Mississippi Association of School Superintendents Winter Conference January 28, 2013

1. Mississippi Association of School Superintendents Winter Conference January 28, 2013 Lynn J. House, Ph.D. Interim State Superintendent

2. The Common Core State Standards: Foundation to Improve Learning, Instruction, and Assessment Trecina Green, Associate Superintendent of Instructional Enhancement James Mason, Director of Student Assessment Nathan Oakley, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Mississippi Association of School Superintendents Winter Conference

3. 46 States + DC Have Adopted the Common Core State Standards * Minnesota adopted the CCSS in ELA only

4. Key Advances of the Common Core in Mathematics ANCHORED IN COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS

5. Mathematical Practices • Mathematically proficient students: • 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

6. Key Advances of the Common Core in ELA/Literacy ANCHORED IN COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS

7. Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) 23 states and the District of Columbia are involved in PARCC.

8. Goal #1: Create High Quality Assessments Priority Purposes of PARCC Assessments: • Determine whether students are college- and career-readyor on track • Assess the full range of the Common Core Standards, including standards that are difficult to measure • Measure the full range of student performance, including the performance of high and low performing students • Provide data during the academic year to inform instruction, interventions and professional development • Provide data for accountability, including measures of growth • Incorporate innovative approaches throughout the system

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

10. Assessment DesignEnglish Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics, Grades 3-11 2 Optional Assessments/Flexible Administration • Required • End-of-Year • Assessment • Innovative, computer-based items • Optional • Mid-Year Assessment • Performance-based • Emphasis on hard-to-measure standards • Potentially summative • Required Performance-Based • Assessment (PBA) • Extended tasks • Applications of concepts and skills • Optional • Diagnostic Assessment • Indicator of student knowledge and skills to inform instruction, supports, and PD • Non-summative • Required Speaking And Listening Assessment • Locally scored • Non-summative

11. Advances in Assessment Specificadvances in the PARCC mathematics assessments demanded by the three shifts…

12. Advances in Assessment Demanded by the Shifts Shift #1 – Focus: The PARCC assessments will focusstrongly where the Standards focus Advance: PARCC assessments will focus strongly where the Standards focus (70% or more on the major work in grades 3-8). • Focus allows for a variety of problem types to get at the concept in multiple ways. • Students will have more time to master concepts at a deeper level.

13. Advances in Assessment Demanded by the Shifts Shift #2 - Coherence: Think across grades and link to major topics within grades Advance: Integrative tasks draw on multiple standards to ensure students are making important connections. • The Standards are not treated as a checklist.

14. Advances in Assessment Demanded by the Shifts Shift #3- Rigor: In major topics, pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application Advance: PARCC assessments will reach the rigor in the Standards through innovations in technology and item design.

15. Claims Driving Design: Mathematics Students are on-track or ready for college and careers *See PARCC Model Content Frameworks for details

16. Overview of Mathematics Task Types PARCC mathematics assessments will include three types of tasks. For more information see PARCC Item Development ITN Appendix D.

17. Using Technology to Advance Assessment and the Shifts • Technology enhancements supporting accessibility (e.g., the ability to hover over a word to see and/or hear its definition, etc.) • Transformative formats making possible what can not be done with traditional paper-pencil assessments (e.g., simulations to improve a model, game-like environments, drawing/constructing diagrams or visual models, etc.) • Getting beyond the bubble and avoiding drawbacks of traditional selected response such as guessing or choice elimination.

18. Using Technology to Advance Assessment and the Shifts • Capturing complex student responses through a device interface (e.g., using drawing tools, symbol palettes, etc.) • Machine scorable multi-step tasks are more efficient to administer and score.

19. Grade 7 Illustrative Sample Item

20. Aligns to the Standards and Reflects Good Practice Grade 7 Sample Illustrative Item: Speed Task Type I: Tasks assessing concepts, skills and procedures Alignment: Most Relevant Content Standard(s) • 7.RP.2b. Identify the constant of proportionality (unit rate) in tables, graphs, equations, diagrams, and verbal descriptions of proportional relationships.  • In addition, see 7.RP.2d: Explain what a point (x,y) on the graph of a proportional relationship means in terms of the situation, with special attention to the points (0, 0) and (1, r) where r is the unit rate. (The “explain” portion is not required in the task, but the task involves some of the concepts detailed here.) Alignment: Most Relevant Mathematical Practice(s) • MP.2 enters (Reason abstractly and quantitatively), as students must relate the graphs and tables to each other via the unit rate and then to the context at hand.

21. Aligns to the Standards and Reflects Good Practice Grade 7 Sample Illustrative Item Key Features and Assessment Advances • The PARCC assessment will seek to preserve the focus of the Standards by thoroughly exploring the major work of the grade. • In this case, a multi-point problem is devoted to a single standard about proportional relationships, which are a major focus in grades 6 and 7. • Unlike traditional multiple choice, it is difficult to guess the correct answer or use a choice elimination strategy. • Variants of the task could probe understanding of unit rates and representations of proportional relationships by showing different scales on the two graphs, and/or by presenting the data in tables C and D with the ordered pairs not equally spaced in time.

22. MCT2 Sample Item for Mathematics Taken from Mississippi MCT2 7th Grade Practice Test 1

23. Nine Specific Advances in the PARCC ELA/Literacy Assessment Demanded by the Three Core Shifts. . .

24. Shift 1: Regular practice with complex text and its academic language • PARCC builds a staircase of text complexity to ensure students are on track each year for college and career reading. • PARCC rewards careful, close reading rather than racing through passages. • PARCC systematically focuses on the words that matter most—not obscure vocabulary, but the academic language that pervades complex texts.

25. Shift 2: Reading and writing grounded in evidencefrom text, literary and informational • PARCC focuses on students rigorously citing evidence from texts throughout the assessment (including selected-response items). • PARCC includes questions with more than one right answer to allow students to generate a range of rich insights that are substantiated by evidence from text(s). • PARCC requires writing to sources rather than writing to de-contextualized expository prompts. • PARCC also includes rigorous expectations for narrative writing, including accuracy and precision in writing in later grades.

26. Shift 3: Building knowledge through content rich nonfiction • PARCC assesses not just ELA but a full range of reading and writing across the disciplines of science and social studies. • PARCC simulates research on the assessment, including the comparison and synthesis of ideas across a range of informational sources.

27. Claims Driving Design: ELA/Literacy *See PARCC Model Content Frameworks for details

28. Innovative ELA/Literacy Item Types That Showcase Students’ Command of Evidence with Complex Texts • Evidence-Based Selected Response (EBSR)—Combines a traditional selected-response question with a second selected-response question that asks students to show evidence from the text that supports the answer they provided to the first question. Underscores the importance of Reading Anchor Standard 1 for implementation of the CCSS. • Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response (TECR)—Uses technology to capture student comprehension of texts in authentic ways that have been difficult to score by machine for large scale assessments (e.g., drag and drop, cut and paste, shade text, move items to show relationships). • Range of Prose Constructed Responses (PCR)—Elicits evidence that students have understood a text or texts they have read and can communicate that understanding well both in terms of written expression and knowledge of language and conventions. There are four of these items of varying types on each annual performance-based assessment.

29. Grade 7 ELA/Literacy – Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response Item Part A: Highlight the claim that is supported by the most relevant and sufficient facts within “Earhart’s Final Resting Place Believed Found.” Part B: Click on two facts within the article that best provide evidence to support the claim selected in Part A.

30. Aligns to the Standards and Reflects Good Practice • Specific CCSS alignment to: • RI.7.1 (use of evidence). • RI.7.8 (author’s claims and evidence). • RI.7.10 (complex texts). • This item helps students gather information and details for use on the first and second Prose Constructed Response. • Requires students to employ reasoning skills, since all of the claims listed could be made, but only one is supported by the most relevant and sufficient facts. • Reflects the key shift of reading closely and weighing evidence by offering credit for Part B only if Part A is correct. • Technology enables students to highlight evidence that supports their understanding.

31. Grade 7 Analytical Prose Constructed-Response Item #1 Based on the information in the text “Biography of Amelia Earhart,” write an essay that summarizes and explains the challenges Earhart faced throughout her life. Remember to use textual evidence to support your ideas.

32. Aligns to the Standards and Reflects Good Practice • Specific CCSS alignment to: • RI.7.1 (use of evidence); RI.7.2 (summary of text); RI.7.10 (complex texts). • W.7.2 (writing to explain or inform); W.7.4 (writing coherently); W.7.9 (drawing evidence from texts). • L.7.1-3 (grammar and conventions). • Requires writing to sources rather than to a de-contextualized or generalized prompt (e.g., asks about a specific aspect of Earhart’s life). • Requires students to draw evidence from the text and cite this evidence clearly. • Requires students to apply the knowledge of language and conventions when writing. • Purposely designed to help students gather information for writing the final analytic essay that asks students to evaluate the arguments made in three texts about Earhart’s bravery (i.e., her bravery can be expressed as her ability to face the many challenges).

33. Final Grade 7 Prose Constructed-Response Item #2

34. Aligns to the Standards and Reflects Good Practice • Specific CCSS alignment to: • RI.7.1 (use of evidence); RI.7.8 (evaluate claims in a text); RI.7.9 (comparison of authors’ presentation); RI.7.10 (complex texts). • W.7.2 (writing to inform and explain); W.7.4 (writing coherently); W.7.7 (conduct short research projects); W.7.8 (gather relevant information from multiple sources); W.7.9 (drawing evidence from texts). • L.7.1-3 (grammar and conventions). • Measures the ability to compare and synthesize ideas across multiple texts and the ability to analyze the strength of various arguments. • Asks students to write to sources rather than write to a de-contextualized prompt. • Focuses on students rigorously citing evidence for their answer. • Requires students to delve deeply into multiple texts to gather evidence to analyze a given claim, simulating the research process. • Requires students to demonstrate they can apply the knowledge of language and conventions when writing.

35. MCT2 Sample Item for ELA Which statement below is a correct evaluation of the cause of the situation described in the sentence above? • Because many lawmakers wanted the nation’s capital to be located in their state, a compromise was made to create a capital city that belonged to none of the states. • Because one hundred square miles of land was needed for the capital city, Maryland and Virginia offered George Washington a section of land along the Potomac River. • Because the country had not established a capital city, Congress met in several different cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York. • Because the District residents were not allowed to vote for President, Congress passed an amendment to the Constitution. Taken from practice MCT2

36. Professional Development: Status Update • 33 CCSS grade-band training sessions and webinars have been offered across the state, reaching over 3,100 educators. • An additional 10 grade-band training sessions and webinars are scheduled during the 2013 calendar year. • Focused webinars are being offered in ELA and mathematics each month. • Webinars are being archived in iTunes U. As of mid-January, over 6,700 browses, views, downloads, and streams have been completed through iTunes U.

37. Professional Development: Status Update • 33 CCSS grade-band training sessions and webinars have been offered across the state, reaching over 3,100 educators. • Focused webinars are being offered in ELA and mathematics each month. • Webinars are being archived in iTunes U. As of mid-January, over 6,700 browses, views, downloads, and streams have been completed through iTunes U.

38. Professional Development Status Update • In addition to the grade-band sessions, the MDE has hosted numerous CCSS training sessions reaching approximately 5,000 educators. • MDE personnel have spoken regularly at conferences and meetings across the state with administrators, community leaders, and parents.

39. Professional Development: Going Forward • Spring 2013 • 3-5 CCSS Follow-up • Common Core Essential Elements / Dynamic Learning Maps • 6-8 CCSS Follow-up • 9-12 CCSS Follow-up Webinar • Summer 2013 • CCSS strands at Making Connections Conference • Writing Collaborative Project Cohort II begins

40. Professional Development: Going Forward • Fall 2013 • CCSS focusing on Special Education • CCSS focusing on English Learners • 9-12 CCSS Follow-up • NISL ELA Leadership Institutes • Spring 2014 • CCSS Grade Band Interventions for Struggling Learners • NISL ELA Leadership Institutes • Statewide Educator Follow-up Survey

41. Professional Development: Going Forward • Summer 2014 • CCSS strands at Making Connections Conference • Writing Collaborative Project Cohort III begins • Survey results will drive additional training during the 2014-2015 school year.

42. Resources & Communications • www.mde.k12.ms.us/ci • C&I Open Listserv • www.mde.k12.ms.us/ccss • SharePoint (districtaccess.mde.k12.ms.us) • Training Materials • MDE Professional Development Calendar • MDE iTunes U (www.mde.k12.ms.us/itunes) • Twitter (@MissDeptEd) • PARCC (www.parcconline.org)

43. Tri-State Quality Review Rubrics • Provide clear, descriptive criteria for CCSS lessons/units • Provide meaningful, constructive feedback to developers of lessons/units • Identify lessons/units that can serve as models • Guide collegial quality review • May be used to evaluate lessons that include instructional activities and assessments aligned to the CCSS that may extend over a few class periods or days AND to evaluate units that include integrated and focused lessons aligned to the CCSS that extend over a longer period of time. Note: The Tri-State Rubrics do not require a specific template for lesson or unit design – but honor state lead. The Rubrics are not designed to evaluate a single task. • http://engageny.org/resource/tri-state-quality-review-rubric-and-rating-process

44. Office of Student Assessment James Mason, Director www.mde.k12.ms.us/osa

45. US History SATP2 • Additional Test Administrations • February 20, 2013 • ‘On or about’ May 10, 2013 for Seniors who only lack US History exam to graduate • District Test Coordinators have all the details

46. OSA Update • Science • Grades 5 & 8 Mississippi Science Test technology requirements • MDE will continue to use current science framework and assessments for the next several years • K-3 universal screener and 3rd Grade Gateway • Testing calendar (see handout) • Rationale • Shifts • Testing windows

47. Next Generation Assessments • PARCC - MCT2 & English II and Algebra I • DLM (Dynamic Learning Maps) - MAAECF • WIDA / ELL (English Language Learner) • Science • Current science frameworks implemented in 2010 and first assessed in 2011 • Next Generation Standards implementation not anticipated within the next 3 years

48. CCSS and Common Assessments: Key Local Implementation Issues • Improving Instruction • Aligned Instructional Materials • Evaluating Educator Effectiveness • School Accountability • College and Career Readiness • Technology Infrastructure

49. PARCC • Test logistics • How long will the test be • Paper vs. Online • Testing window • Technology Requirements • Policy dissemination • Calculator policy • Read Aloud policy

50. Accountability Questions • An accountability task force is working to develop recommendations for revisions to the state accountability model. • No flexibility on federal requirements regarding state assessments is expected during the transition to PARCC assessments in 2014-2015 school term. • MCT2 and SATP2 will be given in the 2013-2014 school term. PARCC will be given in the 2014-2015 school term.