Common Core Assessments

An introduction to the California Common Core State Standards and how the Smarter Balanced Assessments

Michael Horton, RIMS AVID

Common Core Goals

The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.

• The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are the official standards of California, but the testing and accountability have not yet kicked in.

• The focus of the CCSS is to guarantee that all students are college and career ready as they exit from high school.

• The committee determined what a graduate would need to be considered “College Ready” and then backwards mapped it to kindergarten.

Introduction to Common Core

What’s Different

“These Standards are not intended to be new names for old ways of doing business. They are a call to take the next step. It is time for states to work together to build on lessons learned from two decades of standards based reforms. It is time to recognize that standards are not just promises to our children, but promises we intend to keep.” — CCSS (2010, p. 5)

http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_Math%20Standards.pdf

CCSS Timeline

• CA standards have already been replaced by Common Core (2011) in ELA and Math

• Legislation has already been passed to change the accountability system (2012)

• Smarter Balanced exam will be field tested in 2013-2014 and cut scores proposed

• Smarter Balanced assessment is operational in 2014-2015 school year

What Does ELA CCSS Focus on? Rigor Application to the “real world” Technology and media sources Justification and evidence Communication/collaboration Expository reading and writing (70% by H.S.) Research Literacy in Science, Social Studies,

and “Technical Subjects”

What Does Math CCSS Focus on?

Conceptual understanding. Number sense in elementary. Application to real world

problems. Rigor. Success in algebra and higher

level mathematics.

Six Shifts in Common Core ELA

Shift 1- Balancing Informational & Literary Text

Shift 2- Knowledge in the Disciplines- is built through text, not teachers or activities

Shift 3- Staircase of Complexity- Increasingly complex texts are read closely (close reading video)

Shift 4- Text-based answers- Students engage in rich conversations about text

Shift 5- Writing from Sources- Emphasize use of sources and textual evidence to defend an argument

Shift 6- Academic Vocabulary- Students constantly build vocabulary necessary to access complex text

Six Shifts in Common Core Math

Shift 1- Focus, narrow and deep Shift 2- Coherence, content is connected

within and across grade levels and subjects Shift 3- Fluency, Students develop speed and accuracy

with simple calculations Shift 4- Deep Understanding, Students learn

concepts deeply and focus less on algorithms to solve individual problems (Dan Meyer video)

Shift 5- Application, Students can apply math in novel situations without being prompted

Shift 6- Dual Intensity, Practice and understanding are not only balanced, but simultaneous

Reading

Anchor Standards1. Key Ideas and Details2. Craft and Structure3. Integration of

Knowledge and Ideas4. Range of Reading

and Level of Text Complexity

• Pre-reading inside and outside of text (R)

• Quickwrites/Reflections (W)

• Focused Cornell Notes (WOR)

• Marking, charting, annotating text, critical reading (R)

• Graphic Organizers (R)• Summarizing (R)• Dialectic Journals (W)• Interactive Notebooks (W)• Reciprocal Teaching (R)• Socratic Seminars/Phil. Chairs (C)

WICOR Strategy

Reading

Anchor Standards1. Key Ideas and Details2. Craft and Structure3. Integration of

Knowledge and Ideas4. Range of Reading

and Level of Text Complexity

• Pre-reading inside and outside of text (R)

• Quickwrites/Reflections (W)

• Focused Cornell Notes (WOR)

• Marking, charting, annotating text, critical reading (R)

• Graphic Organizers (R)• Summarizing (R)• Dialectic Journals (W)• Interactive Notebooks (W)• Reciprocal Teaching (R)• Socratic Seminars/Phil. Chairs (C)

WICOR Strategy

Reading

Anchor Standards1. Key Ideas and Details2. Craft and Structure3. Integration of

Knowledge and Ideas4. Range of Reading

and Level of Text Complexity

• Pre-reading inside and outside of text (R)

• Quickwrites/Reflections (W)

• Focused Cornell Notes (WOR)

• Marking, charting, annotating text, critical reading (R)

• Graphic Organizers (R)• Summarizing (R)• Dialectic Journals (W)• Interactive Notebooks (W)• Reciprocal Teaching (R)• Socratic Seminars/Phil. Chairs (C)

WICOR Strategy

Writing

Anchor Standards5. Text Types and

Purposes6. Production and

Distribution of Writing7. Research to Build and

Present Knowledge8. Range of Writing

Quickwrites and Reflections (W)

Focused Cornell Notes (WOR)

Process Writing (W) Authentic Writing –

Dialectic Journals/ Interactive Notebooks (W)

Research (I) Learning Logs (W)

WICOR Strategy

Speaking and Listening

Anchor Standards9. Comprehension and

Collaboration10. Presentation of

Knowledge and Ideas

Socratic Seminars (IC)

Philosophical Chairs (C)

Tutorials (C)Reciprocal Teaching

(R)Peer Evaluation (W)Questions that

Guide Research (I)Group Activities and

Projects (C)

WICOR Strategy

Language

Anchor Standards11. Conventions of

Standard English

12. Knowledge of Language

13. Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Deep Reading Activities (R)

Vocabulary Building (R)

Process Writing (W)Peer Evaluation (W)Peer Editing Groups

(C)

WICOR Strategy

Math

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them

2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively

3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others

4. Model with mathematics

5. Use appropriate tools strategically

6. Attend to precision7. Look for and make

use of structure8. Look for and express

regularity in repeated reasoning

Standards for Mathematical Practice

RIG

OR

RELEVANCEPra

ctice

Bk

CSTCCSS

Real World

Between The Lines

Off The Page

On The Page

COSTA’S LEVELS OF THINKING

Types of Items

Selected Response- Adaptive multiple choice with one or more answers

Constructed Response- Prompts students for text or numerical response

Technology Enhanced- Students drag-and-drop math items, click sentence fragments in a passage, or drag phrases into a graphic organizer

Performance Tasks

Performance Task Description

Performance tasks measure a student’s ability to integrate knowledge and skills across multiple standards—a key component of college and career readiness. Performance tasks will be used to better measure capacities such as depth of understanding, research skills, and complex analysis, which cannot be adequately assessed with selected- or constructed-response items. The time and resource constraints for each performance task will vary. During the spring 2013 pilot, the Consortium will research the effects of including a brief classroom interaction phase in the summative performance task The classroom interaction phase will then be appropriately constrained in the future.

Performance Tasks

Now in content-alike groups, get together and design a technology-enhanced, long-term, research-based, cross-curricular, multiple-standard, collaborative performance task.