winning move for the school. Test scores are steadily increasing, but not as much as the administrative team would like to see. Now that South Carolina has implemented the Common Core standards, teachers are insisting they need to have enough time to complete all the rigorous standards. So the school administration is implementing integration in the classrooms. Teachers were shifted to teaching math and science and English language arts and social studies to facilitate integration. They also took a limited number of training courses to understand integration. The integration process was long and much of the research process was left to the teacher. Implementing all these changes has been difficult for teachers. According to Green (2013) there are three phases of change. The first step of change is to realize the problems and challenges that exist within a program. The next step is to decide what changes need to be made. The ultimate goal is to define the vision and standard of excellence. The following are the negatives and