1. Rhode Island’s Transition to the Common Core
The Pell School, June 18, 2014
Thank attendees for coming and also the host organization and key people. Introduce yourself to the group.

2. Agenda What is the Common Core? What will change in the classroom?
How are we preparing?
Questions and Discussion
Today we are going to discuss how we are strengthening education in every classroom to prepare all students for success after k-12 schooling. We will start by talking about what the Common Core Standards are, and then discuss how the Department of Education, Districts, Schools and Teachers are working together to implement great instruction. We will spend some time getting familiar with what will and won’t change in classrooms, and finish with an opportunity to discuss any questions you have.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

3. What Is the Common Core?

4. How well do you know the Common Core?
I don’t. Should I?
I’ve heard of the Common Core, but don’t really know how it impacts students.
I’m familiar with the Common Core, but I have questions and would like more specifics.
Instruct participants to hold up the number of fingers that correspond with their current level of understanding about the Common Core State Standards. Use this quick poll to gauge the baseline understanding of participants and to adjust the time you devote to particular topics as needed.
I’m very familiar with the Common Core. I may be able to help others understand what it is and its impact.

5. What are Learning Standards?
Learning standards describe what students should know and be able to do at each step in their education.
The Common Core State Standards apply only to the subjects
of English Language Arts/Literacy and Math.
Learning standards have been used in education for many years. These documents describe what students will know and be able to do within each grade level and content area giving teachers targets (or goals) to create lessons and classroom experiences for students. By using a set of clear standards, schools and districts can prepare a continuum of education that builds a student’s skills and knowledge from kindergarten through graduation. In essence, standards serve to define the body of knowledge that makes it possible for teachers and students to work together toward a clear set of targets.
In Rhode Island teachers have used the GLE’s, or Grade Level Expectations, as the basis for organizing teaching and learning for several years. But standards are not static. They need to change over time to make sure students are learning what they need to be successful in life after school. For instance, learning standards from 20 years ago included making sure students could use resources like a card catalogue in the library to find information for research projects. Now, similar standards include making sure students are prepared to conduct research online in addition to using print resources. The shift was necessary because the world we live in has changed. I’m sure if you think about how your life has changed because of technology, access to information, and they ways you work now as compared to just a few years ago, you can think of other skills and knowledge students need to have to be successful today.
For the rest of the session, we’ll be discussing the Common Core State Standards. As we progress, it’s important to keep in mind that the CCSS apply to only the subjects of English Language Arts/Literacy and Math.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

6. Why the Common Core State Standards?
By 2018, more than 60% of all jobs will require at least some college education.
Remediation is a growing concern:
Frustrates and discourages students entering college
Costs an estimated $3.6 billion per year
Results in lower wages for those who don’t complete college
Reduces the United States’ ability to compete for jobs internationally
Explain the concept of remediation as needed. Share the following findings (sources noted below).
It’s projected that by 2018 more than 60% of jobs will require at least some college.
1.7 million first year college students will take a remedial course
More than 50% of students entering 2-year colleges and 20% entering 4-year colleges are places in remedial courses
Nearly 40% never complete their remedial courses.
Remedial courses cost the U.S. approximately $3.6 billion each year
The Common Core State Standards were designed and developed with college and career-readiness in mind. They are specifically designed to help reduce remediation and ensure that students are ready and prepared for the demands of real-world challenges they’ll encounter after graduating from high school, regardless as to whether they choose college or a trade/career.
Sources:
A. Carnevale, N. Smith, and J. Strohl, Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Economic Requirements Through Washington , DC: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 2010.
Alliance for Excellent Education. May Saving Now and Saving Later: How High School Reform Can Reduce the Nation’s Wasted Remediation Dollars.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

7. Fewer  Clearer  Higher Principles of the CCSS
Aligned to requirements for college and career readiness
Based on evidence
Honest about time
Today, in order to improve education, we need to have a set of standards that are powerful, meaningful, and achievable. The Common Core State Standards were designed with these principles in mind and address the areas of English Language Arts/Literacy and Math. During the development of the Common Core State Standards, the design principles were often described as fewer, clearer, and higher. Although these are relative, and perhaps even subjective terms, it is worth understanding how these make the Common Core State Standards different in approach than previous state standards.
In terms of fewer, the design principle is that these standards can be learned within a year. There is very little repetition from year to year of the same standards.
The standards are clearer in that they more precisely describe outcome expectations, rather than vague or broad descriptions of learning.
The standards are higher with respect to what is meant by higher – not harder – standards. Having higher standards means that what is included in the Common Core State Standards is actually intended for all students each year; there is congruence between what is stated and what is expected.
The next issue then is how to get to fewer, clearer, higher. Unlike typical standards development or revision processes in which groups of stakeholders are gathered in committees to advocate for their individual positions, preferences, pet topics, etc., these standards relied on evidence for what students need in order to be prepared for college and careers. It turns out that a lot of what we spend time and energy on in school K-12, doesn’t buy students much after graduation. This of course wouldn’t be a problem if time was not such a finite resource. Because time is limited however, decisions had to be made. Rarely in education do we pay so much attention to the limited resource of time. We often, rather, keep adding and adding initiatives. It is always easy to add one more thing. These Standards were built with the awareness that each additional expectation came at the cost of time spent on what was already included. It is exceptionally important in understanding these Common Core State Standards that we acknowledge and accept the power of the eraser as well as, perhaps after, the power of the pen.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

8. Standards, Curriculum, and Instruction
Learning goals
Adopted by the state
Curriculum
Plans for meeting standards
Developed/adopted locally
Instruction
Strategies teachers use to promote student understanding
Implemented in the classroom
When we talk about the Common Core, it’s important to understand the difference between standards, curriculum, and instruction, and who’s responsible for each. Consider the example of making chili. Through this lens, a sample standard might be that “everyone makes a pot of chili.” The basic recipe or the plan for making chili is the curriculum. The instruction, however, are the small changes we make along the way in order to accommodate individual needs. For instance, accommodating for personal tastes, or food allergies, or certain tools and resources that people may not have in their kitchen as they work to follow the recipe.
So, just how “common” will classrooms be once the standards are fully implemented? Not as much as you might expect. We use standards as the targets to shoot for when we design curriculum – the texts, materials, and approaches we use to organize teaching and learning in our schools. While the targets are the same across every state that has adopted the Standards, curriculum choices are still made locally. This because a real world math problem in Rhode Island exists in a different context than it might in a state like Kansas. However, since these standards describe the essential core skills and knowledge for English/Language Arts and Mathematics, many of the curricular choices districts and states make are transferable across contexts. This is a great benefit to educators and students because resources, ideas, and approaches can be developed and adapted for use broadly. This will not only help save time, but will harness the collective talent and creativity of educators across the country as innovative ideas and strategies are shared and improved upon when teachers plan instruction. And instruction is still the place where teachers teach according to the unique set of talents and challenges their students bring with them. The lessons teachers prepare will still rely on what their students already know, what they need to learn to reach the learning goal, and instructional approaches the teacher takes to help them reach the target.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

9. Changes in the classroom
So let’s spend some time talking about just how things will work for our kids.

10. What Won’t Change?
Teachers are still the best source of information about student progress.
Teachers still have control over what happens in the classroom.
Students will still receive supportive assistance as needed.
A new set of standards triggers a number of changes, but certain things about school won’t change. The interaction between a teacher and his/her students is still the most important relationship in the classroom. Your child’s teacher is still the best place to get information about what your student is learning and how you can help. And every educator in the school is still there to provide all of the care, attention, support, and assistance each child needs. Also, schools will still continue to support and provide needed assistance to students receiving special education or English Language Learner (ELL) services.
Rhode Island Department of Education 

11. & What Will Change? Content Shifts Conceptual Shifts “What we teach”
Some content is moving between grade levels
Some content is new
Some previous content will no longer be included
Conceptual Shifts
“How we teach”
Some things will be taught in greater depth
We’ll ask students to think about content in new and different ways
&
Broadly, every classroom will experience two types of shifts as we move from previous standards to the Common Core Standards. The first is a content shift. Certain content will move from one grade to another (either up or down). The moves are purposeful and intentional and students will not be asked to meet learning goals that aren’t appropriate for a particular grade level. These shifts are happening because during the development of the standards an effort was made to make sure there is coherence in the standards from the beginning of a child’s educational career to the end. There may be some new content that is added depending on the district’s previous curriculum, but this will be more the exception than the rule. Likewise, because these standards started from a principle of being “fewer and clearer” there may be some content that is eliminated from a district’s curriculum.
The second major shift is more directly related to the principle of setting a higher target to prepare our students for life after high school. You and your student will notice that teachers will address concepts and topics in greater depth and likely over a period of more time. This will help us defeat the “mile wide, inch deep” issue that has existed in our schools as more and more has been added to the curriculum without cutting anything. Let’s start exploring this a little more by looking at math class.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

12. In Math, students will be doing…
Less:
More:
Skimming the surface of a lot of math topics
Prioritizing concepts and learning at greater depth
Relying on worksheets
Applying math to real-world situations
Learning math “tricks”
Discussing math concepts and problems
Disconnected math instruction
Topics that connect and build off each other
Under previous standards, teachers were responsible for covering and re-covering a set number of topics each year. Students either learned the material completely, or at least partially “got it” by the time the class had to move on to the next topic. As a result, schools and teachers spent significant time reviewing material that was covered in previous grades and students were caught up in a maze of work that at any given time was a review, reinforcement, or entirely new concept. As you may remember from your own experience, this could result in periods of significant challenge, confusion, and sometimes boredom. However, in this day and age, mathematics and mathematical thinking are essential skills for problem solving and life. Under the new standards, you’ll notice we’re covering fewer topics at a greater depth, making an effort to directly tie math to real world problems and situations, having math-based discussions, and intentionally structuring math instruction to concepts build off each other and promote deeper, greater understanding.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

13. Sample Math Standards: Overview
This screenshot is taken from page 41 of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics ( It provides a high-level overview of some of the standards for grade 6 and includes the standards for mathematical practices.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

14. Sample Math Standards: Grade 6 Number Systems
An example of the CCSS for math.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

15. Sample Math Task Grade 7 \
An example of the CCSS Reading Standards for Literature in Grades 3.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

16. What does it look like in the classroom?
ELA transitions
What does it look like in the classroom?
How do the skills build over the years?
Rhode Island Department of Education  

17. In ELA, students will be doing…
Less:
More:
Reading just fiction
Reading a blend of non-fiction and fiction
Learning vocabulary from lists
Learning vocabulary from texts students are reading
Reading of simple texts
Reading complex texts
Learning from lectures
Learning from texts
As always, students will learn to read, write, speak, and listen in their reading and English classes. The Common Core Standards are built on years of research about how best to teach students to use language in each of these domains, and reinforces the idea that language is how we exchange information and learning every day. You’ll see that under the new standards, students will read a more balanced blend of non-fiction (factual accounts) and fiction (made-up stories). However, this doesn’t mean that fiction and great literature is going to leave the curriculum or that teachers will work any less hard to help kids develop a love of reading for pleasure. The emphasis on incorporating nonfiction has to do with the fact that in life we gain an enormous amount of information every day through reading, viewing, and listening both for pleasure and information. Just as the math standards ask students to understand the workings of numbers more deeply, developing a student’s abilities with language as a communication and thinking skill is fundamental to continuing learning throughout our lives.
Another important change is the way we’ll ask students to learn from texts. Reading and listening closely, and drawing evidence from what is written or said, are important skills in the age of the Internet. The world is constantly generating information at a dizzying pace (blogs, books, technical guides, microblogs…you name it!). As citizens in today’s world we all need to acquire information through language every day, make sense of it, and use it to live our lives. The new standards recognize this important shift and focus on challenging students to learn from text and to challenge themselves to understand words or difficult passages.
Another important shift has to do with what students are reading. In the research that informed the development of the standards it was found that students were required to read texts significantly more complex in both college and career training programs than the texts they had read in high school. This is one of the reasons why students face such challenge in those post-secondary programs. A complex text isn’t just a nonfiction textbook with new and unfamiliar vocabulary, but also is text in which the ideas and information are challenging and deep. Again, fundamental reading skills like understanding word meanings in context are important here, but we want to ensure that kids don’t struggle so much with the act of reading they can’t get the meaning of the passage. Teachers will read these texts in class with students where they can engage in close reading and discussions with support and assistance.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

18. Sample ELA Standards: Reading Literature, Grade 3
An example of the CCSS Reading Standards for Literature in Grades 3.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

19. Sample ELA Standards: Writing, Grades 3, 6, 8, 9-10
develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details W3.2b
develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. W6.2b
develop the topic with relevant well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. W8.2b
develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. W9-10.2b
An example of the CCSS Reading Standards for Literature in Grades 3.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

20. Sample ELA Standards: Writing, Grades 6, 7, 8, 9-10
Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly. W6.1a
Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. W7.1a
Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. W8.1a
Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. W9-10.1a
An example of the CCSS Reading Standards for Literature in Grades 3.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

21. Making the Transition
Transitioning to a new set of standards is not like flipping a switch and Rhode Island educators have been working to bring the standards to life for a few years.

22. Rhode Island’s Transition to the CCSS
Adoption
July 2010: The Rhode Island Board of Regents adopt the CCSS for ELA and Math
Transition
SY : RI districts and schools begin to revise curriculum and instruction
Full Implementation
SY : All RI schools are using new standards
The State Board of Education adopted the standards in July of This has spurred work over the last several years to help all districts, schools, and classrooms to shift to the Common Core.
More than 6,000 educators have participated in professional development from March September 2012 to gain familiarity with the standards and prepare to implement them.
Districts throughout the state have been designing local curriculum and providing more professional development for teachers. (Highlight any local initiatives or ask the hosting sponsors to share work that has been ongoing.)
Over the last two years teachers throughout the state have implemented new lessons and classroom projects that are aligned to the common core blended with the previous set of standards.
This school year all teachers will implement a full school year of lesson plans and instruction that are aligned to the new standards. This is an important year in the transition because our state assessments will be shifting next year. The transition to the PARCC assessment is the last step in changing our standards, but hardly the end of the work. From next year and beyond, teachers will continue to develop innovative lessons, projects, and teaching strategies to meet the needs of all students in daily lessons. Students will take challenging new assessments that will help us understand what is working and what is not, and schools, districts, and the department of education will continue to work together to provide professional development and support for teachers.
We are here.
Assessment
SY : RI schools administer new PARCC assessments to evaluate student progress
Rhode Island Department of Education  

23. Rhode Island is committed to…
Increasing awareness and understanding of the CCSS.
Encouraging collaboration between districts and teachers.
Helping teachers to help students transition to the CCSS.
Monitoring our progress and analyzing data.
RIDE’s current efforts include:
Increasing general awareness and understanding through targeted outreach efforts. More on this in a minute…
Encouraging collaboration between districts and teachers. Remember, the standards are simply instructional targets and districts still control curriculum choices that best meet the needs of their communities. To help districts and to achieve efficiencies and benefits from working together, RIDE continues to work in partnership with districts to provide opportunities for collaboration. Through an increased focus on collaboration, teachers across the state can work more efficiently as they share lessons and concepts they found effective in the classroom.
Helping teachers to help students transition to the CCSS. RIDE is providing grants to districts and hosting regional and statewide professional development opportunities for teachers. As we will see shortly, the standards aren’t wildly different than previous standards, but there is significant work to be done to make them a reality in every classroom in the state. RIDE is also working with teachers to ensure they feel prepared to regularly check student understanding and to adjust instruction as needed.
Monitoring progress and analyzing data about the transition. Just as instruction needs to shift in response to the standards, the tools schools use to assess learning need to shift as well. This would be a huge burden for districts if they took it on by themselves and is a place where RIDE is supporting the transition and increased efficiencies. RIDE has developed online interim assessments that districts can use if they choose. RIDE is also offering training to help teachers understand how to use new data to understand both their students’ progress and their own teaching.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

24. Increasing Awareness Outreach events (like this!)
Ready, Set, Go Common Core page:
Web resources:
Outreach events (like this!)
RIDE has helped districts develop local transition plans and stayed in close contact with each district to answer questions, provide guidance, and foster collaboration. This work will continue throughout this school year and into the future.
My time with you today is part of a statewide outreach effort to engage all Rhode Island residents in this effort. Ambassadors like myself are meeting with community groups throughout the state providing information and answer questions. This is important work because parents and other adults in the lives of our children have the ability to provide students support outside of the classroom that will help them meet the challenge of the new standards. In a little bit we will talk specifically about how you can support your students.
RIDE is also working to centralize resources about the transition to the Common Core on a designated section of their website: This page serves to centralize all resources RIDE has collected related to the transition to the CCSS. There are resources here for parents and teachers alike.
RIDE also maintains a Facebook page dedicated to the transition. “Like” the Ready, Set, Go Common Core Facebook page to receive updates on when new materials are posted to the RIDE website and to learn about upcoming events or important announcements.

25. What you can do… Continue to support your child and their achievement.
Continue to keep an open dialogue with your child’s teachers.
Stay informed about what’s happening in your child’s school.
Connect with the Rhode Island Department of Education.
Explore available resources.
Continue to support your child and their achievement. Ask about classwork, assignments they’re working on, and how you can help support them. Talk to your child about subjects of interest and their goals following high school graduation.
Continue to keep an open dialogue with your child’s teachers. Attend parent-teacher conferences; talk with teachers about how you can support your child’s progress and achievement. Contact teachers with questions about classroom instruction or assignments.
Stay informed about what’s happening in your child’s school. Attend parent nights and school activities and sign up for school or district newsletters. Consider joining your local parent teacher organization or volunteering at your child’s school. Contact school or district leadership if you have questions about assessments or the general concepts and skills your child is learning.
Connect with the Rhode Island Department of Education. Visit and sign up for RIDE’s e-newsletter or RSS feeds. Connect with Education Commissioner Gist, and the Ready, Set, Go Common Core! Initiative on social media to learn more: or
Explore available resources. Read up on the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC assessments. The list, below, is a great place to start.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

26. Questions and Discussion
What questions do you have?
Refer people to parent materials. Reinforce themes and talking points. Offer to take questions you can’t answer to those who can and follow-up.

27. We appreciate your feedback!
Please take a moment to fill out a short survey to let us know what we can do to improve our outreach efforts.
Encourage participants to provide feedback using either a paper-based survey (provided) or the online survey link.
Rhode Island Department of Education  

28. Stay Connected!
Web:
Facebook:
Remember to thank everyone.