Reporting on the Common Core Standards and Assessments

Catherine Gewertz Education Week

Associate editor, lead common-core reporter

Common Standards: What Are They?

High-level outline of K-12 skills in English/ language arts and math Math: content and skills English/language arts: skills only Includes literacy skills unique to science, social studies & technical subjects www.corestandards.org

Who Wrote the Standards?

National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers led initiative in 2009 NGA/CCSSO set up writing, feedback and validation panels Drafts circulated through state depts of ed for feedback and revision. Final released June 2013.

Strands and Domains: Mapping Backward From College To Kindergarten

English/language arts 4 sections: Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Language (conventions, vocab) PLUS a section on literacy skills unique to other disciplines Math 11 domains: incl. counting & cardinality; number & operations in base 10; geometry; functions; statistics & probability PLUS math practices

What The Standards Are NOT

Curriculum (disputed) Required reading list Prescribed pedagogy (disputed) Federally funded

Six Major Shifts of Common Core Standards

English/language arts
1) Build knowledge through content-rich nonfiction 2) Reading, writing and speaking based on evidence in text 3) Mastery of complex text and its academic language

Math
1) Deep focus: reaction to inch deep, mile wide curricula 2) Coherence: (thinking across grades and linking major topics within grades) 3) Rigor: conceptual understanding, procedural skill & fluency, application

Examples: English/language arts

Reading, Literary Text
Grade 5: Determine the theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters respond to challenges or how the speak in a poem reflects upon a topic. Summarize the text. Grade 5: Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which point(s). Grade 5: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details and clear event sequences. Grade 5: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

Reading, Informational Text

Writing

Examples/Math
From Numbers & Operations in Base 10:
Grade 5: Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left. Grade 7: Apply properties of operations as strategies to add, subtract, factor, and expand linear expressions with rational coefficients. Know precise definitions of angle, circle, perpendicular line, parallel line, and line segment, based on the undefined notions of point, line, distance along a line, and distance around a circular arc. Attend to precision, reason abstractly and quantitatively, Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

From Expressions & Equations:

From High School Geometry, Congruence:

Math practices:

Who Adopted the CCSS?

h"p://visual.ly/speedy-process-common-standards-adop7on

Whats All the Fuss?

Transparency: how panels & content chosen

Content-free E/LA Standards (only 4 required readings)

Exemplar texts: seen as required reading lists Bluest Eye reaction Nonfiction edges out literature? Fuzzy/watered down math Standards + Tests = de facto curriculum Moneymaking machine for vendors: Common-Core Aligned! Expensive: professl development, instructional shifts, new materials, transition

to new tests

Who bankrolled the CCSS? Gates Fdtn: outsized influence? Federal overreach, local control issues: Race to the Top incentives,
conditions of waivers from NCLB, RTT money to fund the assessments

What Are The Assessment Consortia?

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)
20 members = 19 states + DC www.parcconline.org

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

25 state members www.smarterbalanced.org Funded with $360 million in Race to the Top grants development only, not administration. Grants run out in fall 2014; then states must fund Field tests in 2013-14, operational in 2014-15

Whos in the Assessment Consortia?

h"p://visual.ly/common-standards-and-assessment-consor7a- membership

Resources: Assessment Consortia

K-12 Center at ETS: http://www.k12center.org/ Summary/outline of consortia tests: http://www.k12center.org/rsc/pdf/ a_step_change_in_k12_testing_august2013.pdf Race to the Top site: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/resources.html. Original requirements: Notice Inviting Applications. http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/awards.html -- 2 consortias winning applications.

PARCC Test Design

Smarter Balanced Test Design

This Is So Mushy. How Can I Crack Into It?

I feel your pain. Some thoughts: Read the standards. (Really.) Are they very different? How? Origin: How involved was your state in development? Or just along for the ride? Objections: Who is objecting to the standards, and why? Have they read
them? What, exactly, are their objections & what are they based on?

Capacity: State or districts ability to move standards fully into practice. $$

$, human resources, sufficient training

How is instruction changing in school? Or is it? Get close.

More Story Themes

Technology. Does your district/state have the technology needed to run these
tests?

Special populations: Are teachers ready to help ELLs & students with disabilities
reach the new expectations? (hint: answer = no)

Tests. Touchy subject. What tests is your state/district using now? How are they
transitioning to 2014-15? Using PARCC/SBAC? Designing/keeping own? What is on those tests? Score drop in 2014? Why? Tests harder, or folks just not experienced enough with the content/tests yet? Anti-testing backlash, activists.

Resources/Light Reading J
www.edweek.org
literacy or English/language arts. State policy/controversy: Ujifusa. Tech: Cavanagh, Davis. Math/science: Robelen. Teachers: Sawchuk. EdWeek blogs http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/blogs/index.html -- Curriculum Matters, State EdWatch, Politics K12 Early visions of tests -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/02/23/23assessment.h29.html Early drafts of standards --http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/ 2010/03/10/25common_ep.h29.html Special report April 2012 common core math & E/LA -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/standards-report-2012/index.html -- good overview of the issues, plus a look at cross-disciplinary literacy stuff in Ky The DC series -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/common-core-a-steep-climb/index.html

Gewertz + common standards, common assessments,

Resources (contd)
Concerns about early childhood application -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/04/07/28common.h29.html Groups that are pushing the CCSS -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/09/33commonstrategy_ep.h29.html
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/08/20/01curriculum_ep.h30.html

Curric producers start "aligning stuff to CCSS --

The consortia get supplemental RTT grants to do all sorts of related stuff besides summative tests -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/02/11/21consortia.h30.html Calls for shared curriculum guidelines -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/09/23curriculum.h30.html

Resources (contd)
Gates & Pearson craft curricula -- makes some people uneasy -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/04/27/30pearson.h30.html Manifesto on shared curric/local control -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/05/09/31curriculum.h30.html Technology challenges to the tests -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/04/19/29assess.h30.html 2011 survey showing lagging implementation -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/21/04cep-2.h31.html 2013 study showing teachers not ready -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/02/27/22common_ep.h32.html Parents dont know about CCSS either -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/08/21/02pdk_ep.h33.html

Resources (contd)
Worries about "close reading" -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/02/08/20aspen-2.h31.htm Shift to informational text -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/03/14/24informational_ep.h31.html and http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/11/14/12cc-nonfiction.h32.html Teachers reworking questions in basal readers -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/standards-report-2012/index.html and:basals arent all that different than older versions -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/11/14/12cc-textbooks.h32.html Sample consortia items, sense of how the tests will be different Document cloud link to hundreds of pages of items -- http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/08/14/01tests_ep.h32.html

Resources (contd)
AFT seeks moratorium on consequences -- http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2013/04/ halt_high_stakes_linked_to_common_core.html -- the start of "slow down" kinds of reactions Feds give more time to link teacher evals to test scores -- http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2013/06/ arne_duncan_allows_waiver_stat.html Now extending flexibility on tests because of field testing http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/09/19/05doubletest.h33.html