MARZANO Research Laboratory

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MARZANO Research Laboratory

The discussion of standards is not new. For three decades, educators have struggled with the various challenges of standards-based education: some sets of standards attempted to cover too much content; others included too many knowledge dimensions in one standard. Curriculum lagged behind standards; assessments were misaligned.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) undertook to resolve many of these dif� culties, but for them to be effective, educators across the nation must understand the research and theory behind them and strategies for their successful implementation. Both research and theory suggest that organizing content in relatively speci� c sequences (called learning progressions) facilitates student understanding; such sequences are embedded throughout the CCSS. The reason that learning progressions are effective is because they allow students to build on what they already know.

For example, if a � rst grader has learned how to describe the characters, settings, and major events in a story using key details (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.3), it will be much easier for him or her to learn to describe how the characters in a story respond to major events and challenges (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.3) in second grade.

Understanding the organization of learning progressions in the CCSS is just the � rst step. Teachers need to unpack the CCSS and understand how the standards relate to what they’re currently teaching and how to determine when their students have achieved the goals outlined in the standards. One way for teachers to accomplish this is to create or use pro� ciency scales for the CCSS. These scales identify the essential learning targets in the CCSS along with simpler and more complex levels of performance for each target.

For example, the � rst two standards at � fth grade for Number and Operations—Fractions are:

Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators (including mixed numbers) by replacing given fractions with equivalent fractions. (CCSS.Math.5.NF.A.1)

Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole, including cases of unlike denominators. (CCSS.Math.5.NF.A.2)

COMMON CORE IMPLEMENTATION

THE MARZANO

STEPS TO SUCCESS

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By Robert J. Marzano and Julia A. Simms

MARZANO Research Laboratory

marzanoresearch.com | 888.849.0851

Rather than considering these to be separate learning goals, a teacher might arrange them in a scale that identi� es the � rst standard (5.NF.A.1) as a simpler level of performance (score 2.0) that must be attained in order to attain the target learning goal (score 3.0), which is the second standard (5.NF.A.2). A more complex level of performance (score 4.0) for this learning goal might incorporate the cognitive skill of generating conclusions.

Such a pro� ciency scale might look like this:

Score 4.0 The student will solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole (but with unlike denominators) in several ways and will make conclusions about the most ef� cient way to solve problems of this type.

Score 3.0 The student will solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole, including cases of unlike denominators. (CCSS.Math.5.NF.A.2)

Score 2.0 Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators (including mixed numbers) by replacing given fractions with equivalent fractions. (CCSS. Math.5.NF.A.1)

Score 1.0 With help, partial success at score 2.0 content and score 3.0 content

Score 0.0 Even with help, no success

As seen in this pro� ciency scale, scores 1.0 and 0.0 do not change with the content. A score of 1.0 indicates that with help and prompting from the teacher, the student demonstrated some knowledge of the simpler and target learning goals, and a score of 0.0 indicates that, even with help from the teacher, the student did not succeed with any of the content.

Because the 4.0 level content of the scale involves extending the content through the use of speci� c skills, teachers can take advantage of opportunities to incorporate these skills into classroom instruction. In the college and career readiness (CCR) anchor standards, and in the Standards for Mathematical Practice, the CCSS identi� es speci� c skills that students must use to interact with knowledge and information and collaborate with others in their academic and vocational pursuits, such as:

• Solving problems

• Constructing arguments

• Evaluating others’ reasoning

• Controversy and confl ict resolution

• Depicting and modeling their learning

• Using digital tools effectively and effi ciently

• Striving for precision and accuracy

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MARZANO Research Laboratory

marzanoresearch.com | 888.849.0851

For example, the CCSS ask students to participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1). Because collaborative discussions can lead to disagreements, the skill of controversy and confl ict resolution is a natural skill to be taught in tandem with this standard. When designing a 4.0 learning goal for that standard, the teacher might use phrases such as opposite perspective, achieve everyone’s goals, or describe your reasoning.

Finally, teachers and school leaders need to know how to create effective and appropriate assessments that measure students’ performance at each level of the pro� ciency scale for a speci� c standard. A group of teachers might work together to create a common assessment for this purpose that has speci� c items to test students on the 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 levels of the scale. This allows teachers to assign clear grades to students that let them know their current level of performance and what level they should strive to achieve next. This speci� city also allows teachers and students to communicate to parents about students’ current performance and what they are expected to achieve in the future.

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Did you know . . . Free pro� ciency scales, like the scalefound on page 2, are available at marzanoresearch.com.

Download today!

Dr. Robert J. Marzano