The Nuts and Bolts of the Shifts for the Common Core/New State Content Standards

Pat CiccantelliNovember 14th, 2013Aurora City Schools

The Common Core Standards are intended to be:•Aligned with college and work

expectations for ELA and Math.•Focused and Coherent•Include rigorous content and application

of knowledge through higher order thinking.

•Build upon strengths of current state standards.

•Internationally Benchmarked.•Based on evidence and research.•State led.

The Standards are not a “National Curriculum”•The Common Core curriculum includes

standards for Language Arts and Math.•States voluntarily adopted the common

core standards and have the option to add to the standards.

•Local districts will decide how (the instructional strategies) and what (selection of resources, literature, etc.) they teach.

Common Core Process•CCSSO and NGA’s Center for Best

Practices•Advisory Groups- Achieve, ACT, College

Board, NASBE and SHEEO•49 states signed MOU•Two rounds of public review•Final documents released in June 2010•No federal dollars for development

Forty-five states, have adopted the Common Core State Standards.

Why did we shift to the new standards?

40% of the students in the U.S. need to take a remedial class to attend college.

The United States used to be #1 in the world in college completion and now is #12.

Academically top performing countries have higher and fewer standards than we had (Internationally Benchmarked).

What is the Shift?•From a curriculum that requires a Minimum Competency (NCLB) to one that will develop a “College and Career Ready” student.

•It is a purposeful increase in the rigor and expectations for the application of learning.

Support for the Standards“These standards are built for American students, based on the evidence of the best standards in this country and around the world. For years, national reports have called for us to abandon our mile-wide, inch-deep approach…. Research on high performing countries shows that teachers tend to focus on fewer topics in each grade, teach them to greater mastery, and build on them the next year in a coherent sequence of topics.Bill McCallum- Primary author of Common Core (Math)

Are Ohio Students Ready for College?Percent of Ohio Students Ready For:

College Biology:College Algebra:College Social Studies:College English Composition:

35%49%

58%

71%

Source: ACT, “The Conditions of College & Career Readiness, Class of 2011: Ohio.”

Number of ACT Exams-AHS

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 201340

65

90

115

140

165

190

215

240

# of ACT Exams Given

# of

Exa

ms

ACT Composite Mean-AHS

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 201318.0

19.0

20.0

21.0

22.0

23.0

24.0

25.0

26.0

ACT Composite Mean

Aurora State Mean National Mean

ACT

Mea

n

Common Core Implementation•There will be a significant downward

trend in the achievement of all students beginning next year (2014-15). There are two major reasons:▫The rigor of the assessments will increase

dramatically due to the shift to the Next Generation assessments.

▫The cut scores will be increased to insure that all students are College and Career Ready, not just meeting the minimum criteria of NCLB.

OAA Reading Cut ScoresGrade Performanc

e LevelScaledScore

PointsPossible

Raw Score

%Correct

4 Proficient 400 49 23 46.9%

Accelerated

435 49 36 73.5%

Advanced 468 49 44 89.8%

5 Proficient 400 49 25 51.0%

Accelerated

443 49 39 79.6%

Advanced 459 49 42 85.7%

6 Proficient 400 49 18 36.7%

Accelerated

436 49 32 65.3%

Advanced 456 49 38 77.6%

Advantages to a Common Curriculum

•Helps reduce/eliminate the educational lottery.

•Teachers can collaborate nationally on resources and pedagogical strategies.

•Students who move from state to state can continue in the curriculum without gaps.

•Colleges can expect a common, specific set of skills from all students.

It’s Working Harder and Smarter

Tennessee saw the largest increase in their NAEP test scores recently; In 2009, with its own new standards and tougher new tests, and again in July 2010, when it adopted the common standards. The state commissioner pointed to the state’s weeklong intensive trainings for teachers on the common core, and the instructional feedback its teachers receive as part of the state’s revamped teacher-evaluation system. “These things are not magic, but they’re hard work,” he said. “They’re hard to implement, and there’s a lot of push back associated with raising standards. It’s not easy, but it’s not magic. Tennessee Commissioner of Education Kevin S. Huffman

PARCC

PARCC’s Fundamental Advance•The PARCC assessments are designed to reward quality instruction aligned to the Standards, so the assessment is worthy of preparation rather than a distraction from good work.

The Instructional Shift•Evidence Centered Design- What do

students look like, sound like and act like if they are:▫Building understanding through deeper

learning and applying knowledge across disciplines.

▫Crafting responses based on evidence including: demonstrate, understand, explain, reason and justify a position.

▫Using technology appropriately, strategically and ethically in academic and real-world settings.

The Instructional Shift•The Common Core standards define what

all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach.

•Lessons will be designed to allow students more time to practice and explore new knowledge/skills (less breadth/more depth).

•Students will have opportunities to apply their knowledge to “real-world” problems.

The Instructional Shift•Lessons will focus on being able to read

more complex materials; both fiction and informational text.

•Assignments will focus on writing argumentatively using text based evidence to support ideas across all content areas (there should be research done each quarter).

•Reading will also center on building vocabulary in context.

The Instructional Shift•There will be a balance of learning

content and learning thinking skills (problem solving, modeling, analyzing, and questioning skills).

•The use of technology to acquire knowledge (strong research skills), collaborate to build knowledge and to share knowledge (strong speaking/listening skills).

•Demonstrate learning progressions across grades (Coherence)

•Pursuit of Conceptual Understanding, Fluency & Application (Rigor & Relevance)

•Show a reduction in the amount of topics to:▫Be more manageable (Clarity)▫Promote greater depth of learning (Focus)

Revised Math Standards22

OAA Question-Fractions

Shift in Assessment Questions-Fractions

• In this three-part task, students can solve the problem using a variety of approaches. Logical mathematical reasoning, rather than reliance on rules, leads to a solution.

Shift in Assessment Questions-Fractions

OAA Question-Rounding

Shift in Assessment Questions-RoundingStudents have developed their understanding of place value in previous grades. Fourth graders are expected to generalize this understanding of place value to multi-digit whole numbers. This three-part task calls for students to demonstrate reasoning skills and a deep conceptual knowledge of place value in atypical ways. This task uses the securely-held content of rounding to assess the Standards for Mathematical Practice—MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others and MP.6: Attend to precision. Because these practices, and not the content, are the focus of the task, it is considered a “practice forward” task.

Shift in Assessment Questions

4th Grade OAA Question-Vocabulary

Shift in Assessment Questions-ELA

OAA Sample Question-ELA

Shift in Assessment Questions-ELA

How do we make sure our students are prepared for the new assessments?

• A Laser Focus on:▫Increased strategic use of Formative

Assessments (assessment FOR learning) to help us and our students monitor the progress towards meeting the "Claims".

▫More use of "Growth Measures" to gather evidence of where a student starts in their learning - and where they finish over a given period of time.

▫Technology based assessment tools - that allow for interactive questions, the use of simulations and modeling, built in testing accommodations and engaging questions.

How do we make sure our students are prepared for the new assessments?

• Using your assessment results in a more timely and detailed manner- not always as an “autopsy”.

• A balance of End of Course tests that measure content knowledge and performance tasks that measure mathematical and English "practices“. Also, how well a student can apply knowledge to real world scenarios or problems.

• We are not "Teaching to the Test", we are "Testing to the Teaching". Assessments that are truly aligned to the standards - so that a teacher who is teaching and assessing in a classroom aligned to the standards should not have to take "time out" to practice for the new assessments.

Ten Guiding Principles for ELA CC Instruction:1. Make close reading of the texts central to

the lesson.2. Structure majority of instruction so ALL

students read grade level complex texts (do critical reading and analysis of text).

3. Emphasize informational texts from earliest grades on (exposure and access).

4. Provide scaffolding that does not preempt or replace text.

5. Ask text-dependent questions.

What does Text Dependent look like in grade 6?

Text Dependent Non-Text DependentAnalyze in detail how the early years of Harriet Tubman (as related by author Ann Petry) contributed to her later becoming a conductor on the Underground Railroad, attending to how the author introduces, illustrates, and elaborates upon the events in Tubman’s life. [RI.6.3]

 Create a story in which the main character is on the underground railroad. What would life be like for this character?

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Ten Guiding Principles for ELA CC Instruction:

6. Provide extensive research and writing opportunities (claims, arguments and evidence).

7. Offer regular opportunities for students to share ideas, evidence, and research (prep, evidence, perspectives).

8. Offer systematic instruction in vocabulary.9. Provide explicit instruction in grammar

and conventions.10.Cultivate students’ independence.

Sue Pimente, ODE

Common Core Standards: English Language Arts

Shift in emphasis from fiction to nonfiction in reading and writing:

39

Grade Share of Literary Content

Share of Information Content

4 50% 50%

8 45% 55%

12 30% 70%

Distribution of Literary and Informational Passages by Grade in the 2009 NAEP Reading FrameworkBased on Reading framework for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Writing Emphasis on ELA AssessmentsGrades 3-5 Distribution

Grades 6-8 Distribution:

35% Narrative Writing

35% Informational Writing

30% Persuasive Writing to support opinions based on evaluation of evidence

30% Narrative Writing

35% Informational Writing

35% Persuasive Writing (arguments) to support claims about topics or texts

Grades 9-12 Distribution

40% Informational Writing

40% Writing reasoned arguments about a topic or in response to text(s) read

20% Narrative Writing (includes applying the use of narrative strategies to literary and workplace

All Students Will…Grades K-12:Complete grade level

performance tasksTake grade level formative

and summative assessments to show progress toward mastery of standard.

National standardized readiness test (PSAT)

Grades 3-11: Take summative

assessments to show progress toward attainment of grade level knowledge and skills (includes computer adaptive assessments and performance tasks)

Administered onlinePerformance exams in

April, End of Course exams in May

What can parents do- help build “habits of mind” (strategies, personal traits)?

▫Habits of Mind for ELA Demonstrate independence as learners Build strong content knowledge Respond to the varying demands of

audience, task, purpose and discipline Comprehend as well as critique Value evidence Use technology and digital media

strategically and capably Come to understand other perspectives and

cultures

What can parents do- help build “habits of mind” (strategies, personal traits)?

▫Habits of Mind for Math Make sense of problems and persevere in

solving them Reason abstractly and quantitatively Construct viable arguments and critique the

reasoning of others Model with mathematics Use appropriate tools strategically Attend to precision Look for and make use of structure Look for and express regularity in repeated

reasoning