1 Common Core State Standards What they are! & How they came to be! Implications for New Jersey New Jersey State Board of Education May 4, 2011 Dorothy S. Strickland

2 Overview Why Common Core State Standards? Issues! Concerns! Goals! The Process: Development & Adoption Key Features: English Language Arts & Math What about Assessment? Challenges & Cautions Next Steps

3 Why Standards? Why Common Core State Standards? Standards provide a shared vision of what students, teachers, and those responsible for the supporting infrastructure should know and be able to do. Common Core State Standards -- Establish consistency across the states

4 Concerns about current standards Equity Efficiency Expectations International standing in student achievement

5 The Goals State initiated and developed; Voluntary Research-based Address knowledge and skills necessary for college and careers Benchmarked against standards from high performing nations Rigorous! Clear! Focused

6 Development Process Leadership -- Council of Chief State School Officers National Governors Association Not the Federal Government Working Groups -- Writing Group Feedback Group Validation Committee

7 Adoption Process States adopt the entire document - may add up to 15% additional material As of March 2011, 43 states, DC and Virgin Islands -- have adopted; plus -- MN adopted ELA only

8 Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/ Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects Features: Grade-by-grade (K-12) - based on 10 College and Career Readiness Standards - Grade levels for K-8; grade bands for 9-10 and Includes reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language An integrated model of literacy Shared responsibility (literacy & content area educators) for students literacy development Research and media skills blended into the Standards as a whole

9 Common Core State Standards for Mathematics Features: Based on college & career readiness standards K-8 - organized by Domain, Clusters, and Standards Stress conceptual knowledge and understanding in addition to procedural fluency; Strong foundation in arithmetic numbers and operations 9-12 organized by conceptual categories Stress number and quantity, algebra, functions, modeling, geometry, statistics, and probability Require the application of mathematics to real world situations and issues.

10 What about Assessment?? Current administration has awarded $330 million toward development of assessments to replace individual state tests in English language arts and mathematics currently mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act. The assessment consortia are charged with developing assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards.

11 Assessment Governance & Membership The Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SMARTER) PARCC and SMARTER consortia are voluntary membership organizations. Governing states are those which have fully committed to implementing their respective consortiums assessment system by the school year New Jersey is a PARCC Governing State

12 PARCC & SMARTER -- are grounded in four basic principles (1) Assessments are common across states and aligned to the CCSS (2) Students take performance-based assessments for accountability (3) The assessment systems are computer based for more sophisticated design and quick, reliable scoring. (4) Transparent reporting systems drive effective decision-making

13 Challenges & Cautions Align CCSS with current standards Establish a long-term program of information; communication; and active collaboration with all stakeholders Beware of a crowded marketplace; mass delivery of standardized instruction Knowledge and Understanding of the Standards and the new Assessment Programs will be critical for good consumerism.

14 Next Steps -- Shared Vision! Multiple Pathways! The Common Core State Standards provide opportunities for New Jersey educators to take a fresh look at -- Curriculum & Materials Instruction Teacher Education - Pre-service and Professional Development Assessment - Including Benchmarking Accountability - Student Achievement; Educator Evaluation

15 The Vision -- an unprecedented opportunity The New Jersey State Board of Education will provide the leadership and guidance needed for the successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards; this effort will serve as the catalyst for reform, leading to a more coherent and highly effective system of education for all of New Jerseys children.