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Student Achievement Partners. Student Achievement Partners. We hold no intellectual property
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Student Achievement Partners • We hold no intellectual property • Our goal is to create and disseminate high quality materials as widely as possible. All resources that we create are open source and available at no cost. We encourage states, districts, schools, and teachers to take our resources and make them their own. • We do not compete for state, district or federal contracts • Ensuring that states and districts have excellent materials for teachers and students is a top priority. We do not compete for these contracts because we work with our partners to develop high quality RFPs that support the Core Standards. • We do not accept money from publishers • We work with states and districts to obtain the best materials for teachers and students. We are able to independently advise our partners because we have no financial interests with any publisher of education materials. Our independence is essential to our work.
Unprepared for College and Career 74 percent of high school graduates are “not prepared to take credit-bearing entry-level college courses with a reasonable chance of succeeding in those courses.”1 43 percent of students who earn an A or B in Algebra II do not meet college readiness benchmarks in math; 53 percent earning an A or B in physics do not meet college readiness benchmarks in science.2 45 percent of employers say public high school graduates are not equipped with the skills necessary to move beyond entry-level jobs.3 1, 2 ACT, Rigor at Risk: Reaffirming Quality in the High School Core Curriculum, Iowa City, Iowa: Author, 2007.3 Peter D. Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies, A Study of Recent High School Graduates, College Instructors, and Employers. Washington, D.C.: Achieve, Inc., 2005.
Reading, Writing and Speaking Grounded in Evidence from Text: Why?
Distribution of Communicative Purpose Writing Speaking and Listening
Sample Informational Text Question: Pre-Common Core State Standards High school students read an excerpt of James D. Watson’s The Double Helix and respond to the following: James Watson used time away from his laboratory and a set of models similar to preschool toys to help him solve the puzzle of DNA. In an essay discuss how play and relaxation help promote clear thinking and problem solving.
Sample Informational Text Question: Common Core State Standards By the end of this article, James Watson felt that "the answer to everything was in our hands." What was the answer? What problem was Watson trying to solve? What steps or process did he use to discover the answer? What mistakes did he make along the way to his discovery? What was his response to this mistake?
Regular Practice With Complex text and Its Academic Language: Why? Gap between complexity of college and high school texts is huge. What students can read, in terms of complexity, is greatest predictor of success in college ( 2006 ACT study). Too many students are reading at too low a level. Standards include a staircase of increasing text complexity from elementary through high school. Standards also focus on building general academic vocabulary so critical to comprehension.
Which text is more complex? Text 1 Text 2 • Lincoln was shaken by the presidency. Back in Springfield, politics had been a sort of exhilarating game; but in the White House, politics was power, and power was responsibility. Never before had Lincoln held executive office. In public life he had always been an insignificant legislator whose votes were cast in concert with others and whose decisions in themselves had neither finality nor importance. As President he might consult with others, but innumerable grave decisions were in the end his own, and with them came a burden of responsibility terrifying in its dimensions. • According to those who knew him, Lincoln was a man of many faces. In repose, he often seemed sad and gloomy. But when he began to speak, his expression changed. “The dull, listless features dropped like a mask,” said a Chicago newspaperman. “The eyes began to sparkle, the mouth to smile, the whole countenance was wreathed in animation, so that a stranger would have said, ‘Why, this man, so angular and solemn a moment ago, is really handsome.’”
Determining Text Complexity • Run each passage through a quantitative analyzer tool and determine its ratings. • Use the Common Scale to determine its placement in a particular band. • Use qualitative measures (Structure, Language and convention, Knowledge demands, Level of meaning/process) to place a text in a specific grade. (tools available on www.achievethecore.org ) • Exceptions: • At times, qualitative measures will trump the quantitative measures (narrative fiction). • For drama and poetry, only qualitative measures can be used.
Shifts in Mathematics Focus: Focus strongly where the standards focus. Coherence: Think across grades, and linkto major topics Rigor: In major topics, pursue conceptualunderstanding, procedural skill and fluency,andapplication
Shift #1: Focus Strongly where the Standards Focus • Significantly narrow the scope of content • Deepen how time and energy is spent in the math classroom • Focus deeply on what is emphasized in the standards, so that students gain strong foundations
Focus in Mathematics • Move away from "mile wide, inch deep" curricula identified in TIMSS. • Learn from international comparisons. • Teach less, learn more. • “Less topic coverage can be associated withhigher scores on those topics covered because students have more time to master thecontent that is taught.”
Change the shape of math Mathematics topics intended at each grade by at least two-thirds of A+ countries Mathematics topics intended at each grade by at least two-thirds of 21 U.S. states
Shift #2: Coherence: Think Across Grades, and Link to Major Topics Within Grades Carefully connect the learning within and across grades so that students can build new understanding on foundations built in previous years Begin to count on solid conceptual understanding of core content and build on it Each standard is not a new event, but an extension of previous learning
Shift #3: Rigor: Pursue Conceptual Understanding, Procedural Skill and Fluency, and Application College and career readiness in math requires a balance of: • Solid conceptual understanding • Procedural skill and fluency • Application of skills in problem solving situations Pursuit of all three requires equal intensity in time, activities, and resources
Resources • CCSS Publishers' Criteria Webinars – Thursday June 6th • The Council of the Great City Schools and the Council of Chief State School Officers, in partnership with Student Achievement Partners, are providing two free webinars for content developers focused on the Common Core State Standards Publishers’ Criteria in ELA/Literacy and Mathematics. • To register contact Janelle Fann at jfann@studentsachieve.net
Resources • Publishers’ Criteria for ELA/Literacy K – 2 and 3 – 12 and Mathematics • http://www.corestandards.org/resources • From Student Achievement Partners – resources and news for the CCSS including links to Basal Alignment Project and Anthology Alignment Project • www.achievethecore.org • Rachel Etienne – retienne@studentsachieve.net • David Liben - dliben@studentsachieve.net
