BIRE Meeting May 17, 2012 COMMON CORE AND ELL

 Council long supporter of the Common Core State Standards  Council member feedback during and since development to writers, assessment consortia, and others engaged in the work  Lead district support  Partnerships with the writers and lead groups  Opportunity for collaboration within and across districts BACKGROUND

 Within a district– being at the table together from the start  Across districts and states COLLABORATION

 Strategic Communications  Building Awareness and Capacity of Urban Schools  Development of Tools to Implement the Standards AREAS OF COUNCIL SUPPORT

 Parent Roadmaps in mathematics and English language arts and literacy shaped by member feedback  Parent-friendly language  Rationale  List of most emphasized standards illustrating shifts  Progression across three grade levels  Questions to ask of teachers  Activities to support students at home  Translations in most common languages  Three broadcast quality public service announcements  Translation expertise, please  Implementation survey STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

Language District with high numbers English/ Language Arts Mathematics SpanishAlbuquerque*Chicago K HS ChineseNew York*Boston K HS Haitian Creole BrowardMiami-Dade K HS HmongSt. PaulFresno K HS VietnameseSeattleSan Diego K HS CantoneseSan FranciscoOakland K HS ArabicNew YorkHillsborough K HS SomaliMinneapolisSeattle K HS Tagalog/ Filipino San DiegoLos Angeles K HS BengaliNew York City K HS KoreanLos Angeles Charlotte- Mecklenburg K HS

 Hear directly from writers of the Common Core  Advisory Committees in math and ELA include representatives who lead ELL and special education in their districts  Overview videos  Voice of CCSS writers from Council meetings  Build shared understanding  Common Core strand at all conferences, including upcoming  Special Conferences  Basal Alignment Project  Math Progressions BUILDING AWARENESS AND CAPACITY

 High-leverage tools  Response to Intervention White Paper with examples of Tier I differentiation  Update current materials to align with the standards  Partner with other organizations developing tools  Professional development tools  Work with EL experts to extend the standards to help teachers differentiate instruction and enhance ELD  Videos with facilitator guides  Guidelines for professional development to share across districts  Providing feedback to districts on their work IMPLEMENTATION TOOLS

 Revised based on feedback, including feedback from the ELL community  achievethecore.org  1) Removed sections where the criteria went beyond the standards and intruded too much into instructional details.  2) More explicitly emphasized the important role teacher judgment plays in choosing materials.  3) Clarified that the standards require wide-ranging reading/research and reading of full novels, drama, and poems, as well as close reading of shorter texts. PUBLISHERS’ CRITERIA THIRD REVISION, APRIL 2012

 4) Worked closely with the ELL community to ensure that the work on scaffolding responded to the needs of all students to gain access to high quality complex text.  5) Noted that high quality questions are usually text specific as well as text dependent; that is, that good questions are not typically generic for any text but address the specific text or texts being examined. SO YOU WILL KNOW

 6) Drawing on the speaking and listening standards, noted the vibrant role of conversation between students in developing literacy.  7) Left room for a wide range of instructional approaches, while setting some basic parameters based on the standards; for example, the standards require that scaffolds do not pre-empt or replace the need to read the text, but there are many ways open for teachers to engage and students in reading.

 8) More clearly articulated the central importance of the foundational skills in K-2 and the need for systematic attention to the foundations of reading.  9) Following the standards, emphasized the central role of academic vocabulary —higher level words that appear commonly in many different types of text—in reading, writing, listening and speaking.  10) Clarified several sections that were found confusing or idiosyncratic, to ensure that the criteria reflect the standards as faithfully as possible.

 Tension: We have very little time (2014), but need to do this right.  Tight Budgets  Touch: How do we shift practices of our 434,000 teachers and our administrators for real rather than surface implementation?  Test our work: Did it have an impact? How do we know? URGENCY

 Be at the table  Set high-leverage goals– impossible to implement everything at once  Make it seamless for teachers– not separate initiative  Passion counts– so does strong planning and change management LESSONS LEARNED