Texas AEL Content Standards Literacy Texas 2017 Conference August 1, 2017 Veramendi D

What’s your experience with Content Standards? Huh? I’m familiar, but I’m not really that much into it. I’m a believer. I probably know more than you.

What?

Education Standards In education, standards are a description of the skills and knowledge that students should have at a specified level. 3/8/2017

WIOA Regulation: § 676.115 “…the Unified State Plan must describe how the eligible agency will, by July 1, 2016, align its content standards for adult education with State- adopted challenging academic content standards under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended.” TEKS K12 Standards TCCRS College Standards STAAR TxCHSE Assessments GED®, HiSet, TASC TSI Assessment 3/8/2017

Set at Exit-Level Standards are set at exit or mastery level Demonstrate mastery of content and skills Offer educators and students a transparent view of what is expected at exit Allow all stakeholders to gauge student preparedness for college, job training, entry and middle-skill employment 3/8/2017

Not Curriculum Education standards are not a curriculum They provide the road map for the targeted, systematic use of a curriculum Schools, communities and educators choose their own curriculum, which is a detailed plan for day-to-day instruction Clear standards provide educators with specific student performance indicators which drive instructional practice.  3/8/2017

Content Areas English Language Arts & Literacy (pp. 13-22) Mathematics (pp. 23-32) English as a Second Language (pp. 33-47)

Organization of Content Areas Look at Table of Contents on pages 1 and 2. Note the three Content Areas: English and Language Arts and Literacy, Mathematics, and English as a Second Language Each Content Area divided into subareas Each subarea subdivided into Content Standards Content Standards describe what learners should know and be able to do within a specific content area. Each Content Standard supported by Benchmarks. Benchmarks describe the set of skills that learners need to develop and achieve to meet the more broadly stated standards See page 10 for an example. Example: I. English Language Arts and Literacy Subarea I.2 – Reading A. Vocabulary Development. Understand new vocabulary and concepts and use them accurately in reading, speaking, and writing. Identify new words and concepts acquired through study of their relationships to other words and concepts. Apply knowledge of roots and affixes to infer the meanings of new words. Use reference guides to confirm the meanings of w (pp. 10-12)

Appendices Educational Functioning Level Descriptors for Adult Basic Education, National Reporting System, 2016 (pp. 53-80) English Language Proficiency Standards for Adult Education and ELP Standard Level 1-5 Descriptors (pp. 81-92) New NRS Implementation guidelines to be released as soon as this month! See page 2 of Table of Contents. There are five appendices A. New NRS Descriptors New ELP Standards Acronyms and Vocabulary Description of the Development Process List of Standards Working Group members, practitioners, SMEs and others who worked on the proct.

Why?

Text Lexile Measure (L) 2005-06 Lexile Framework® for Reading Study Summary of Text Lexile Measures p. 53 1600 1400 1200 Text Lexile Measure (L) 1000 The blue bars represent the interquartile range of lexiles for book selections for various collections. High school texts include all recommended texts for the Texas high school curriculum. The others are samples. Personal use documents and books were selected from a survey of reading materials necessary for “self-sufficient adults,” including things like newspapers, leases, contracts, common magazines and popular books. Examples can be found on the lexile website at www.lexile.com > Educators> Tools . 800 600 High School Literature College Literature High School Textbooks College Textbooks Military Personal Use Entry-Level Occupations SAT 1, ACT, AP* * Source of National Test Data: MetaMetrics Interquartile Ranges Shown (25% - 75%)

History Year Action 2008 Texas Adult Education Content Standards and Benchmarks (TAECSB) 2009 Texas College and Career Readiness Standards (TCCRS) 2011 Gap analysis between TAECSB & TCCRS 2013 Federal CCRS 2014   WIOA passed 2016 Revised Texas AEL Content Standards 2017 Requirement in year 4 contracts 3/8/2017

ELAL - What is different from 2008? 2016 2008 Focus on reading and writing for an academic environment Includes Speaking New: Research section New: Computer skills New: Teamwork standard Focus on reading and writing for a variety of purposes TIME: 6 minutes Look at each change and ask why? Because of the emphasis on transition to postsecondary or to employment or job training. Discuss the “Why” for each of the new sections.

Math - What is different from 2008? 2016 2008 Focus on numerical fluency and problem solving Benchmarks written on basis of progression levels Focus on mathematical processes/practices and college and career readiness Benchmarks written to align with K-12 standards and are much more rigorous TIME: 3 minutes Look at each change and ask why? First: Because of the emphasis on transition to postsecondary or to employment/career training. Second: Higher expectations and rigor are part of the reason for the new emphasis and format was changed to align to the Texas K-12 standards and better state those expectations.

ESL - How Are These Different? 2008 2016 Focus on basic personal communication skills Less rigorous Focus on proficiency skills required for academic environments Emphasis on all 4 skills- speaking, listening, reading and writing. More rigorous TIME: 1 min

How?

Unpacking the Standards To unpack standards means to do a close reading of the standard and, using evidence from it, be able to determine what students need to know and be able to do to meet the demands of that standard. TIME: 2 minutes

Communities of Practice: CCRS, Session 1 10/27/2014 What’s in a Standard? situations where learners apply understanding of concepts and mastery of skills Skills Context* Concepts what learners are expected to do to demonstrate mastery information or ideas that learners are expected to know TIME: 1 minutes Standards are made up of skills, concepts, and sometimes context. Context is not present in every standard, so it’s marked here with an asterisk to remind you of that. Let’s take a look at what is meant by skills, concepts, and context. Use Handout 4 to take notes during the explanation of each of these standard components. October 2014

Example: Skills, Concepts and Context Content Area: Math Subarea: II.8 Financial Literacy Standard: Develop and use an economic way of thinking and problem solving useful in one’s life as a knowledgeable employee, consumer, provider, and investor. Benchmark: Calculate and compare simple interest and compound interest as it applies to saving, borrowing, and lines of credit. What do students need to be able to do (skills)? Calculate Compare   Sample classroom activity: In what context? Saving Borrowing Lines of credit What do students need to know (concepts or content)? Simple interest Compound interest TIME: 4 minutes Refer them to the actual handout.

a good thing or a bad thing? Backward Design a good thing or a bad thing? Backward Design is a method of designing educational curriculum by setting goals before choosing instructional methods and forms of assessment.

What’s next?

Content Standards Rollout

Standards Alignment to Industry Clusters Awarded to Literacy Texas in June 2017 Healthcare Science Advanced Manufacturing Construction and Extraction Transportation, Distribution & Logistics

How this might work O*Net, https://www.onetonline.org/find/zone Browse by Job Zone Select Preparation Level Select Occupation Review knowledge and skills requirements Cross check with Texas LMCI Cross check with Texas Content Standards

Q & A John & Beth

Contact Information John Stevenson Adult Education & Literacy Texas Workforce Commission John.Stevenson@twc.state.tx.us