Common Core Assessments

1. Common Core Assessments An introduction to the California Common Core State Standards and how the Smarter Balanced Assessments Michael Horton, RIMS AVID

2. 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.

3. Introduction to Common Core • 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.

4. 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

5. CCSS Timeline • CA standards have already been replaced by Common Core (2011) in ELA and Math • Legislation has already been passed to change the accountability system (2012) • Smarter Balanced exam will be field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

6. 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”

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. Reading WICOR Strategy Anchor Standards • Key Ideas and Details • Craft and Structure • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas • 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)

11. Reading WICOR Strategy Anchor Standards • Key Ideas and Details • Craft and Structure • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas • 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)

12. Reading WICOR Strategy Anchor Standards • Key Ideas and Details • Craft and Structure • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas • 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)

13. Writing WICOR Strategy Anchor Standards • Text Types and Purposes • Production and Distribution of Writing • Research to Build and Present Knowledge • 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)

14. Speaking and Listening WICOR Strategy Anchor Standards • Comprehension and Collaboration • 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)

15. Language WICOR Strategy Anchor Standards • Conventions of Standard English • Knowledge of Language • Vocabulary Acquisition and Use • Deep Reading Activities (R) • Vocabulary Building (R) • Process Writing (W) • Peer Evaluation (W) • Peer Editing Groups (C)

16. Math Standards for Mathematical Practice • Make sense of problems and persevere in solvingthem • Reason abstractly and quantitatively • Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others • Model with mathematics • Use appropriate tools strategically • Attend to precision • Look for and make use of structure • Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

18. CST CCSS RIGOR Real World Practice Bk relevance

19. COSTA’S LEVELS OF THINKING Off The Page Between The Lines On The Page

21. 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 

22. 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.

23. 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.