WA Core to College Implementation Partnership Teams: Summer Institute 2013

1. WA Core to College Implementation Partnership Teams:Summer Institute 2013 William S. Moore, Ph.D., Policy Associate, SBCTC Director, Core to College Alignment & Transition Mathematics Project bmoore@sbctc.edu

2. What Have You Learned about the Common Core? • How are the Common Core State Standards different from previous state standards in math and English language arts? • What are the benefits to higher education of shifting to the CCSS? • What are the current challenges in implementing the CCSS?

3. Common Core State Standards • Clear, consistent, rigorous standards in English language arts/literacy and mathematics • Knowledge and skills needed for college and career success • Developed voluntarily and cooperatively by states with input from teachers and college faculty Source: www.corestandards.org

4. Common Core State Standards:Contrasting Views OR “I see the common core as a fertile and rich opportunity for really important professional learning by teachers [because it] rests on a view of teaching as complex decision making… [requiring] instructional strategies that enable students to explore concepts and discuss them with each other, to question and respectfully challenge classmates’ assertions.” Charlotte Danielson, interview with Education Week, 3/13/2013 “Obama Core is a comprehensive plan to dumb down schoolchildren so they will be obedient servants of the government and probably to indoctrinate them to accept the leftwing view of America and its history.” Phyllis Schafly, October 2012, cited by Benjamin Riley, “Common Core-spiracy”

5. Major Shifts in the CCSS:“Fewer, Higher, Clearer, Deeper” MATH • Focus strongly where the standards focus • Coherence: Think across grades and link to major topics within grades • Rigor: Require conceptual understanding, fluency, and application ELA • Building content knowledge throughcontent-rich nonfiction • Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational • Regular practice withcomplex text and its academic language www.corestandards.org

6. Standards for Mathematical Practices

7. ELA: Texts Worth Reading, Questions Worth Answering David Coleman talks about cross-content

8. Washington’s CCSS Implementation Effort(Summer 2009 to Present) We are here “I see the common core as a fertile and rich opportunity for really important professional learning by teachers [because it] rests on a view of teaching as complex decision making…[requiring] instructional strategies on teachers' parts that enable students to explore concepts and discuss them with each other, to question and respectfully challenge classmates’ assertions.” Charlotte Danielson, interview with Education Week, 3/13/2013

9. Washington Implementation Partnerships PLUS… School Districts Higher Education Statewide Education and Content Associations

10. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium 26 states & territories (22 governing, 3 advisory, 1 affiliate) K-12 & Higher Education Leads in each state

11. A Balanced Assessment System Summative assessments Benchmarked to college and career readiness Teachers and schools have information and tools they need to improve teaching and learning Common Core State Standards specify K-12 expectations for college and career readiness All students leave high school college and career ready Teacher resources for formative assessment practices to improve instruction Interim assessments Flexible, open, used for actionable feedback

12. Assessing the Common Core • Identify • List • Draw • Define • Memorize • Calculate • Illustrate • Who, What, When, Where, Why • Measure • Arrange • Name • Tabulate • Repeat • Match • Design • Recall • Categorize • Recognize • Use • Connect • Infer • Level One • (Recall) • Graph • Organize • Synthesize • Classify • Level Four • Modify • Level Two • (Skill/Concept) • Apply Concepts • Describe Explain Interpret • Smarter Balanced assessments move beyond basic skills and recall to assess critical thinking and problem solving • Cause/Effect • (Extended Thinking) • Relate • Critique • Predict • Prove • Compare • Level Three • (Strategic Thinking) • Analyze • Interpret • Estimate • Create • Revise • Assess • Summarize • Develop a Logical Argument • Use Concepts to SolveNon-Routine Problems • Show • Critique • Construct • Compare • Apprise • Investigate • Explain • Formulate • Draw Conclusions • Hypothesize • Differentiate Source: Webb, Norman L. and others, “Web Alignment Tool” 24 July 2005. Wisconsin Center of Educational Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2 Feb 2006 • 15

13. Interim & Formative Assessment

14. Smarter Balanced Digital Library One Stop Resource Center • Assessment literacy • Formative assessment resources • Links to other resources and other components of the Smarter online system Interactive Teacher Space • Opportunities to keep journals of practices • Key words or phrases in the journals will generate suggested lists of resources • Record resources consulted and suggest others • Teachers can request resources matched to student assessment results

15. Educator Involvement in Building the Smarter Balanced Digital Library

16. Purposes and Users for the Summative Assessments

17. Summative Assessment: Benefits and Limitations

18. Summative Assessment:Two-pronged Approach

19. Estimated Testing Times for Summative Assessment The testing window is the final 12 weeks of the academic year.

20. Pilot Testing & Practice Test • Pilot Test held February 20 to May 24, 2013 • 5,200 schools volunteered to test ~1 million students • Purpose: Evaluate first 5,000 items & tasks • Open access Practice Tests available now! • Both subject areas, grades 3 through 8 and 11 • Approx. 23 items & 1 performance task in ELA • Uses same software as operational test • Features refreshable Braille , pop-up Spanish glossary, and other accessibility/accommodation tools • Enhancements by this Fall: • Performance tasks for math • ELA classroom-based activities • ASL translation and other accommodation tools • Scoring rubrics

21. Field Test &Standard Setting • Field test in Spring 2014 will target 2 million students — roughly 20% of eligible students in each state • Educator recruitment has begun for item authoring and review as well as range-finding (1,000 K-12 teachers and higher education faculty will participate). • Standard-setting will occur after field test (summer 2014). • In addition to traditional workshop, Smarter Balanced will invite broad stakeholder involvement. • Stakeholders can review items and make their own cut score recommendations. • Crowd-sourced data will inform standard-setting workshop.

22. Other Current Issues • Cost--estimates as of March 2013: • ~$22.50 per student for Summative only; • ~$27.30 per student for Summative, Interim, & Formative • Sustainability: Working with UCLA/CRESST (National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing) to serve as host and partner for a sustainable Smarter Balanced • State messaging: toolkit for communication and implementation • Modules on messaging, cost analysis, technology readiness, and implementation planning • States forming task force to use toolkit to develop state-specific messages and implementation plans.

23. Smarter Balanced and Higher Education

24. Common Core Standards Implementation: Important Roles for Higher Education

25. Higher Education After Smarter Balanced: What’s Changed? Instead of multiple tests, with differing performance standards, all public schools in consortium states use the same test, content standards (Common Core) and performance standards. Grade 11 performance standards are pegged to college content-readiness, with standards for earlier grades mapped to Grade 11. In each state, K-12 and higher education set requirements for Grade 12 (may vary by institution type). Students, parents and teachers know where the academic “goal line” is and students can address deficiencies in high school. Working together, K-12 and higher education can develop appropriate grade 12 experiences for students at differing achievement levels. Colleges can target students for special programs based on Grade 8 scores (or earlier).

26. Higher Education After Smarter Balanced:What Hasn’t Changed? • High school exit: Some states may use the Smarter Balanced assessment—with a lower performance standard—for high school exit, but no state currently plans to use the college content-readiness standard for this purpose. • Admission : Colleges will continue to admit students according to their current standards and practices – the college content-readiness policy applies only to admitted students. • Placement: While honoring the exemption from developmental education for students who have earned it, colleges may use other means to determine appropriate course placement. • Dev ed reform: Colleges can place any student into credit-bearing courses; grades-only placement policies are unaffected. • STEM: Colleges will need to assess additional evidence for students seeking to enter more advanced mathematics courses.

27. Implications of CCSS for Community & Technical Colleges • Introduce the 11th grade Common Core assessment as one element in a set of measures used in placement • Align developmental education and intro college math and English courses to the Common Core • Work directly with local K-12 partners to improve college readiness of students and reduce need for remediation in college Barnett & Fay, February 2013, National Center for Postsecondary Research

28. Summary of “Thorny Issues” from End of Year Reports

29. Addressing Thorny Issues of Practice (TIPs) through the ‘Step-Back’ Consulting Process • Presenting the problem (up to 5 minutes) • Clarifying the problem (up to 5 minutes) • Stepping back (20 minutes) • Consultee becomes a silent but active observer • “Consultants” take on the problem as if it were theirs • Responding to the discussion (up to 10 minutes)

30. Core to College wiki Professional Learning Resources • PARCC Model Content Frameworks: • ELA • Math • PARCC high school progression documents: • Writing • Speaking and listening • Achieve the Core • School Librarians & CCSS Resources • Noyce Foundation math resources • Equip rubrics (for lessons and units) • Engage NY • Math Progression documents  • Math Publishers’ criteria • Mathematics Common Core Toolbox • Illustrative Mathematics • OSPI Common Core • Smarter Balanced

31. Three Critical CCSS Appendices for ELA • Appendix A: Research support, glossary, text complexity • Appendix B: Reading text exemplars; sample performance tasks • Appendix C: Annotated student writing samples, K-12

32. Structured Discussion Process:Professional Learning • What common themes did you hear across the project activities? • Successes • Ongoing challenges/needs • What are the connections of what you’ve heard for the ongoing work in your partnership?

33. Specific Transition Courses • SREB transition courses  • Expository Reading & Writing Course (CSU) • Dana Center Senior Year Capstone Course (AQR/AMDM) • Project TIME, Green River (TMP) (Detailed resources available at TMP site)

34. ERWC Course (CSU) Module Examples 1st Semester • Rhetoric of the Op-Ed Page: What are ethos, pathos, and logos, and how can we use these concepts to persuade others? • Racial Profiling: Are racial and ethnic profiling real? What, if anything, do they accomplish? What should we do? • Into the Wild (Book module): Why would a young man attempt a perilous, solo Alaskan adventure that leads to death? (Nonfiction) 2nd Semester • Language, Gender, and Culture: How do gender and culture affect what we say and how we say it? • Left Hand of Darkness (Book module): What if different types of humans lived on different planets within one galaxy? • Bullying at School (Research project): How can students create and present a school Code of Conduct that deals with bullying?

35. Structured Discussion Process:Curricular Collaborations • What stands out to you about the work and/or resources described? • What questions do you have about the work and/or resources described? • What common themes/connections did you hear across the project activities? • What are the implications for the ongoing work in your partnership?

36. College Content-Readiness Policy

37. What is Content Readiness?

38. Policy Framework for Grade 11 Assessment Results Note: Applies only to students who matriculate directly from high school to college.

39. Explore local school/ college partnerships Core to College Smarter Balanced Timetable Review and endorse proposal Develop specific proposal for SB use in higher education System group and institutional review (Spring 2014)

40. Placement Process for HS Students?

41. Key System Decisions re Smarter Balanced Assessment

42. Other Questions to Address • Connection to multiple measures for placement, especially use of transcript-based placement? • Mechanisms for score reporting and cross-sector data sharing? • Higher education engagement in cut-score setting process for the 11th grade assessment? • Validation research for higher education purposes/needs? • 12th grade “Launch Year” opportunities?

43. Structured Discussion Process:Placement Processes • What stands out to you about the work and/or resources described? • What questions do you have about the work and/or resources described? • What’s your immediate response to the key decisions to be made and the questions to address? What else would you need to know to make these decisions? • What are the implications for the ongoing work in your partnership?