Advancing the Implementation of the Common Core State Standards

1. Advancing the Implementation of the Common Core State Standards A Professional Learning Series For School Development Council

2. Mobilizing for Action September 30, 2013 Rutgers University and New Jersey ASCD

3. AGENDA • Greetings and Introductions • Engaging Participants in the Common Core • Purpose: Why the Common Core ? • Implications for Instruction ~ Instructional Shifts ~ What’s in the Common Core? • Status of the Common Core in New Jersey • Resources • Next Steps

4. Engaging Participants in the Common Core • Presenter: Willa Spicer, Consultant Former Deputy Commissioner, NJ Department of Education • What challenges and/or successes have you experienced with the Common Core? • Sharing of responses

5. Purpose • Why the Common Core State Standards?

6. Implications for Instruction • Presenter: Sandra Alberti, Director, Professional Development and State Alliances and Partnerships, Student Achievement Partners • The Instructional Shifts • What’s in the Common Core?

7. Implications • What implications do the CCSS have on what we teach? • What implications do the CCSS have on how we teach? This effort is about much more than implementing the next version of the standards: It is about preparing all students for success in college and careers.

8. ELA/Literacy: 3 shifts • Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction • Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational

9. What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous? What can you infer from King’sletter about the letter that he received? “The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year 1776. According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech? Non-Examples and Examples Not Text-Dependent Text-Dependent In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something. In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair. In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote?

10. Example? • EXAMPLES • 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.

11. ELA/Literacy: 3 shifts • Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction • Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational • Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

12. Mathematics: 3 shifts • Focus: Focus strongly where the standards focus.

13. The shape of math in A+ countries 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 1 Schmidt, Houang, & Cogan, “A Coherent Curriculum: The Case of Mathematics.” (2002).

14. Traditional U.S. Approach

15. Focusing attention within Number and Operations

16. Priorities in Mathematics

17. Mathematics: 3 shifts • Focus: Focus strongly where the standards focus. • Coherence: Think across grades, and link to major topics

18. Coherence: Link to major topics within grades Example: data representation Standard 3.MD.3

19. Mathematics: 3 shifts • Focus: Focus strongly where the standards focus. • Coherence: Think across grades, and link to major topics • Rigor: In major topics, pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, andapplication

20. Conceptual understanding of place value…?

21. Conceptual understanding of place value…?

22. Required Fluencies in K-6

23. Mathematical Practices • Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. • 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.

24. Key Characteristics of Leading Organizations • Systems Thinking • Learning Organizations • Know – Really Know – the expectations

25. Status of the Common Corein New Jersey • Presenter: Adele Macula, Consultant Former Associate Superintendent, Jersey City Public Schools

26. Implementing the Common Core: Status Update

28. What’s New from the NJ Department of Education?

29. New Jersey Educator Resource Exchange Common Core Learning Engine njcore.org

30. What’s Happening in Districts and Schools?

31. PLANNING at EVERY LEVEL District Administrators Principals Asst/Vice Principals Support Services Staff Teachers Students

32. Common Core: VISION Transition and Implementation • District administrators are creating and communicating a common vision among all stakeholders to ensure widespread support. They are: • Establishing a shared vision, goals and aspirations for all students • Examining current status of student performance, disaggregated by • populations such as ethnicity, poverty, language development, disabilities • Developing and ensuring effective implementation of a communication plan to • inform all stakeholders (parents, students, staff members, unions, school • board members, and community members) • Seeking needed budget and other policy adjustments (i.e. school • schedules, staffing, etc.) from the school board to ensure the • necessary resources for CCSS implementation • Establishing good working relationship re: CCSS with union representatives • Keeping informed of the state’s CCSS efforts, policies and procedures that • impact the district/schools

33. Common Core: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Transition and Implementation • District administrators are developing written plans for long-range, articulated professional development for all staff in the district. They are: • Building the capacity of principals to be the school’s instructional and learning • improvement leader • Engaging in opportunities for their own professional learning, including • networks and alliances with colleagues in other districts • Implementing mechanisms to evaluate the on-going impact of the • professional development on teaching practices and student learning, and • make adjustments to the original plans, as needed • Focusing on the learning needs of every student in the district’s schools, with • attention to specific student populations

34. Common Core: ELA and MATH Transition and Implementation • District and school administrators are leading efforts to implement strategies that support an effective shift from prior NJCCCS standards (ELA and Math) to the CCSS. They are: • Developing plans and timelines for transitioning from former • NJCCCS to the CCSS that address: • Changes in the state assessments • Content standards that change grades • ELA standards that apply to history/social studies, sciences • and other technical subjects • Revising and creating a district curriculum framework that outlines • major learning targets at each grade level and provides a common • sequencing to facilitate teacher collaboration at the school level

35. Common Core: ELA and MATH Transition and Implementation • Gaining Knowledge about Design and Key Principles • College and Career Readiness Standards • K-12 Benchmark Performance Standards • Focusing on Instructional Shifts • English Language Arts • Mathematics • Discussing Plans for Integrating Literacy in History/ Social Studies, • Science, and Technical Subjects • Planning for PARCC assessments: Discussing sample released items

36. Common Core: ELA and MATH Transition and Implementation • Implications for ELA Classroom Practices • Close Reading Exemplars • Text-based Evidentiary Questions • Argument-based Writing • Non-fiction Reading in Content Areas • Academic Language and Vocabulary • Implications for Math Classroom Practices • Rigor • Content Emphases – Grade/Course Level • Fluencies • High School Course Design

37. Common Core: ASSESSMENT Transition and Implementation • District and school administrators are leading efforts to identify and implement multiple and systemic transition strategies that support an effective shift from current standards and assessments to the CCSS. • Analyzing existing district assessments for appropriate use with CCSS and • make adjustments as needed • Facilitating the identification of instructional materials that are coherent, • consistent and comprehensive and support effective learning of the ELA and • Mathematics standards • Evaluating the district’s technology capacity for administering the new CCSS • assessments and make improvements as needed • Reviewing the capacity of the district’s data system to support data-based • decision making and accurate and timely reporting to principals, teachers, • students, and parents

38. Resources • Sandra Alberti

39. Next Steps • Presenter: Marie Adair, Executive Director, New Jersey ASCD • Offerings in this Series • Future Professional Learning Experiences