Common Core Standards

Dr. Debra Harwell-Braun4.13.12

History of CCSS

Two organizations spearheaded this broad education reform effort which unveiled standards for two content areas: Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA)

1. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)

2. The National Governors Association (NGA)

In July 2009, work groups and feedback groups composed of representatives from higher education, K–12 education, and the research community began work on standards in Mathematics and ELA. A draft of the College and Career Ready Standards were released.

History of CCSS

Feedback was solicited from a wide range of stakeholders, including educators, administrators, community and parent organizations, higher education representatives, the business community, researchers, civil rights groups, and states.

November 2009- the first draft of CCSS grade-level standards was released to states and feedback was obtained.

March 10, 2010, the first public draft of Common Core State Standards was released. Public feedback was collected through April 2, 2010.

The states were given two more opportunities to provide feedback before the final standards were released.

History of CCSS

States received the final release on June 1, 2010, one day prior to the public release of the final CCSS.

On June 2, 2010, the final version of the CCSS was released to the public.

Some districts began implementation for K-2 students during the current school year

BenefitsThe Common Core State Standards represent a body of work that is:

thoughtfully and logically organized

comprehensive in scope

vertically aligned standards with increasing rigor from grade to grade

well communicated to a wide audience

Of special significance are two sections in both the English language arts and mathematics documents that specifically address the need for English Language Learners and students with disabilities to receive equal access to these standards.

Additional Benefits

College and career readiness for ALL students

Excellent for mobile population

Consistency of standards—preferable to 50 different state versions of standards

Capacity for sharing resources within and across states

Textbook publishers creating common sets of instruction and assessment resources for all states, not just the largest ones

Allows states/districts/schools to connect CCSS to their own areas of focus: Response to Intervention, English Language Learners, cultural responsiveness, social justice, district/school themes, etc.

Explicit horizontal and vertical “learning progressions” (Popham, 2007)

Emphasis on interdisciplinary literacy

Challenges

This rapid adoption of the CCSS by so many states represents a historic shift away from the nation’s tradition of state-determined standards. This will dramatically impact how:

Veteran educators transition from state standards to more rigorous standards

Pre-service and new educators are trained and certified

Professional development changes to increase educators’ content area expertise

Extensive standards-based work accomplished over years can be merged with CCSS

States will guide and direct districts to implement the CCSS within a timeline

Funding for the transition to CCSS to occur, especially without Race to the Top funds

Challenges

Another significant challenge is assessment. Even though assessment development consortia are working to create national assessments aligned to the CCSS, states that adopt the new standards will have to continue administering their existing state assessments until the 2014/15 school year.

Current state assessments will not align as closely with the national standards as do their current state standards. This will likely cause educators anxiety about a possible decline in students’ test results if their instruction and assessment focus shifts away from the state standards to the CCSS.

However, the CCSS are more rigorous than most states’ current standards. By focusing on these “higher” standards, student performance on current state assessments may improve.

Prioritization of the Standards

Prioritization of the CCSS is very much needed. Douglas B. Reeves, founder of the Leadership and Learning Center, writes:

“The quantity of standards that teachers have to cope with in the Common Core remains too high—Mike

Schmoker, in his book Focus, estimates that schools using the Common Core Standards will only be able to effective

teach half of them.

Some districts have prioritized the previous NCSCOS objectives as:

Essential, Important, Nice to Know and Maintained

College and Career Readiness Standards for Reading (Handout A and B)

The K-12 standards define what students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade.

They correspond to the CCR anchor standards by number.

Handout B Reading Literature Anchor Standard 3 (Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text)

Under the anchor standard are grade specific standards

Organization of the K-12 English Language Arts

The English language arts core standards are organized by individual grades in kindergarten-8 and by grade bands for grades 9–10 and 11–12.

Classified according to the familiar language arts strands of:

reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language development

Each strand presents College and Career Readiness (CCR) anchor standards (broad statements) along with grade-specific standards that together define the knowledge and skills that students must know and be able to demonstrate by the end of each grade.

The reading standards that pertain to Reading Foundations is K-5. (handout B1)

ELA Coding

The College and Career Readiness (CCR) standards, which anchor the standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, define general, cross-disciplinary literacy expectations that must be met for students to be prepared and ready to succeed upon entering college and workforce training programs.

Each broad CCR anchor standard has an accompanying grade-specific standard, which provides grade-appropriate end-of-year expectations.

CCR expectation- students entering college will not need any remediation in reading, writing, speaking or mathematics

CCR Anchor Standards

Reading (handout A)

Key Idea and Details

Craft and Structure

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

Writing (handout C)

Text Types and Purposes

Production and Distribution of Writing

Research to Build and Present Knowledge (ethical information gathering)

Range of Writing (discarding the 5 paragraph straight jacket)

CCR Anchor Standards

Speaking and Listening (handout E)

Comprehension and Collaboration

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

Language (handout G)

Conventions of Standard English

Knowledge of Language

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Coding of the Strands by K-5 and 6-12-Reading

RL—Reading Standards for Literature

RI—Reading Standards for Informational Text

RF—Foundational Skills Standards (Grades K-5)

W—Writing Standards

SL—Speaking and Listening Standards

L—Language Standards

RH—Reading for Literacy in History/Social Studies

RST—Reading for Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects

WHST—Writing for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects

Practice

Open the envelop with the standards

Place the standards for Reading Information Text, Anchor Standard 1 in order k-12 on the spiral map frame

2-3 min

Check your work against the answer sheet

Reading Foundations (Handout B1)

There are four categories: (standards 1−4)Print concepts (K−1)Phonological awareness (K−1)Phonics and word recognition (K−5)Fluency (K−5)TThe Reading Foundational skills allow for targeted differentiated instruction. It provides the building blocks of learning to read.

Text Complexity-Data Driven (Handout I)

Qualitative dimensions of text complexity, such as levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands. Lexile codes provide more information about a book's characteristics, such as its developmental appropriateness, reading difficulty, and common or intended usage.

Quantitative measures of text complexity, such as word frequency and sentence length, which are typically measured by computer software. The Lexile Analyzer measures text demand based on these two widely adopted variables. (AIMS web universal screener)

Reader and task considerations, such as students' knowledge, motivation and interests. The free “Find a book” search helps readers build custom book lists based on their ability (Lexile measure) as well as personal interests or school assignments.

http://www.lexile.com/using-lexile/lexile-measures-and-the-ccssi/defining-text-complexity/

Text Complexity (handout L)

Complex texts are a cornerstone of the Common Core Standards for ELA

They even have their own section-Reading Standard Ten (handout L)

Why U.S. Students Stumble on Complex Texts

Research shows that texts students read in in grades K-12 became easier after 1962

Scaffolding of Instruction is more prevalent in K-12 compared to college

High school students are rarely held accountable for independent reading

College reading is mostly expository, but K-12 reading is mostly narrative, which is easier to comprehend.

ELA “Shifts”ELA “Shifts”

Shift 1

PK-5, Balancing Informational & Literary Texts

Students read a true balance of informational and literary texts. Elementary school classrooms are, therefore, places where students access the world – science, social studies, the arts and literature – through text. At least 50% of what students read is informational.

Shift 2 6-12, Knowledge in the Disciplines

Content area teachers outside of the ELA classroom emphasize literacy experiences in their planning and instruction. Students learn through domain-specific texts in science and social studies classrooms – rather than referring to the text, they are expected to learn from what they read.

Shift 3 Staircase of Complexity

In order to prepare students for the complexity of college and career ready texts, each grade level requires a “step” of growth on the “staircase”. Students read the central, grade appropriate text around which instruction is centered. Teachers are patient, create more time and pace in the curriculum for this close and careful reading, and provide appropriate and necessary scaffolding and supports so that it is possible for students reading below grade level.

ELA “Shifts”ELA “Shifts”

Shift 4

Text-based Answers

Students have rich and rigorous conversations which are dependent on a common text. Teachers insist that classroom experiences stay deeply connected to the text on the page and that students develop habits for making evidentiary arguments both in conversation, as well as in writing to assess comprehension of a text.

Shift 5 Writing from Sources

Writing needs to emphasize use of evidence to inform or make an argument rather than the personal narrative and other forms of decontextualized prompts. While the narrative still has an important role, students develop skills through written arguments that respond to the ideas, events, facts, and arguments presented in the texts they read.

Shift 6 Academic Vocabulary

Students constantly build the vocabulary they need to access grade level complex texts. By focusing strategically on comprehension of pivotal and commonly found words (such as “discourse,” “generation,” “theory,” and “principled”) and less on esoteric literary terms (such as onomatopoeia” or “homonym”), teachers constantly build students’ ability to access more complex texts across the content areas.

Next Generation Assessment NGA

Optional Early and Mid-Year Formative Assessments (Components 1 and 2) can be administered at any point prior to Component 3, as locally determined.

• Component 1: These early formative assessments in ELA and mathematics will be designed to provide an indicator of student knowledge and skills so that instruction, supports, and professional development can be tailored to address student needs. For students who did not meet the prior grade-level standards, it may be possible to also provide an indication of whether progress has been made or those standards have been met.

• Component 2: These mid-year formative assessments will be composed primarily of rich performance tasks and designed to provide instructionally useful feedback to teachers and students. The tasks will preview the types of tasks to be completed in Component 3.

Next Generation Assessment-NGA

• Performance-Based Assessments(Component 3): These assessments will be given primarily on computers or other digital devices and utilize a mix of human and computer scoring. Multiple types of items will be used, including computer-enhanced items and performance tasks, and emphasis will be placed in this component on the hard-to-measure standards. Each assessment may require several sessions/class periods. Results are expected to be reported within two weeks of completion.

For ELA/literacy, these tasks will focus on writing effectively when analyzing text and using evidence drawn from the texts to support their claims. Students may be required to conduct electronic searches (within a predefined set of digital sources), evaluate the quality of the sources, and compose an essay or research paper using evidence from them. At each grade level, the sources will represent a range of reading/text complexity levels to enable students at higher and lower ranges of performance to demonstrate their skills.

Next Generation Assessments-NGA

End-of-Year (EOY) Comprehensive Assessment (Component 4): The EOY assessments in ELA/literacy and mathematics will sample all of the standards for the grade level.

These assessments will be taken online during the last few weeks of the school year, utilize a range of innovative items types and technological tools, and be entirely computer scored.

The ELA/literacy assessment will focus on reading and comprehending complex texts, including vocabulary and editing for grammar, usage, and language conventions.

Next Generation Assessments-NGA

To assess the speaking and listening standards within the CCSS, an assessment will be required but not used in the determination of the summative score (Component 5).

This component may be administered at any time between Components 2 and 4. Teachers will score the student’s speaking and listening skills using a standardized rubric and may use the scores within the determination of student grades.

http://www.k12center.org/rsc/pdf/Assessments_for_the_Common_Core_Standards.pdf

CCSS Roll Out

www.smarterbalanced.org/

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/acre/timeline/timeline.pdf

2010–2011Development and approval bymember states of commonpolicies and procedures

2011–2012Item and task development,piloting of componentsRelease of Model ContentFrameworks, as well as prototypeitems and tasks

2011–2012Development of professionaldevelopment resources and onlinePlatform

2012–2014 Field testing

2014–2015 New summative assessments in useSummer 2015 Setting of achievement standards

Overview of ELA/ Common Core Video/GWUSOEK5 Wiki

http://youtu.be/RmLElb7yHDU

www.gwusoek5.pbworks.com