Let’s Get to the Core

1. Let’s Get to the Core Presenter Info: Ron Jetty, Director, PK 16 Initiatives University of Wisconsin System

2. Where were we before the Common Core? 1995-1997 -- Model Academic Standards Assessment: Wisconsin Knowledge and Concept Examinations (WKCE) in Grades 4, 8, and 10 2001 – No Child Left Behind Assessment: WKCE in Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10

3. Where were we before the Common Core? 2007 – DPI joined the American Diploma Project & Achieve to update our academic standards in Math and English 2009 – Achieve praised the rigor of Wisconsin’s updated Math and English standards as being well-aligned with national benchmarks 2009 – State Superintendent-elect Evers announced intent to adopt Common Core State Standards

4. A Balanced Assessment System Summative assessments Benchmarked to college and career readiness Teachers and schools have information and tools they need to improve teaching and learning Common Core State Standards specify K-12 expectations for college and career readiness All students leave high school college and career ready Teacher resources for formative assessment practices to improve instruction Interim assessments Flexible, open, used for actionable feedback

5. Common Core Instructional Shifts for ELA/Literacy • Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction and informational texts • Reading and writing grounded in evidence from text • Regular practice with complex text and its academic vocabulary

6. Common Core Instructional Shifts for Mathematics • Focus strongly where the Standards focus • Coherence: Think across grades, and link to major topics within grades • Rigor: In major topics, pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application

8. Common Core video

9. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

10. Partnership of Assessment for Readiness of College and Careers

11. ACT Aspire

12. ACT Suite Implementation in Wisconsin

13. Explore: Fall and Spring Administrations (9th grade) • EXPLORE® contains four curriculum-based assessments: English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science. The assessment is based on the major areas of high school and postsecondary instructional programs and measures the skills and knowledge needed for college success. • Additionally, EXPLORE includes a career exploration component that stimulates students' thinking about future plans and relates personal characteristics to career options.

14. Summary • Composite Score (Scale 1-25) • Percentile Ranks • Estimated ACT Score • Expressed needs and plans post-high • College Readiness indicators and plans • Summary of test areas (skills) and careers

15. Plan: Spring administration(10th grade) • ACT Plan serves as the midpoint measure of academic progress in ACT's College and Career Readiness System. • Scoring Reports much like EXPLORE

16. The ACT: Spring administration (11th grade) • English 75 questions 45 minutes • Math 60 questions 60 minutes • Reading 40 questions 35 minutes • Science 40 questions 35 minutes • +Writing 1 prompt 30 minutes

17. WorkKeys: Spring administration11th grade • This series of tests measures foundational and soft skills and offers specialized assessments to target institutional needs. • Areas tested: Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information • Math and Reading Levels 3-7, Locating information Levels 3-6

18. Benchmarks • The benchmarks are scores on the ACT subject-area tests that represent the level of achievement required for students to have a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher or about a 75% chance of obtaining a C or higher in corresponding credit-bearing first-year college courses. These college courses include English composition, college algebra, introductory social science courses, and biology.

19. Benchmark Scores

20. Political pushback on the Common Core

21. Identify how the Common Core State Standards should be implemented in each participating state in order to actually improve college and career readiness for all students; Define how leaders and faculty across K-12 and higher education need to work together to improve both teaching and learning in ways essential to achieving the goal of college and career readiness; and Delineate the specific steps that higher education and states must take together in order to make effective implementation a reality; in other words, to make college and career readiness expectations more transparent, to align curricula, to assess student performance more effectively, and to improve teacher preparation and professional development. College Readiness Partnership

22. UW System interest • Our goal is to ensure that prospective and current UW students have access to high-quality opportunities that prepare them for success in school, in work, and in life.

23. The adoption of common core standards gives us the opportunity to: 1) better define college readiness 2) redefine remedial education so that students enter UW institutions taking credit-bearing courses from day one

24. The adoption of common core standards gives us the opportunity to: 3) better align the last two years of high school with the first two years of college 4) provide more dual enrollment/credit options for high-achieving high school students 5) produce graduates of teacher preparation programs with knowledge and competencies needed to effectively incorporate the Common Core State Standards into their teaching

25. Resources • http://www.corestandards.org/ • http://www.achievethecore.org/ • http://www.smarterbalanced.org/ • http://www.parcconline.org/ • http://www.discoveractaspire.org/pages/home • http://www.sheeo.org/projects/college-and-career-readiness-partnership-ccrp