An Introduction

How NCCSS come about? What do we do now that we have it? What today is NOT about Venting Discussing what’s “wrong” with our kids

States have long had educational standards, but they have differed from state-to-state. Some are written by lawmakers, some by educators. What constitutes “grade level” mastery also differs from state to state. The current Common Core State Standards initiative was launched by the National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in In December 2008, Education Week reported that NGA, CCSSO and Achieve released a report urging for Common Core Standards.

The Common Core State Standards are meant to “provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.” The motivation behind the development of the standards was to: Provide clear expectations aligned to the expectations of college and careers; Promote consistency by ensuring all students, no matter where they live, are well prepared with the skills and knowledge necessary to collaborate and compete with their peers in the United States and abroad; and Enable collaboration between states on a range of tools and policies, including: the development of textbooks, digital media, and other teaching materials; and the development and implementation of common comprehensive assessment systems to measure student performance annually that will replace existing state testing systems.

After adopting the standards, states partnered to develop common assessments of the adopted standards. As part of Race to the Top, the U.S. Department of Education issued an application calling for the development of next generation assessments. The application specifically called for systems that would: Go beyond the current measurement of status/proficiency and measure individual student growth, for all students across the achievement spectrum; Measure the extent to which each student is on track, at each grade level tested, toward college- or career-readiness by the time of high school completion; Provide information that is useful in informing: Teaching, learning, and program improvement; Determinations of school effectiveness; Determinations of principal and teacher effectiveness for use in evaluations and the provision of support to teachers and principals; and Determinations of individual student college- and career-readiness, such as determinations made for high school exit decisions, college course placement in credit-bearing classes, or college entrance. Two applications were awarded grants in September 2010: The Partnership for Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), and The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

Federally mandated A national curriculum A dumbing down of state standards Forcing every child to focus on college after high school Only about math, reading, and writing FAQ: Common Core State Standards Initiative FAQ

We have to start with where our kids are right now, not where we wish they were. How things are changing

Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Focus strongly where the Standards focus (Depth v. breadth) Coherence: think across grades, and link to major topics* within grades (For example, instead of data displays as an end in themselves, they support grade ‐ level word problems). Rigor: in major topics* pursue: conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application with equal intensity. (The Standards call for students to use math flexibly for applications. Teachers provide opportunities for students to apply math in context. Teachers in content areas outside of math, particularly science, ensure that students are using math to make meaning of and access content.)

Currently, students in grades 3–8 take the Measurements of Student Progress (MSP). Two new math and English language arts tests will replace the math, reading and writing portions of the MSP. (Fifth and eighth graders will continue to take the MSP in science.) High school students now take the High School Proficiency Exams (HSPE) and End-of-Course (EOC) exams as graduation requirements for reading, writing and math. (A biology EOC is also a graduation requirement for the Class of 2015 and beyond.) Eleventh graders will take the Smarter Balanced math and English language arts tests to measure career and college readiness. The Legislature will decide whether the HSPE and/or EOCs will continue as graduation requirements for 10th graders.

Not as different as you may think. Cross-curricular collaboration will be a great benefit to our students. English classes will have little change, as the Springboard curriculum is already pretty closely aligned to NCCSS. Math classes will see more change. Performance tasks will gain in importance. Tasks that use multiple forms of media will gain in importance. Life happens across disciplines.

The primary aim of education is not to enable students to do well in school, but to help them do well in the lives they lead outside of school—now and in the future.

These “Next Generation” assessments measure depth of understanding, how students plan, organize, and prepare. Clearly state the learning goal (what they will learn, not just what they will do) Provide relevance Show what success looks like Allow for teacher/peer/self feedback

The district has had work groups the past two summers. In 2012, grade level groups in Language Arts and Mathematics unpacked the standards. In 2013, they “repacked” the standards, working on unit plans that would be representative of NCCSS-aligned curriculum. Training has been provided to “Common Core Cadre Leaders” from each school who become building “experts” and resources. PSD 1's Common Core resources

OSPI Webinars Sample Test Items

What might someone over in the Employee Wellness class ask? Parking lot?