Common Core State Standards

Why was there a need for a change in our standards?

Benefits  Preparation : The standards are college- and career-ready. They should better prepare students with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in education and/or training after high school.  Competition : The standards are internationally benchmarked-helping to ensure our global competitiveness.  Equity : Expectations are consistent for all – and not dependent on a student’s zip code.  Clarity : The standards are focused, coherent, and clear. It should be easier for students, parents and teachers to understand academic expectations.

College and Career Ready On February 7, 2011 the Baxter Bulletin headline 30 % of Arkansas grads who took military test failed /30-percent-Arkansas-grads-who-took-military-test-failed

College and Career Ready On February 2, 2011, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette headline: 52.5% of freshmen unready for college arkansasonline.com/documents

The Common Core Standards are a response to: 1. The changing demands of the workplace 2. Technology advancements 3. Global competition

Misleading Nature of State Proficiency Assessments 4 th Grade Reading% ProficientNAEP North Carolina82%183 Texas81%190 Florida71%202 Massachusetts48%234 South Carolina35%228

Industry Survey 13 of 16 career clusters ranked literacy skills as #1 or #2 on their list of needs for workers. Noteworthy!

Text Complexity Research shows that the ability to read and comprehend complex text is the best predictor of college success. Issue  The books that students read, or certainly many of the books that students read at K-12, became easier after College books have not become easier.  Recent text measurement studies have found that college textbooks, workplace texts, domestic newspapers, international English newspapers, and citizenship texts (IRS 1040 form, juror instructions, health advisories, Wikipedia feature articles) all share a remarkably consistent range of text complexity (1200L to 1400L). The medium demand for grade 12 text is 1130L.

What Compounds the Problem? Students in high school are not only reading texts that are significantly less demanding than those they will encounter in college, but instruction with any text they do read is heavily scaffolded. In college, students are expected to read independently. Furthermore… The amount of reading in college is substantially more than what students typically experience in high school. It can be up to 8 times greater. Noteworthy!

So, What Do We Do? We want students to read more and at a higher level. Does that happen overnight and without support? Building reading levels (movement): 1. Matched text for practice 2. Practice consistently over time 3. Self-motivation—individual practice 4. Coaching and feedback

Lexile Text Measures HS LitCollege LitHS TextCollege Text MilitaryPersonalEntry Lvl Job ACT, SAT, AP Noteworthy! Source: National Test Data:MetaMetrics

Lexile Levels by Occupation Human Services  Entry Level— (high school text)  Intermediate Level—  Management— Construction  Entry Level— (+ACT, SAT)  Intermediate Level/Higher— (college texts) Manufacturing  Entry/Intermediate Level— (college texts)  Highest (engineers,etc.)— (+ACT,SAT) Noteworthy! Source: Intl. Center for Leadership in Education, 2009

Literacy requirements have increased in almost all industries, but the jobs with the greatest change in literacy requirements: construction/craftsman Why? Noteworthy!

What does all of this mean for elementary and secondary schools today? Bottom Line… …The world is changing faster than our schools have thus far been able, or willing, to respond.