Common Core Lessons from two United States’ Leaders Who Got it Right!

1. Common Core Lessons from two United States’ Leaders Who Got it Right! Dr. Diane DeBacker former Kansas Commissioner of Education Mr. Armando Vilaseca former Vermont Commissioner of Education Both currently serving as senior advisors to the Director General of the Abu Dhabi Education Council

2. Kansas and Vermont?

3. Standards Adoption Process • K.S.A. 72-6439 “The state board shall establish curriculum standards which reflect high academic standards for Kansas Education in the core academic areas of mathematics, science, reading, writing and social studies.” • The Kansas curriculum standards shall be reviewed at least every seven years. • Vermont SBR 2000 “The Vermont State Board of Education will implement and periodically update standards for student learning in appropriate content areas from kindergarten to grade 12 . . . local school districts shall use these standards as a basis for the development and selection of curriculum.”

4. The Process Spring of 2009 Governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, 2 territories and the District of Columbia committed to developing a common core of state K-12 English-language arts (ELA) and mathematics standards.

5. Who Was Involved? • 48 states (including Kansas and Vermont), 2 territories and the District of Columbia • Coordinated by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).

6. When Did Kansas & Vermont Adopt? • The Kansas State Board of Education formally adopted the Common Core State Standards for mathematics and English language arts on October 12, 2010. • Vermont did the same in August 2010.

7. What’s Different? • Fewer, clearer, higher • Aligned with college and work expectations • Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through higher-order skills • Internationally benchmarked • Portable across school districts within states and across and state lines

9. Reviewing the Standards - Kansas • Curriculum Review Committees for Math and ELA • November 2009 • Math • ELA • Alignment with College and Career Expectations • Gap Analysis Committee • SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium • KBOR Letter of Intent • Public Meetings • P-20 • Kansas Education Commission • Standards Comparability • Committee work • Survey of Enacted Curriculum • The Achieve Common Core Comparison Tool

10. Difference Between Standards and Curriculum • Standards determined by the State Board of Education • Curriculum determined by the local school districts (in Kansas and Vermont)

11. Myth vs. Truth

12. Examples – English Language Arts • Reading Standards K-5 • K – Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text • Grade 1 – Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events • Grade 2 – Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.

13. Examples - Math • K- count to 100 by ones and by tens • Grade 1 – Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. • Grade 2 – Read and write numbers to 1000 using base-ten numbers, number names, and expanded form.

14. For More Information • Dr. Diane M. DeBacker • Mr. Armando Vilaseca Senior Advisors to the Director General of ADEC PO Box 36005, Abu Dhabi, UAE +971 02 615 0000