A New Era: Transitioning to the Common Core State Standards and Assessments

1. A New Era:Transitioning to the Common Core State Standards and Assessments Presented by Gretchen R. Schultz Principal Assessment Specialist

2. WE ARE CTB... With a 1926 founding mission to “HELP THE TEACHER HELP THE CHILD,” today CTB/McGraw-Hill is education’s assessment partner of choice. Respected for the highest standards of quality in psychometric research, program implementation, and reporting, we are also recognized for our continuous innovations in the science and art of assessment for learners of all ages and the educators who serve them.

3. Today’s Target Questions • Who and what are defining this “new era”? • What do the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) look like and include? • What challenges will educators face? • How will the CCSS be standards for all? • What will future assessments look like?

4. What Happened in Coreville May Happen to You

5. The students of Coreville on a typical day Learned their own things in their own thingy way. The Cores of North Coreville learned how to dot “i’s.” While those in East Coreville? How to best analyze. North, South, East, West: Each believed it knew best How to learn and to practice for any new test.

6. As the years passed, all seemed to be fine― Until one September when Corey Devine Of North Coreville moved East to a snazzy new school And sat in a classroom― and felt like a fool. The East Corevillians could synthesize tales While Corey could only count story details.

7. It soon was apparent to him and his mother His learning was random and different from others’. And so, Corey’s mother lamented and said, “We need standards for ALL about what should be read, And how skills are taught And what kids can do. Some clear, common standards are long overdue.”

8. So the Cores of all Corevilles gathered one day, Led by School Officers and the states’ NGA. They researched what’s needed and found evidence that They had to raise rigor and knowledge―and STAT!

9. Core standards were drafted with the goal elementary To guide students to literacy in the 21st century. The standards give focus to grade readability Of stories and poems that have accessibility. They’re to guide reading and writing and speaking instruction, And all the features are explained in a cool introduction. The strategies listed aren’t one-Venn-fits-all, But the targets they focus are for the long haul.

10. So now all of Coreville is happy to say, “Let’s DO IT NOW with the Core ELA!”

11. Common Core State Initiative • Initiative of National Governors’ Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers • NGA, CCSSO, and content experts wrote and validated the CCSS for K-12, ELA and Mathematics • Introduced June 2, 2010 • Call for increased rigor and emphasis on 21st century skills • “[P]rovide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.” • Foster higher achievement of U.S. students • Prepare U.S. students to compete internationally • Make educational opportunities equitable

12. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Adoption

13. Two Consortia • Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) http://www.smarterbalanced.org/ • Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) http://www.parcconline.org/ • In 2014-2015: Current state assessments will be replaced by one of two assessments in about half of the states.

14. What Is New and What Are the Challenges for ELA Educators?

15. What Is New and What Are the Challenges for ELA Educators? • Backmapping of Standards • Coordinated Structure • Challenging Text • Disciplinary Literacy • Informational Text • Close Reading • Multiple Texts • Writing about Texts • Argumentation • Technology TIMOTHY SHANAHAN: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO WWW.SHANAHANONLITERACY.COM

16. What Is New and What Are the Challenges for ELA Educators? • Focus on fewer, broader standards • Movement away from “atomizing” and teaching at the subskill level • Staff development needed to develop year-long curriculum

17. What Is New and What Are the Challenges for Math Educators?

18. What Is New and What Are the Challenges for Math Educators? • The Common Core State standards for mathematics emphasize a balanced assessmentof understanding and procedural skills. • Mathematical understanding: the ability to justify why a particular mathematical statement is true or where a mathematical rule comes from. “Mathematical understanding and procedural skill are equally important, and both are assessable using mathematical tasks of sufficient richness.” -- (CCSS, p4)

19. What Is New and What Are the Challenges for Math Educators? • Standards call for students to engage in mathematical practices • Standards give attention to: • Fewer concepts per grade at a deeper level of understanding • Mathematical understanding and procedural skill equally • Key themes throughout the standards • application of conceptual understanding to practical situations • mindful use of technology • justification of conclusions • deviation from known procedures to find shortcuts • explanation of mathematical concepts to others • Implications for assessment • Context embedded test questions that target higher depths of knowledge • Extended response questions that ask students to analyze data, justify conclusions, and develop novel procedures to solve problems

20. What Is New and What Are the Challenges for Math Educators? • Think about transitions, how to get “from here to there.” • Do NOT continue doing what has been done and just add the missing parts from the CCSS. • Standards were written to enable students to achieve a depth of understanding of mathematic principles.

21. What Recommendations Have Been Made and What Accommodations Will Be Made for ELL students? • NGA & CCSSO “strongly believe that all students should be held to the high expectations” of the CCSS, including students who are ELL. • However, ELLs may require additional time, appropriate instructional support, and aligned assessments. • Teachers must build on students’ “reservoir of talent.”

22. In English language arts classes… • ELLs must have access to • Teachers and personnel who are well prepared and qualified • Literacy-rich environments • Instruction that develops foundational skills • Coursework that is made comprehensible (e.g., through techniques and resources) to prepare them for college and careers • Opportunities to develop communicative strengths • Ongoing assessment and feedback • Speakers of English who serve as models

23. In mathematics classes… • ELLs must • Draw on resources and modes available in classrooms • Engage in mathematical discourse—explaining, writing, representing, and presenting • Research suggests that • Language shifting can be “swift, highly automatic” as long as language proficiency is sufficient for understanding text of a word problem. • ELLs must understand text of word problems must before they attempt to solve them. • Instruction should focus on “mathematical discourse” and “academic language” and give students opportunities to communicate mathematically. • To develop written and oral communication skills, students need to participate in “negotiating meaning for mathematical situations and in mathematical practices” that require their output.

24. What Recommendations Have Been Made And What Accommodations Will Be Made for Students with Disabilities? • SWD “must be challenged to excel within the general curriculum” • SWD are a “heterogeneous group with one characteristic: the presence of disabling conditions that significantly hinder their abilities to benefit from general education” • Therefore, to meet high standards and demonstrate their conceptual and procedural knowledge, their instruction and accommodations must include • Supports and related services to meet their unique needs • An IEP with annual goals • Well prepared and qualified teachers • Additional supports and services include • Instructional supports based on UDL • Instructional accommodations which do not change the standards but allow students to learn within the framework of the CCSS • Assistive technology devices and services

25. How Has California Adapted the CCSS for ELA & Literacy? Link to 2007 rla framework

26. How Has California Adapted the CCSS for ELA & Literacy?

27. How Has California Adapted the CCSS for Mathematics? Link to 2007 math framework

28. How Has California Adapted the CCSS for Mathematics?

29. Pause for Questions and Comments

30. Assessment and Evidence-Centered Design • In the ECD framework, assessment is • A process of reasoning from imperfect evidence • Part of a practical argument using claims and evidence to support the inferences being made about student proficiency • An argument is made from what we observe students say, do, or produce. • ECD will allow for stronger validity arguments for score interpretation and use.

31. ECD: Sample Claims • Students can read closely and analytically to comprehend a range of increasingly complex literary and informational texts. • Students can analyze complex, real-world scenarios and can construct and use mathematical models to interpret and solve problems.

32. ECD in Alignment Practices • Evidence • Content • Cognitive Rigor • Learning Trajectory/Performance Level Alignment Rubric

33. What Is New in Assessment? • Selected-Response Items • Evidence-Based Selected Response (EBSR) • Constructed-Response Items • Extended Constructed-Response Items • Performance Assessment • Performance Tasks (PT) • Performance Events (PE) • Technology Enhanced Items

34. CTB and the CCSS

35. CTB and the CCSS • TerraNova Common Core • Normed • Available now • CCSS aligned • Variety of score reports • CoreLink • Acuity Common Core • LAS Links (to come)

37. Questions? Comments? Thank you.