Following the 2012-13 administrators welcome back kick-off meeting, superintendent Pat highlighted the district's plan to roll-out of the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), including integration of learning experiences that would prepare students for the new Common Core assessments from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). Thoughtfully considering the links between the CCSS, the SBAC assessments, and the collaborative structures used by her teachers to immerse themselves in Assessment for Learning strategies and unit planning through a "backward design" model, Pat began the plan. She was sure she could begin by connecting this new learning to those guiding questions that teachers and students need to be able to answer about student learning: (1) Where am I going?; (2) Where am I now?; and (3) How do I close the gap? As an instructional leader, Pat wanted her teachers to see the implementation of the CCSS and the new assessment as directly related to the work they had already been doing, particularly since these efforts were showing positive results with students.