The Florida Standards & Florida Standards Assessment: What Every Parent Should Know

1. The Florida Standards & Florida Standards Assessment:What Every Parent Should Know Pinellas County Schools

2. Improving Instruction Today;Preparing for Tomorrow

3. Intended Outcomes: What are the Florida Standards? What is the Florida Standards Assessment? How did this national movement get started? Who is impacted by the standards change? What are the implications for teachers and students with this transition? How can you support your child in this journey? Where can you find additional information?

4. Are we preparing our students? Student achievement is drastically low. Our nation is at a moment of crisis when it comes to preparing our students for the rigors of college and the demands of the increasingly global workplace. Source: http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/cccr11/pdf/ConditionofCollegeandCareerReadiness2011.pdf

5. Common Core Overview – How did all of this come about? So what is the big deal?

6. Were the Florida “Next Generation Sunshine State standards” rigorous enough? • What type of thinking is involved? • How deeply do you need to understand a topic to interact with the content being presented? • What kinds of cognitive tasks are being asked of students? Simple recall of facts? Analyze a complex argument?

7. Why did we need a change in Florida’s Standards? Low Levels of Rigor • NGSSS featured large amounts of knowledge and recall learning targets • Under-developing critical thinking abilities • Disadvantaged in college and the workplace

8. Why did we need a change? Lack of Clarity • “Write for a variety of purposes.” • “Respond to variety of literary/informational texts.” • “Competently use money.” • Were these standards clear to teachers, students, and parents?

9. Why did we need a change? Inconsistencies • Different districts set different learning targets • Different classrooms learning different topics • We must expect high achievement from all students in all classrooms • Florida chose to include more standards than those outlined in Common Core

10. How are Florida Standards different? • Increased complexity of texts • Focus on foundational math skills and application in novel, real-world situations • A return to depth as opposed to breadth • Increased focus on justifying and presenting results and methods • Critical reading and writing infused across all curricular areas • Re-ordering of math content to reflect research-based path to college and career readiness

11. Benefits of Florida Standards Preparation: The Florida Standards will prepare students for both college and the workplace and emphasizes higher-order, critical-thinking skills instead of knowledge and recall.

12. Benefits of Florida Standards Competition: The Florida Standards have been influenced by internationally-benchmarked standards, ensuring that our students are prepared to be competitive in the global job market.

13. Benefits of Florida Standards Clarity: The standards are focused, coherent, and clear. Everyone knows what is expected of our students.

14. Benefits of Florida Standards Collaboration: The Florida Standards are a foundation for teachers across districts to work together from the same blueprints. This facilitates the sharing of best practices.

15. What are the standards? English/Language Arts (ELA) (Reading and Writing) Mathematics

16. Who is impacted? K-12 students Current 3rd – 11th graders will take the new Florida Standards Assessments (FSA)

17. When is this happening? NOW! Have been working towards the instructional shifts over the past two years. Fully implemented and assessed in 2014-2015

18. What are the implications? The Florida Standards and their accompanying assessments will provide a valid comparison to other districts across the state, and to some degree to other states. Promotion Graduation College Admission

19. FCAT v. FSA Reading & Writing

20. FCAT vs. FSA • FCAT Writes Prompt Example Everyone has a hero or someone they look up to. Think about a hero or someone you look up to in your life. Now write to explain why this person is your hero. • FSA Writing Prompt Example You have read about the causes of the American Revolution. Why was independence from Britain important to many colonists? Write an informational essay explaining why independence from Britain was important to many colonists.

21. FCAT vs. FSA Reading Questions FCAT (old) 1. With which sentence would the author agree? • A. Learning is exciting no matter how you do it. • B. All students should go to school on the Internet. • C. Thousands of students in the same class are too many. • D. Online classrooms are a good alternative. FSA (new) 1. With which two sentences would the author agree? • A. Learning is exciting no matter how you do it. • B. All students should go to school on the Internet. • C. Thousands of students in the same class are too many. • D. Online classrooms are a good alternative.

22. 1. What is the main idea of paragraph 4?

23. FSA 2 Part Question Example 5. Part A How has learning from a distant place changed over time? A. Students can ask questions faster. B. Students can hear their teacher during the same class time. C. Students use the mail to receive and send work. D. Students live far apart from their classmates. Part B Select one sentence that supports the answer in Part A. A. “The students can live in one country, and the teacher can be from another country.” B. “All the children could hear their teacher at the same time, but were hundreds of miles apart.” C. “They got their lessons in the mail, did their homework, and mailed it back to the teacher.” D. “Everyone can see and hear everything that’s being said as it happens.” E. “Sometimes, they don’t have to have a class where everyone is together all at once.”

24. So what might these tests look like? http://www.fsassessments.org/training-tests

25. Where can I go for more information about the assessment & standards? Resources: Parent Guides to Student Success www.pta.org/common_core_standards.asp • By grade level • Sample of what your child will be working on • Activities included for you to support at home FSA Portal http://www.fsassessments.org/students-and-parents

26. Instructional CHANGES Attention to Text Complexity Emphasis on Student Tasks (especially writing) Responsibility for Reading & Writing Instruction - Every Teacher, Every Subject, Every Day!

27. NGSSS v. FSA Mathematics

28. Mathematics Standards for Mathematical CONTENT (Familiar) Define what students should know and be able to do (The “What”) Standards for Mathematical PRACTICE (New and Different) Describe ways in which the mathematical content standards should be approached (The “How”)

29. Instructional CHANGES in Math Promote deep student discussion on the content Emphasis on Student Tasks (performance-tasks) Include PRACTICE Standards at all grade levels Expanded use of technology

30. Mathematical Practice Standards 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.

31. Beyond the Classroom PCS website – www.pcsb.org Online learning tools Digital Learning Beyond the Classroom

32. Additional Resources Other useful websites to search for information: www.fldoe.org www.cpalms.org

33. For More Information…… You may contact: Holly Slaughter, Pinellas County Schools slaughterh@pcsb.org